Muslim student tasered 5 times by UCLA cops

C&L has the video. It's over five minutes long and gruesome; I had to stop and breathe deep.

Video shot from a student's camera phone captured the student yelling, "Here's your Patriot Act, here's your fucking abuse of power," while he struggled with the officers.

"It was the most disgusting and vile act I had ever seen in my life," said David Remesnitsky, a 2006 UCLA alumnus who witnessed the incident.

Bruins Nation UCLA weblog story

LA Times story

It's clear from the video that the officers were provoking the crowd. For that reason alone, they fucked up. Added to the racial implications and the era of YouTube, this incident, which should have ended quietly, will end up costing these officers their jobs. And it should, because they almost started a riot. But ya know what? The other students didn't riot. More or less 200 of them and just a few opposing torture RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM ? WTF! If this had happened when I was at university, an all-out riot would have taken place. Riots should have erupted on the first taser shot. That's the Bu.h generation of students for ya. What a fucking bunch of cowards. After asking the officers for their IDs, the cops threatened to taser those students, too.

Tasers are dangerous and can be deadly. To use them on a HANDCUFFED individual of ANY race, gender, creed, ability, age or other qualifier is excessive force. You cannot deny that.

Recently, a student from Saginaw Valley State University (Michigan) was tasered at a Saginaw (MI) City Council meeting for not removing his baseball cap.

And here's a 2005 story from Palm Beach, Florida: A pregnant woman was tasered.

Excessive and lethal force? Amnesty International’s concerns about deaths and ill-treatment involving police use of tasers.

Welcome to the police state, folks.

Last summer, Burlington Police obtained tasers to use on citizens here. Seven Days newspaper reported an incident last June where a taser gun was used on a dog. No protests were made by the Humane Society, of course.

A Burlington Police Department spokesman confirmed last week that officers recently used a Taser to subdue a vicious dog that was attacking another dog on Church Street. According to BPD Public Information Officer Mike Schirling, the incident occurred on June 18 at about 6:30 p.m. outside Leunig's on Church Street. Reportedly, a 70-pound husky broke loose from its owner and began attacking another dog. Schirling said that officers subdued the animal with a recently deployed Taser, an electronic stun gun that is considered a "less than lethal" weapon. Burlington police have been carrying Tasers for about six weeks and have only used them three or four times, Schirling added.

The dog's owner, Rita Chambers, was issued citations for public intoxication and for having an unlicensed, unvaccinated dog. The pooch was impounded but reportedly wasn't injured.

Tasers are an increasingly popular "simunition" weapon among police departments across the country. The gun-like device fires two metal prongs attached to wires that deliver a brief, 50,000-volt pulse of electricity. The shock temporarily overrides the central nervous system and causes the subject to instantly collapse. Taser International, which manufactures the stun gun, claims that the weapon is effective on animals and humans, according to Schirling.

The manufacturer's website tells a slightly different story. "The ADVANCED TASER is not specifically recommended for use against animals as its main function," the site reads. "The main reason is that the ADVANCED TASER was created for 'human nervous systems,' not animals."

That said, the site also notes, "We have received several reports of police officers using the ADVANCED TASER on pit bulls during warrant entries and also where pit bulls have attacked other dogs . . . We, in fact, now recommend that officers 'try' the ADVANCED TASER against the dogs and let us know of their success. It is still an unknown area for us, as we don't teach animal control tactics."

Schirling said it was unfortunate that the dog had to be Tasered, but that it prevented injury to the other dog and was a quicker, safer and more effective method of subduing the animal than pepper spray, which can burn a subject for hours and cause respiratory problems for officers and innocent bystanders.

In the heightened fear enviroment provoked by the recent murder of the University of Vermont student, can the UVM, Champlain College and St Mike's police be far behind in using these weapons?