LOS ANGELES - A camera phone captured a UCLA student being shot with a stun gun by a police officer after he allegedly refused repeated requests to show his student identification and would not leave a campus library, university police said Wednesday.

The incident occurred about 11 p.m. Tuesday after police did a routine check of student ID at the Powell Library computer lab.

"This is a long-standing library policy to ensure the safety of students during the late-night hours," said UCLA Police Department spokeswoman Nancy Greenstein.

She said police tried to escort Mostafa Tabatabainejad, 23, out of the library after he refused to provide ID and would not leave.

Tabatabainejad, who was arrested for resisting and obstructing a police officer, was later released on his own recognizance.

"As the officers attempted to escort him out, he went limp and continued to refuse to cooperate with officers or leave the building," Greenstein said.

Instead, Greenstein said, Tabatabainejad encouraged others at the library to join his resistance. When a crowd began to gather the police used the stun gun on him.

The arrest was captured on another student's camera phone and showed Tabatabainejad screaming while on the floor of the computer lab. The video also showed the student shouting, "Here's your Patriot Act, here's your ... abuse of power," according to the campus newspaper, the Daily Bruin.

There is no phone listing for Tabatabainejad and neither he nor his attorney could be located for comment.

Well its no wonder that the US and Saudi Arabia are allies; they seem to share similar police apprehension methods.

Anonymous Coward, eh? Lovely naming system for someone too lazy to register...
The police know how painful it is to be tazered. They have all been tazered at least once, due to police training. Look up a video of that. If you do, you'll realize that the student is milking it. By the by, regardless of whatever the "student" says, he would still have to leave the library by school policy. Therefore, the crowds he was beginning to gather around him (smug punk) would only serve as a riot. He got what he deserved and the situation could have been a lot worse. It would never have realistically gotten any better unless the "student" cooperated.

Step one: Show us your ID
I don't have ID
Step two: Leave now
I will not leave. I have rights.
Step Three: tazer until he craps his pants
Patriot Act! Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Lawsuit!

What's to keep two [hopefully] trained cops from simply carrying a skinny little student out? He didn't represent any kind of physical danger to anyone, so the tazer was unnecessary force.

And trying to tell someone to get up right after you've tazered him is beyond stupid. There's a reason tazers are carried. They incapacitate people. If they didn't work, they wouldn't be carried. Then they tazer him again when he doesn't get up by himself.

The student's motives are irrelevant, maybe he was setting this up to be filmed to be able to cry foul, maybe he wasn't, but they still had no need to use the tazer unless he became an actual threat.

i think he got everything he deserved. first of all he was yelling at the cops saying, " I wont leave!" and telling them to "eff" off. come on, NO ONE has the right to talk to an officer of the
law like that. he needed to get taught a lesson and the cops gave him one. GO LAPD!!!

The kid could've ended this at any moment. All he had to do was walk out.

But no, he's special. He doesn't need an ID. He doesn't need to follow orders from the man. Oh no, he's just too special for that.

He was asked for ID. He refused - either unable (didn't have it) or unwilling (had it, but refused to show it) to produce it.

He was told to leave - he refused.

The cops began to carry him out - he continued to resist.

The kid's obviously got a screw loose - I don't blame the cops for not wanting to grab him again, and he could certainly have been hurt further by applying handcuffs or, say, with a baton.

So, yeah, they zapped him. Boo hoo. If he'd been compliant and not interested in making his great statement against the man, no problem. Instead, he just had to rail against "the system".

Get over it. If he'd been willing to just walk out when he did not show ID - as would be expected of anyone else - he could've avoided the situation.

As far as zapping him and telling him to get up immediately... yeah, not too bright. Still, the subject in question was obviously continuing to be non-compliant, and he wasn't too bright either. Who in their right mind thinks to themselves, "wow, I just had 10,000 volts shot through my body. You know what? I think I'm going to yell loudly at the people who just zapped me and practically demand that they do it again. That'll be a great idea." Sure, I understand you're not thinking right after you've been zapped - I've zapped myself on a few occassions, granted with much less voltage - but he was given plenty of time for recovery.

What an idiot. Play by the rules or else.

As a side note, I'm still trying to find Tasers in the PATRIOT Act...

Cheps, don't you see the slippery slope in your arguement? I mean just because the Taser is a (mostly) non-lethal weapon, does not mean it should just be used indiscriminantly. Regardless of this guys non-compliance, he was non-violent and that should be the only determinant to use force by the police. It seems so easy to just Taser someone when really the police could have just arrested him, taken (or carried) him to their car, taken him to the station and charged him with whatever they deemed necessary. What does tasing really do in non-violent cases other than allow police revenge for someone questioning their behaviour?

First of all he was leaving, they stopped him and tried to show him who's boss. Clearly the officers thought they were above law. Tazers are meant to be used when the officers feel they are endagered by the individual. This guy was posing no threat, all he did was argue a little bit, and for that he got tazed multiple times. If they had just let him leave as he was going to, this would have never occured.

Witnesses said he was on his way out, and the officers grabbed him.

Anyone who thinks this wasn't a case of thuggish wannabe cops abusing their power and getting off by playing a sadistic Roscoe P. Coltrane needs to have something like this happen to them.

Not in this country? Not in the least. The terrorists have already won, kids, by putting us in a position to be abused by directionless ex-high-school bullies.

I yield back law enforcement to real cops. Beam me up Scotty!

Well we all know what I have to say about this...

First, the kid was an idiot. Period.

But.... because there is always a "but",

that shit posted by some AC

"NO ONE has the right to talk to an officer of the
law like that. he needed to get taught a lesson and the cops gave him one. GO LAPD!!!"...?????

An officer of the law??? What are they? Fucking God? and Whose fucking law?
The law that the officers of the LAPD trample all over??? That law?

FUCK the LAPD.

That plain enough???

Hooch,

You may want to read some additional facts on the case.

The kid really wanted to make a statement, and he did it.

Officers demanded ID from him multiple times. He refused.

Officers attempt to pull him out of building physically - he resists, and makes a scene as officers continue trying to grab him. Furthermore, he attempted to get others to follow him:

Mavrick Goodrich, a chemical engineering major who observed the incident, said Tabatabainejad shouted, "Am I the only martyr?"

I don't blame the cops for not putting themselves at risk with a lunatic. Their policy states:

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.

From the video, it's fairly obvious to say he's not the kind of guy who would go quietly - Taser or otherwise. Also, from a police officer's perspective, you can't be sure if the guy is on some serious drugs that would make him act even more irrational and less able to be handled.

On top of that:

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.

Was 5 times too many? Perhaps we can make that argument, and I think there's a reasonable argument to be made. Should the cops have threatened other students with getting "tased" if they interfered? I'm not sure it's really clear on the shaky, grainy, low-resolution video, but if you're interfering with an arrest, yeah, expect to get tased. And please, for HEAVEN'S SAKE, none of this "I want your badge number!" nonsense - this is not Law and Order, folks. But I doubt he would've gone quietly physically, taser or otherwise. In any case, a jolt of electricity - set on the "stun" mode - was likely far less damage to his body than he would've received otherwise from a baton or, if he really wanted to be a "martyr", a handgun.

The stupid kid could've left at any time - just walked out. But he wanted to make a statement, and got precisely what he wanted.

You know, I wonder what would happen if a guy in a wheelchair did the same thing, and locked his wheels in place so he couldn't be moved. Would they taser him too? And drag his body out or what?

Well, Che. I sort of agree with you. This guy wanted the attention. He's probably a smart guy who watches too much TV, and thinks he'll be some Rodney King figure by resisting the campus police from throwing him out a library.

This guy was not a threat. The cops should not have dealt with the situation that way. They were using a weapon intended for the police to be used in time of danger. The thing is, they were not in danger. They were using the taser like a cattle prod. That's something they should not be doing. Doing it in front of a crowd was equally stupid.

I don't know if these were actual cops, or just security guards. The way they treated the situation I'd suspect they are rent-a-cops. Actual cops tend to be smarter. They would try to not do that kind of shit in front of a crowd.

I know the cops have a tough job. I have friends that are cops, and they deal with this kind of shit all the time. Teh cops deal with unreasonable people everyday. They should be able to use force.
The guy sounded like a douchbag. He was trying to make a simple arrest a big deal. They should have man-handled him, and threw him outside. Use the baton if they have to, use pepper spray if they have to. What they should not have done is: been a bunch of pussies using a taser when not only unneeded, but making it a public spectacle.

This asshole will make the news because he has a Middle Eastern name. This guy isn't a hero. He's just a jerk-off caught on video. If he was a white guy who wandered in the library named Bill Smith, and the same thing happened.... You would never hear jack or shit about it.
He'll make the news because he has a Middle Eastern name. This guy isn't a hero. He's just a jerk-off caught on video.

It doesn't matter if he was a fucking asshole. It doesn't matter if he was trying to make some statement. Saying "he deserved it" implies cops should have the authority on the spot to decide if someone should get a little extra physical punishment.

You bet your ass cops have a hard job. They have to walk a hair-thin line between appropriate control and excessive force.

They have to walk a hair-thin line between appropriate control and excessive force.

That's why they're trained. Trained to assess real threats, walk that thin line and not use force where it's not necessary. Otherwise, they're unfit for the job.

The guy was pissed off. Not something a cop doesn't see often. He started yelling. Also something cops should be pretty familiar with. He resisted their attempts to pull him out by his arms. Hardly uncommon. This is where one cop grabs the feet, and the other grabs his arms. Nope, it was less-lethal weapon time for these guys.

It doesn't matter if he was trying to get others to follow him or invoke the powers of allah himself. It's plain irrelevant as far as judging the level of force required.

Should someone who's pissed off and resisting automatically be considered either a lunatic or druggie, Che?

He didn't swing at them, he didn't attack them. He was clearly outnumbered and outmuscled. How could he seriously be considered a physical threat?

He was a fucking idiot for not having his ID card when the rules state so. He was even more of a fucking idiot for not leaving when the rules required him to. And his moment of absolute fucking monstrous idiocy came when he resisted the cops dragging his ass out of a place he didn't show he was authorized to be in.

But he still didn't need to be tased.

And if he deserved to be tased for putting on a show of protest like this, what does the cop deserve who said 'You want to get tased too?' in response to a student's request for his badge number?

"Should someone who's pissed off and resisting automatically be considered either a lunatic or druggie, Che?"

Is someone screaming at the top of his lungs - and likely kicking, thrashing, etc. - really being non-violent? Or how about his other statements calling for more "martyrs" and screaming, "this is your Patriot Act!" Sadly, no mention of Tasers or library card checks can be found in that act...

The guy's obviously a loon. A loon who won't show an ID card to anyone because, by golly, he feels he's being "profiled", a loon who won't follow directions, and a loon who won't go peacefully.

The cops risked bodily harm by escorting him out. They also risked inflicting much more bodily harm on the subject by dragging him out as well, given it's quite clear he wouldn't have gone peacefully. If he would've just gotten up and walked out, there wouldn't have been any sort of problem. But he's just too special for that kind of thing.

The other question to ask here - how much harm did a Taser set to "stun" really inflict? It may have hurt at the moment, but leaves no lasting effects like, say, getting bruised all over from being dragged out as you kick and scream.

Tasing someone does less damage than dragging them along a smooth tile floor? Wow I never knew that. And he wasn't kicking or thrashing until the cops tased him. So following your logic the cops caused him bodily harm by causing him to kick and thrash around while being dragged. Just because they don't list a specific weapon in a legal document doesn't mean it's ok to use it. They don't mention chainsaws either. Are 3 cops physically unable to remove a young average weight person? Obviously not. Which makes me wonder about their motives. How is stunning him going to help? You're only going to cause pain, which of course usually angers a person, which in turn usually makes things worse. The kid might have been looking for trouble (ONLY if he refused to leave, which there seems to be confusion over if it was true or not) but these cops that played into his hands are really f*ckin stupid and therefore dangerous.

The guy was indeed a fucking idiot but it's obvious that getting tazed will piss the fuck out of anybody so I don't blame him. And it was completely unnecessary for the cops to use that weapon in the first place, especially in the middle of a university library full of students. In the heat and anger of the moment the tazed kid will feel even more pissed off and call out the Patriot Act, which he implies is a profiling. Three trained cops against one kid and they taze him.... WTF? Just drag the guy out by force if nothing else works. Both parties are at fault here but there shouldn't have been tazing involved. It just made shit worse.

While it may have been his fault for not leaving the library using a tazer is uneccesary force and only motivated the crowd in favour of the person who should have left. It would have been much more effective if they had of just carried him out screaming (that way he wouldve looked crazy instead of the cops looking like sadistic fuck heads.)

has anyone checked to see if his cornhole puckered up during the tazering?

Dude had it coming. I would have tazed him too!

Unfortunately the liberals believe that personal liberty above everything else. This guy was not obeying the officers request. If every person would be defiant like this guy, we would not have any order in this country whatsoever. The guy didn't want to comply, then he tried to incite a riot by calling out to the crowd to get involved. You cannot yell fire in a crowded theatre, nor can you act like an idiot at UCLA library. The guy got exactly what he deserved, the crying wimp!

UCLA is a public school along with its libraries, its news to me that you need student ID to be in them.

Ok....

IF it is required on this campus to present ID anytime you are asked, and everyone knows it, it seems pretty clear to me that the student was being an asshole. Police are not authorized to dispense punishment because you are an asshole. When a taser is used to control someone who the officers are incapable of bringing down to the ground, it is a humane way to keep from shooting the asshole. When you have a guy that weighs 100 lbs, is surrounded by big beefy police, being tased, and ordered to stand up after, (the opposite of what the taser is for) that is an obvious use of the taser as a form of punishment. Don't piss me off, my dick is small, but my taser is mighty. Stand up or I will fuck you with my taser, bitch. How ridiculous. They should have just hog tied him and carried his skinny little ass outside. It was really stupid to upset all of the students and continue to punish this guy. Punishment should be adminstered by judges, not short dick cops.