The most disturbing thing i have seen all year.
I found this video on youtube today; it has to be one of the defining videos of this year so far, it has everything you need to be a blockbuster. Brutality, cruelty and unnerving sense of injustice usually only reserved for hard hitting documentary style films like Schindler's List. The defining feature of this film is its setting. There no war torn city in sight, no starving children and a distinct lack machine gun fire echoing around bombed out buildings.
This film is set in the UCLA library. It shows America’s brave police service doing what they know best, protecting the innocent, upholding the law and making us all feel safer... no, bollocks, they weren’t protecting anyone. They were power tripping in a school library by repeatedly electrocuting a boy whose crime was lack of identification. Lack of identification indeed!
One of the more disturbing aspects of this film is the students dumbly watching the scene as though they were apathetic cattle waiting for the slaughter. To their credit a few students voice discomfort, a few said it was wrong, a few even asked for the officers badge numbers, in return they too were threatened with electrocution "Get back over there or you're going to get tased, too." is heard from one of the officers, directed at student angry at what he was seeing.
The students name was Mostafa Tabatabainejad, I am not suggesting that his Middle Eastern sounding name and possible appearance had anything to do with him being repeatedly tortured while on campus at his place of learning, but perhaps I am being a naive fool not to.
After being shocked a couple of times you can hear the boy shouting "here's your Patriot Act, here's your fucking abuse of power," quite commendable considering her was sobbing and screaming out in agony. Not too surprising that he wouldn’t (read couldn’t) stand after a few jolts from the taser gun. I doubt threatening him would change that; assuredly another few jolts wouldn’t hurt, right?
UCLA video
Just to clarify, here are some reports from police officers and military personel, regarding the effects of this weapon and what it might do to hinder a person’s ability to stand, or even speak;
"I have always stated that the only way to guarantee a knockdown of a human being is to shoot them in the central nervous system with a bullet. In my opinion the ADVANCED TASER comes extremely close to doing the same thing, but from a less-lethal perspective." Sgt Darren Laur, Control Tactics Coordinator, Victoria Police Department, Canada, writing in a review article, published in the October 1999 issue of Law Enforcement Technology.
"It just takes your legs out. It’s like a jackhammer going Kaboom, Kaboom, Kaboom!" Sgt Burt Robinson Chandler, Police SWAT team, Arizona, describing the M26 Advanced Taser on website of security equipment company, Security Planet Corp.
"Bjornstad, who was jolted for 1.5 seconds as part of his training, said all of his muscles contracted and the shock was like a finger in a light socket many times over. "Anyone who has experienced it will remember it forever …You don’t want to do this. It’s very uncomfortable ... and that’s an understatement." (The Olympian, 14 October 2002)
Note: Bjornstad was jolted ONCE, for 1.5 seconds.
"It’s like getting punched 100 times in a row, but once it’s off, you are back to normal again." (The Olympian 2 March 2002)F
"It felt terrible." "It hurts. I’m going to think twice before I use this on anyone." (two officers quoted in the
"It is the most profound pain I have ever felt. You get total compliance because they don’t want that pain again." (firearms consultant, quoted in The Associated Press 12 August 2003)
"They call it the longest five seconds of their life … it’s extreme pain, there’s no question about it. No one would want to get hit by it a second time." (
“No one would like to get hit a second time" try at least five times over the course of ten minutes. The sergeant at the local precinct stated he saw Tabatabainejad after the event and that he did not appear to have suffered serious injury.
"If he was able to walk out of here, I think he was okay,"
and finally a statement from UCLA Acting Chancellor Norman Abrams about the Incident at Powell Library
“University police are investigating an incident late last night in which police took a student into custody at Powell Library. Investigators are reviewing the incident and the officers' actions. The investigation and review will be thorough, vigorous and fair.
The safety of our campus community is of paramount importance to me. Routinely checking student identification after 11 p.m. at the campus library, which is open 24 hours, is a policy posted in the library that was enacted for the protection of our students"
If you don’t comply too their safety measures, they electrocute you until you scream. Electrocute you until you can’t stand up, and then electrocute you some more for being disobedient. No human being deserves torture for lack of obedience, even if it is for their own protection.
Sources: Amnesty international report on concerns about deaths and ill-treatment involving police use of tasers.
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