Cops Taser UCLA Student
Nov. 17, 2006 — -- There is painful six-minute video that has suddenly spread all over the world via YouTube and "click here to watch" buttons on campus newspaper and TV station Web sites and on countless blogs.
It shows part of what happened in front of students who had been studying in the UCLA library when an Iranian-American student reportedly did not show any ID to campus police.
The excruciating video clip makes you want to shut your eyes as you hear sounds that echo those heard during the enflamed 1968 Vietnam-era demonstrations: Enraged students screaming at police; police yelling back and using strong force trying to get students under control.
"Here's your Patriot Act! ... your ... abuse of power!" shouts a student, using profanity after screaming out in anguished pain from the electric jolts of a police Taser.
"Stand up or you'll get Tasered again!" the police shout back.
"I said I would leave," the student moans loudly, as appalled fellow students crowd in, some demanding the badge numbers of the police.
It's not clear from the video whether the student is unable to stand up because of the initial Taser shock -- a nerve-stunning jolt that can immobilize muscles for a several seconds.
One difference from the anti-war demonstrations that reached a peak in 1968 -- this time the demonstrations are recorded by cell phone cameras and mini digital video cameras and then disseminated on the Internet:
To watch the video, click here.
"We are joining a group of students today to demand an independent investigation of this incident," Hussam Aylush, who heads the Southern California office of the Council on American Islamic Relations, told ABC News.
Aylush told us his office has received "lot of e-mails and phone calls from students and parents, expressing a lot of anxiety and concern about what happened."
"Parents and the community have the right to expect that their children are going to be safe when they are on campus," he added.
