UCLA Taser Victim Files Suit

mostafa tabatabainejad ucla taser incidentMostafa Tabatabainejad, the 23-year-old UCLA senior who was tasered repeatedly after he refused to show his campus ID at Powell library, filed a federal lawsuit today.

Tabatabainejad alleges the campus officers used excessive force, and that they violated the Americans With Disabilities Act. He is seeking unspecified damages.

Tabatabainejad said he “felt utterly humiliated in front of my fellow students at the library that night and terrified because I knew something horrible was happening to me.’

“We need campus officers to protect us, but we need individuals who perform those tasks with sensitivity, understanding they work on a university campus and are dealing with students,’ he said.

5 Replies to “UCLA Taser Victim Files Suit”

  1. @Theodrake:

    Breaking a minor law, let alone a rule or regulation of whatever particular institution or campus you maybe on, is not an invitation for the police to have their way with you.

    I doubt that if put in a similar situation yourself, you would be saything the same thing. If you j-walked, and a cop jumped of of his patrol car, whacked you in the head with his baton, sprayed you with pepper spray, and threw you in his car, making sure to bang your head on the doorway on the way in, you would not be telling me ‘oh well i shouldn’t have j-walked, by bad’.

    It’s not the officers job to dole out punishment. Their job is to bring alleged criminals before the court so that the court can determine their innocence/guilt and sentence them accordingly. Tasers, stun-guns, pepper spray should not be used just because they’re usually non-lethal. Those things should be used when a person not only refuses to cooperate, but also poses a threat to the officer.

    The idiots with badges in this video, stun gun him, and then tell him to get up. The whole point of the stun gun is to immobilize the target so that they CAN’T get up.

    Theodrake, you’re an idiot. Wise up.

    1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mostafa_Tabatabain

      1. Still hasn't gone to trial. Let them decide if excessive force was used.
      2. Seems like the officer used the “Drive Stun” mode which is designed to not immobilize the target.
      3. So all I have to do is claim I have a handicap and you can't touch me.

      This case reminds me of an incident in San Diego. A man is standing out side a hotel with a hand gun. Police officers arrive and yell at him several times to drop the gun. He doesn't and move the pistol, the officers fire several times, killing the suspect.

      Later it is learned that the suspect had a hearing problem and had removed his hearing aids. So yes he couldn't hear the officers. Of course they didn't know, but that didn't stop the cries of racism because he was black the officers white. It was claimed that the officers somehow should have known he was deaf and anyways it was because he was black that he was shot. It had nothing to do with the fact that he was on a public street brandishing a hand gun.

      Luckily for the police a TV reporter was recording a segment at that time and it was shown live on TV otherwise the officers would have been tarred as racist.

      4. Yes I am an idiot, but what has that have to do with this idiot making a big deal about showing his ID.

  2. Maybe if he had shown ‘responsibility’ and ‘respect’ of the rules this would not have escalated to the point of involving the police. Did the police over react let the courts decide. But, if this person had shown respect for the library staff and their rules in the first instance he never would have bene tasered.

  3. Tremendous! Fantastic! I hope he sues for tort, the individual officers involved; Let this be their humiliation. They apparently like watching humiliation.

    The words are ‘responsibility’ and ‘respect’. They need to be taught the definitions of these words.

    Lots of people laughed at this incident. Lots of people said the tazered student deserved it. These people need to be taught the definitions of ‘responsiblity’ and ‘respect’. If they think it is hilarious to inflict pain, they must willing, then, to accept the painful consequences, but my guess is that they will whine and complain about (hopefully max sentences) their punishment being to harsh.

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