Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[StephanieVanbryce]

Late Nite FDL: This is Not a Rebel Blog
By: TRex

"I can't believe the news today. Wish I could close my eyes and make it go away…" (U2)

.. all links embedded ...

It's important that everyone see this deeply disturbing and disgusting video, but it's so upsetting that I have to offer major caveats about watching it if you're likely to get nightmares from seeing the absolute worst aspects of human behavior in action. I was only able to finish it one time, and by the halfway point, tears of rage and horror were welling up in my eyes. Do not watch this with the audio on if there are children who may hear it, that is, unless you're ready to have one of Those Talks with them about how some people in the world are just bad, evil people who hurt other people just because they can. And then be prepared to hold your kid as they cry.

It all started when campus cops at UCLA decided to run a student out of the library on suspicion of Using a Computer While Brown:

When Tabatabainejad, 23, refused to provide his ID to the community service officer, the officer told him he would have to show it or leave the library, the report said.

Vhee haff to see your papers…

After repeated requests, the officer left and returned with campus police, who asked Tabatabainejad to leave "multiple times," according to a statement by the UCLA Police Department.

"He continued to refuse," the statement said. "As the officers attempted to escort him out, he went limp and continued to refuse to cooperate with officers or leave the building."

Witnesses disputed that account, saying that when campus police arrived, Tabatabainejad had begun to walk toward the door with his backpack. When an officer approached him and grabbed his arm, the witnesses said, Tabatabainejad told the officer to let go, yelling "Get off me" several times.

(emphasis mine)

So that's when they used the Taser on him. Repeatedly. One of the most disturbing aspects of the video is the officers shouting, "GET UP! GET UP OR WE HIT YOU AGAIN!" when clearly (and according to the shouts of onlookers) Tabatabainejad couldn't get up, so they hit him with the Taser again and again and again.

The video shows Tabatabainejad yelling, "Here's your Patriot Act, here's your … abuse of power," the Daily Bruin reported, adding he used a profanity.

"It was beyond grotesque," said UCLA graduate David Remesnitsky of Los Angeles, who witnessed the incident. "By the end they took him over the stairs, lifted him up and Tasered him on his rear end. It seemed like it was inappropriately placed. The Tasering was so unnecessary and they just kept doing it."

Campus police confirmed that Tabatabainejad was stunned "multiple" times.

By then, Remesnitsky said, a crowd of 50 or 60 had gathered and were shouting at the officers to stop and demanding their names and badge numbers.

Remesnitsky said officers told him to leave or he would be Tasered.

Hear that, punk? Try and interfere with the violation of someone's civil rights and you'll get the same!

Welcome to the United States of Abu Ghraib. When did we become a nation of authoritarian sadists? How long do you suppose it will be before the MalKKKins and Glenn Becks chime in that clearly a young man with an Arab name must have been doing something wrong or he would have surrendered his ID to the campus police immediately?

If Mostafa Tabatabainejad wasn't a terrorist sympathizer before that group of white rent-a-cops tortured and humiliated him with a Taser, he probably is now, folks, just like all the men and women who have been sent to secret CIA prisons, Abu Ghraib, and Guantanamo. I'm not saying that international terrorism isn't a problem for our world today, but I am saying that the way BushCo and their water-carriers are handling it is only going to make it worse.

Hey, "spreading freedom", right? And nothing says "freedom" like water-boarding and Tasers.

I'm so proud to be an American right now I could just puke.

How about you?

http://www.firedoglake.com/2006/11/16/late-nite-fdl-this-is-not-a-rebel-blog/#more-5594