The university has launched an independent probe to be conducted by a well-known police watchdog. Good. They can add these abominable comments from the UCLA police to their list of things to investigate:
But UCLA police are allowed to use Tasers on passive resisters as "a pain compliance technique," Assistant Chief Jeff Young said in an interview Friday.Oh, well, he was 200 pounds, went limp, and was very hard to manage. Well then, shock the hell out of him - repeatedly. Also, this "stun mode" excuse is cute, but if it only affects the limb touched, then why did the guys legs, plural, go flying out from under him when they zapped him the 3rd or 4th or whatever time? The physical reaction was violent and bodywide, it was not just localized to a limb. The cops are trying to make it sound like this is the equivalent of a "rub your feet on the carpet and shock someone" zap. This is disgusting what they did, and it's even more disgusting that they continue to minimize it. One of the recommendations this commission needs to consider is whether they need a permanent watchdog over this UCLA police department.
Under UCLA policy, Young said, officers can use the weapons after considering the potential injury to police and to the individual as well as the level of resistance and the need for prompt resolution.
Young described Tabatabainejad as a "passive resister" who refused to cooperate with officers. He acknowledged that the student didn't actively resist the officers.
"He was 200 pounds and went limp and was very hard to manage. They were trying to get him on his feet," Young said.
The officers used the device in stun mode — which affects only the part of the body being touched — rather than the dart mode, in which tiny electrodes are fired into a person and pass a current through them, disabling the person entirely.
More from the UCLA student paper.
