Getting serious for a moment

[luvxander]

You guys know how I am. I don't watch the news and I don't read the newspaper. Basically because I usually feel that if it doesn't directly involve me, I could care less. It's boring as hell.

But this caught my attention today. I don't know if any of you have seen it or not, but I think everyone should. This, to me, is evidence of the growing abuse of police power. When something as small as forgetting your student I.D. card can get you Tasered, repeatedly, there's something wrong, somewhere.

The Daily Bruin article - there's a 6 minute Quicktime video embedded in the article that someone managed to get of the incident, sound included.

And, for those of you without Quicktime, they also put it up on YouTube.

Apparently, some cops think the phrases "I'm not fighting you." and "I said I would leave." are someone's resistance effort.

Comments

[jillapet.livejournal.com]

karnythia had it on her lj...there is quite a long post about it.

It is rather disgusting, isn't it?

[luvxander.livejournal.com]

very disgusting and very disturbing. and it pisses me off that they can do this and get away with it.

[saifai.livejournal.com]

OH my god. That's the most frightening thing I've seen in a long time. I certainly hope they find the officers at fault. I wouldn't be at all surprised if they didn't, but man that was just... brutal. It just makes me numb.

[luvxander.livejournal.com]

The cops will probably get a slap on the wrist and the kid will be "encouraged" not to persue the matter any further. They did the same thing in Montgomery with a black girl who was raped by a police officer.

[wirrrn.livejournal.com]

Hey,

How can they expect him to stand up after being hit twice with 5000 volts?! He's lucky not to have died...

[luvxander.livejournal.com]

I went back and watched it again and counted. If you listen closely enough, you can hear them Tasering him. They hit him 7 times with that Taser. And according to the article, every time was for 3-5 seconds long. There's no way he could get up after that.

[wirrrn.livejournal.com]

Hey,

He's very lucky not to be dead. I'd sue those cops a new arse...

[redeem147.livejournal.com]

I suppose it's better than in the 'seventies, when the cops would have just shot the students.

This is disgusting, and I wonder if they would have bothered with the kid if his skin were a lighter shade.

[luvxander.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was wondering that myself. Or if his name had been Johnson, or something as american sounding. And, giving the benefit of the doubt, they may not have even realized what they were doing, but that doesn't excuse this.

And would it be better than being shot? At least that way, there's a chance that the pain and anguish is over pretty fast.

[betagoddess.livejournal.com]

Omigod! Rarely has anything enraged me as much as this video! I just can't believe the brutality! I am still shaking from watching it and my hands are trembling.

I sure hope those "officers" at the very least get their asses fired and that there is one helluvan investigation into this incident!

Talk about taking marshal law into your own hands and letting your prejudices come to the fore.

I am SOOOO angry!!!

[luvxander.livejournal.com]

I would like to see them lose their jobs and have legal action taken against them for the blatant assault on a student. Someone else, in another comment, noted that they wondered if this would have happened if the student had been of a lighter skin complexion. And I agree.

What happened on Sept. 11th was a truly horrible thing. We should remember it and take precautions that it doesn't happen again. But those precautions shouldn't come at the cost of human decency and humane treatment of your fellow man. Be they criminal or not.

[betagoddess.livejournal.com]

I would like to see them strung up and tasered on their private parts. Many many times!

I'm still fuming.

People have used the backlash from Sept. 11th as an excuse to act out on their prejudices and commit immoral acts themselves. I have received more spam with so-called humour which is really just bigoted remarks disguised. I have rarely used my delete key so often!

INEXCUSABLE!