Something scary for your Thursday...
So, recently I came across to somewhat scary/creepy things that I wanted to share.
First something made-up:
and now something all too real (and IMO much scarier):
Student shot with Taser by UCPD officers
Now granted, the kid wasn't the brightest, but as far as I can tell he didn't do anything that warranted multiple tasings (and the cops were idiots for not appreciating that once you tase someone it's highly likely that they won't be getting up under their own power for several minutes... that's what the fucking thing is supposed to do). I've always felt that when confronted by authority figures with guns, or tasers it is often in your best interest to be polite and stick to "yes sir", "no sir" answers. Even if you're right and they're wrong, save it for the courts if necessary. You will almost never win if you argue with a cop and losing could mean a tasing or worse.
That being said, I hope these cops lose their badges over this crap and I hope UCLA has to pay out a nice chunk of money to this guy (who was apparently a bonda fide student).
Update: More info about the taser incident
Community responds to Taser use in Powell
I'm increasingly disgusted with the cops shown in that video. The kid was did a relatively minor stupid thing, but why do I have the feeling that if he hadn't been brown-skinned the cops wouldn't have been quite so worried about how much of a threat he posed...
First something made-up:
and now something all too real (and IMO much scarier):
Student shot with Taser by UCPD officers
Now granted, the kid wasn't the brightest, but as far as I can tell he didn't do anything that warranted multiple tasings (and the cops were idiots for not appreciating that once you tase someone it's highly likely that they won't be getting up under their own power for several minutes... that's what the fucking thing is supposed to do). I've always felt that when confronted by authority figures with guns, or tasers it is often in your best interest to be polite and stick to "yes sir", "no sir" answers. Even if you're right and they're wrong, save it for the courts if necessary. You will almost never win if you argue with a cop and losing could mean a tasing or worse.
That being said, I hope these cops lose their badges over this crap and I hope UCLA has to pay out a nice chunk of money to this guy (who was apparently a bonda fide student).
Update: More info about the taser incident
Community responds to Taser use in Powell
I'm increasingly disgusted with the cops shown in that video. The kid was did a relatively minor stupid thing, but why do I have the feeling that if he hadn't been brown-skinned the cops wouldn't have been quite so worried about how much of a threat he posed...
(I'm more amused than anything that he was Pennywise. Also that he was that frightening in that movie. I watch it whenever it's on TV.)
The second story is unbelievable.
I put up an update to the taser story in the body of the original post. I'm definitely getting the impression that this thing started because of racial profiling. The cops are claiming that he was resisting, but seriously if that scrawny kid could legitimately resist and intimidate/threaten that many cops, then those cops are pretty damn pathetic (and none of the other students seem to be feeling threatened by him during the entire ordeal).
It's pretty sad to see the state of the country we live in.
To have them turn around and justify their actions because he was somehow dangerous or threatening seems disgustingly weak. If they did think he was a danger to people around him (apparently after they had him handcuffed) they had more than enough manpower to grab one limb per officer and drag his ass out and away from students and staff. Trying to make him get up by tasering him just smacks of bullies with Tasers.
Also, given that the kid didn't seem big and burly, it's possible that even a drive stun if applied to the correct body part could result in the kid feeling like he couldn't get up. From the video it looked/sounded like he dropped pretty fast when they tasered him so I'm wondering if they did in fact use "drive stun".
If you look at CNN's article on it the police spokesperson is already changing facts around by saying that he refused to allow officers to escort him out when in fact it appears that the officers prevented him from leaving the premises (he only refused to be escorted out after being tased when he was on the floor in pain). Also, as far as the "inciting others to join him" I really don't see or hear that in the video (which is a good 6 minutes so it's not like it's taking a small snippet of the situation out of context).
I'm thinking that the cops saw someone who looked "arabic" and immediately jumped to conclusions about who/what he was. The cop's big mistake though was forgetting that we live in a surveillance society where anyone's actions can be recorded for posterity. They probably figured they'd file it away as some uppity kid who got what he deserved and they'd blow off the random complaints from any students there. Sadly, I doubt this would have happened if the person in question was white or female. He just happened to be unlucky enough to be the wrong skin color for some trigger happy cops. The disturbing thing is that this didn't happen in some podunk town on the south, this happened in one of the biggest cities in the US.