Did you know that Kamangir turns four tomorrow? See the classic "Hello World" dated October 17, 2008!

10 comments

More News (2)

Kamangir | November 16, 2006 | Category Iran

This is an excerpt of this piece.

But according to a study published in the Lancet Medical Journal in 2001, a charge of three to five seconds can result in immobilization for five to 15 minutes, which would mean that Tabatabainejad could have been physically unable to stand when the officers demanded that he do so.

“It is a real mistake to treat a Taser as some benign thing that painlessly brings people under control,” said Peter Eliasberg, managing attorney at the ACLU of Southern California.

“The Taser can be incredibly violent and result in death,” Eliasberg said.

According to an ACLU report, 148 people in the United States and Canada have died as a result of the use of Tasers since 1999.

During the altercation between Tabatabainejad and the officers, bystanders can be heard in the video repeatedly asking the officers to stop and requesting their names and identification numbers. The video showed one officer responding to a student by threatening that the student would “get Tased too.” At this point, the officer was still holding a Taser.

Such a threat of the use of force by a law enforcement officer in response to a request for a badge number is an “illegal assault,” Eliasberg said.

“It is absolutely illegal to threaten anyone who asks for a badge — that’s assault,” he said.

Tabatabainejad was released from custody after being given a citation for obstruction/delay of a peace officer in the performance of duty.

Update: UCLA says “Investigators are reviewing the incident”.

Reader's Comments

  1. brando | November 16th, 2006 at 1:03 pm

    This looks like a fun topic.

    Here’s something I noticed from the article.

    Tabatabainejad yelled at the officers to “get off me.” , and he was encouraging others around him to join in his resistiance.

    The article also claimed that he he was tased because he forgot his card.

    I didn’t see the video, and I wasn’t there, but I’d have to disagree with this statement.
    “It is absolutely illegal to threaten anyone who asks for a badge — that’s assault,”

    Asking for a badge number doesn’t automaticly render you immune to police threats. If it does, I’ll guess I could go rob a bank, shouting for badge numbers, and it would be absolutely illegal for the police to threaten me.

  2. kamangir | November 16th, 2006 at 1:56 pm

    Brando,
    I do not see as a “fun topic”. But, any way, thanks for sharing your philosophical dilemma about a hypothetical bank rubbery.

  3. Vilas | November 16th, 2006 at 7:10 pm

    HA. When a Iranian/Arab/etc is terrorized by the establishment, the headline is merely ‘a student is…’

    When an Iranian/Arab/etc commits a violent act, the headline is “Muslim terrorist…”

  4. kamangir | November 16th, 2006 at 7:18 pm

    Vilas,
    Do not relate this to Islam, please! I did not see the police asking him about his religion.

  5. bucket | November 16th, 2006 at 10:46 pm

    I have to admit this issue bothers me, at least the amount of shock and anger and indiginence geared towards it does. Your not the only blogger focusing on this issue I have seen it everywhere today. I didn’t know the man was Iranian tho, so I understand your particular interest.

    I didn’t spend my post-high school years hanging out at the college library and because of it I know that when badged, armed men come asking for you to comply with their demands, that’s a threat and if you don’t comply be prepared for the next request which will be physical. So the college students of America live a more sheltered life than I ever had the privilege of, that doesn’t surprise me either, but where on earth did you think COPS got all their footage from? Why all the shock and disgust when it happens at the university but it is fun entertainment when it happens to the worthless uneducated, laborer down at the 7/11?

  6. bucket | November 16th, 2006 at 10:50 pm

    should read indignance not indiginence, like I said I never got the chance to go to college.

  7. homeyra | November 17th, 2006 at 4:55 am

    Brando I understand you point, but isn’t all that a bit too extreme in a Library?
    Kamangir, do you mind if I add you on my blogroll?

  8. kamangir | November 17th, 2006 at 12:20 pm

    Bucket,
    You are right, people have rights, either if they are graduate students or if they are the guy hanging out around 7/11.

  9. kamangir | November 17th, 2006 at 12:22 pm

    Homeyra,
    I will be more than happy. I think I have already added you to mine.

  10. Malagent | September 24th, 2007 at 12:31 pm

    kamangir,

    I know this post was a while back but the recent event with Andrew Meyer brought the attention back up.

    I’ve been studying tasers and I use one for my work as well. I’ve had one used on me twice. I’m posting videos about it on youtube that are very critical of the students and their reactions rather than the police.

    First off, everyone seems to act like the tasers are dangerous, when in fact they are not. No matter how many deaths they try to correlate with tasers it has never been shown to be a cause of death - not one single time out of well more than 500,000 humans who have been tazed. The percentage of injuries and deaths that even occur around the same time as the taser use is drastically lower than any other use of force including just holding a subject with your arms.

    Second, while being tazered does hurt, it is in no way severe and does not warrant the reaction given by the UCLA or UF student. I’m posting video evidence of that as well.

    Third, Almost everyone who has been tasered is capable of moving withing a second or so of even a 10 - 15 second aplication. I have done this as well. Again, my videos show dozens of people standing right up less than a second after the application.

    I’ll leave it up to the legal system to determine the acceptable use of force in these two cases even though I have made up my mind. I feel that too many people consider only the students screaming when deciding what to think about the incidents or the tasers. It’s not the proper way to make up ones minds.

    All to often people automatically assume that if an arrest or police action is taken in, around, or during political event that it automatically has something to do with politics or freedom of speech. Much like the case of the UCLA student where people, even now, bring up religion nationality. At best it has to do with what is an acceptable use of force in the situation, nothing more.

    As always Kamingir, thanks for posting a wide variety of info for me to read.

CommentComment




© 2006 Kamangir (Archer) | Design by Luka Cvrk. Wordpressed by Ego with the help of Gift Baskets. children and obesity