Taser-happy Police

Many college campuses have their own deputized police forces. One of the arguments used for them is that dedicated college police officers are better equipped to work with the college community. Based on recent events at UCLA, this may not necessarily be true. The UCLA police demanded identification from a student in the library (can you say "papers, please?"), and when he didn't comply, they forcibly started to remove him. When he didn't make their life easy (no violence, just not getting up), they Tasered him. And when he was on the ground in pain, they picked him up and repeatedly Tasered him, yelling at him to "stand up". Hmmm ... if I was in the ground because I had just been shocked with 50,000 volts, I doubt I would be getting up to go anywhere either.

The video of the incident is disturbing (warning - it's not for the squeamish). You can hear students pleading with the police to stop hurting the student on the ground. UCLA students are holding protests over the behavior of the police. Good for them. It's one thing for police to arrest a student for trespassing. It's another for them to torture him if he's not a physical threat, and just because he's making their lives inconvienent.

Updated 11/21/2006

This comment on Slashdot is from someone who claims to be a law-enforcement officer, and it describes what the UCLA police did wrong from an LEO point of view.