Recently Overheard: UCLA Tasering
I was just cleaning out the my notebook where I write all my blogs before posting them, when I ran across this. I was originally going to post it the day after the tasering incident, but I thought that it would be too callous to post so close to the event itself. One thing lead to another, and before you know it, the year has passed. But now we (by which I mean those of us not living in fear on UCLA’s campus) can all sit back and have a good laugh. So, I give you twelve things overheard at Powell Library on the night of the student tasering…
“As widely reported, an incident in which Iranian-American student Mostafa Tabatabainejad was tasered up to five times by UCLA police on Friday, has been captured by a fellow student using a video enabled cell phone and published to YouTube. From the Daily Bruin: ‘At around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, Tabatabainejad, a fourth-year Middle Eastern and North African studies and philosophy student, was asked to leave the library for failing to present his BruinCard during a random check. The 23-year-old student was hit with a Taser five times when he did not leave quickly and cooperatively upon being asked to do so.’ In a story which has raised concerns of racial profiling, police brutality and the health risks of taser use, the ubiquity of video cell phone technology has given us a first hand record of an incident which might otherwise have been a he-said, she-said affair. While the publishing of the video to YouTube has given the issue compelling popular exposure beyond the immediate campus community.”
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