The police officers who tasered a handcuffed UCLA student threatened to taser other students who asked for their badge numbers.
But, it’s illegal for a police officer to do that.
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.
Islamic leaders call for probe of student tasering
Council of Islamic-American Relations Executive Director in southern California Hussam Ayloush said:
“It is hard to see the justification for repeatedly using pain-inducing weapons on a person who was apparently not a threat to any officer or student. We call on state and national authorities, including the FBI, to launch an independent investigation of this disturbing incident. Given the circumstances involved, only an outside, independent probe will ensure that the civil rights aspects of this case are being taken seriously and will be addressed in an impartial manner.”
UCLA has a bland statement from the acting chancellor promising a full investigation. You can link to it from the top of their home page, which indicates they see a shit storm coming.
In the comments to our previous post on this, Mike said “In my day there, the campus would have been shut down.” To take that thought one step further, the fact that a campus would be shut down during the 60’s-70’s if something like happened unquestionably kept it from happening, at least some of the time.
To me, one of the most horrifying aspects of this is that of the students who just stood around watching this happen, doing nothing. I agree with Mike. The campus should have been shut down for this level of brutality and (likely racist) abuse.