Bryan D. Brown

Reading Jennifer’s recent post on an alleged sexual assault committed by the PFP in Oaxaca, I was reminded of a couple of incidents that recently occurred in Los Angeles, just in case anyone was thinking to themselves, “Stuff like that could never happen here.”

The last few weeks have not favored law enforcement in Los Angeles. First, there was a video that circulated around YouTube a few months ago, showing two LAPD officers punching a suspect in the face while trying to handcuff him. The video shows one officer sitting on the suspect’s abdomen with another officer placing his shin across the suspect’s neck while punching him several times in the face. The suspect repeatedly says “I can’t breath” during the course of the video. While a Superior Court Judge has absolved the officers of any wrong doing, the FBI is now investigating. Incidentally, the charges against the suspect were dropped, and he plead no contest to resisting arrest due to his initially running from the police.

So if that wasn’t interesting enough, there was this video that came out of UCLA last week of a UCLA student being tasered several times in the UCLA library after failing to show his ID to the security guard. The security guard called the UC police department, and the following occurred (Warning: this video contains profanity, because one does not typically scream “golly gee that smarts” while being repeatedly tasered):

According the The Daily Bruin:

During the altercation between Tabatabainejad [the student] and the officers, bystanders can be heard in the video repeatedly asking the officers to stop and requesting their names and identification numbers. The video showed one officer responding to a student by threatening that the student would “get Tased too.” At this point, the officer was still holding a Taser.

Such a threat of the use of force by a law enforcement officer in response to a request for a badge number is an “illegal assault,” [said Peter Eliasberg, managing attorney at the ACLU of Southern California].

“It is absolutely illegal to threaten anyone who asks for a badge - that’s assault,” he said.

…

According to a UCPD press release, Tabatabainejad went limp and refused to exit as the officers attempted to escort him out. The release also stated Tabatabainejad “encouraged library patrons to join his resistance.” At this point, the officers “deemed it necessary to use the Taser in a ‘drive stun’ capacity.”

“He wasn’t cooperative; he wouldn’t identify himself. He resisted the officers,” Young said.

Neither the video footage nor eyewitness accounts of the events confirmed that Tabatabainejad encouraged resistance, and he repeatedly told the officers he was not fighting and would leave.

Working with plenty of undergraduates over the last few years, I can understand wishing it was possible to literally beat sense into someone. Using a taser on a student who is handcuffed, not resisting, and clearly not a danger - that certainly seems excessive to me.