During an 18-year career, a cop is bound to be involved in some action. That’s certainly true of officer Terrence Duren who is at the center of the overblown Taser incident with student, Mostafa Tabatabainejad, 23.Duren had to shoot a trespassing vagrant in a campus study hall three years ago. Then there was a brawl on fraternity row where someone complained about Duren using excessive force. The complainers got the best of Duren who took a 90-day suspension avoiding dismissal.
There are always a percentage of ignorant people arrested for criminal activity that complain about the cop hoping that their complaint will somehow nullify the arrest. That phenomenon is much more prevalent with young people that deny or minimize the conduct that led to the arrest when explaining things to their parents.
Making smoke about the use of the Taser or suggesting racial profiling does not change three things, Tabatabainejad’s refusal to show ID, leave as ordered, and his failure to peacefully submit to arrest. Tabatabainejad put on a good show for the other students by getting Tasered but the fact remains he was uninjured.
A better approach to calling officer Duren on the carpet would be to examine Tabatabainejad’s conduct and whether he should be suspended or expelled as a student.
8 comments:
I agree that this shouldn't turn into another witch hunt against the police, but any reasonable person who is inclined to take the side of law enforcement, as you seem to be, should at least admit that tasering a person who is handcuffed borders on the excessive. Not that the student was blameless, but it's not like he was committing a major crime or endangering anybody. He was a student who was studying in a university library and was not carrying the proper identification. After this entire episode, they didn't even have anything serious enough to haul in down to the station. All they had on him was a misdemeanor; he was cited and released. While these officers may not be guilty of a crime or breach of policy, they were certainly overreacting. Who is really "over blowing" things?
The student was looking for trouble with is refusal to shoe ID or leave. After being handcuffed he continued to resist. The video shows his legs kicking after he was hancuffed..
The Taser device is given to officers with the understanding that it won't injure suspects.
The simple solution was to submit to the arrest and whine about it later.
The jerk is lucky he was not injured.
Well, let's review...shall we. I clearly hear the Officers talking in a calm voice. I also clearly hear the student screaming"get your f'ing hands off me!" due to the lack of video I cannot ascertain the actual actions of the offender in this case at this point, but a reasonable and prudent person would believe that the offender is refusing the requests and later the orders of the Police Officers. Due to the actions of the Offender and probably the body language of the Offender and probably the refusal of the Offender to be escorted from the library without further incident, the Officers had a resistor to deal with. I can almost bet my bank account when the Officer went to guide the Offender from the area, and the Officer most likely took control of the Offender by his arm, the Offender pulled away from the Officer or Pushed the Officer away. This qualifies the Offender as an "Active Resistor" Period.
A taser was used.
The proper amount of force was used to complete a lawful objective under the color of the LAW.
All police departments use a "use of force model" witch clearly outlines the amount of force an Officer an use in an incident. And guess what, the use of force model was designed by former and active police administrators from the two most liberal states we have.....California and Illinois.
The Officers used the taser within the guidelines. If the Officers had used another form of "Force" like pressure points or "pain compliance" techniques.....Oh my how the press and everyone else would be screaming by now!
By the way, all of the above are recommended uses of force according to the model.
Now, lets say that the offender in this case didn't belong in the library or on campus period and he Officers did nothing. Oh Geeze...the Officers did nothing.....Fire them.
Oh and lets not even think if someone was hurt by the offender. How did the police not find the Offender earlier....Fire them.
Once a Offender is in handcuffs does not mean that the cannot strike an Officer or refuse further commands from the officer. The Officer is still prone to some sort of attack.
The comment posted on November 23, 2006 at 0631 am states that the Officer Overreacted. Who are you to judge. I say you throw on some polyester and see what you can do.
You go talk to someone and ask for ID and have them refuse you ID in a place where thousands of children and young adults go to and expect to be safe. Who are you talking to? What are they doing there? Why are they there? Do they even belong there? What are their intentions?
So lets get one thing straight. The Officer acted properly and within the guidelines of the LAW AND DEPARTMENT POLICY. What more can you ask for. Did you want him to get permission slips from everyone in the area or take a group vote to see what he should do?cHow Bout hug the Offender and gave him 2 bucks for some coffee.
The Officer did what he had to do to provide for the safety and security of everyone in that area.
When others come up with a better plan, then they can follow it. Until then, it is what it is.
Hey, lets get some of those students screaming for the Officers Badge numbers create a "student patrol" and lets see if they do better.
Puhleeeeeeze!
The Officers have a split second to make a decision. We have eternity to critique the decision that He/She made. Nice odds huh.
In response to the comment left on 24 November, 1202AM
"The comment posted on November 23, 2006 at 0631 am states that the Officer Overreacted. Who are you to judge. I say you throw on some polyester and see what you can do.
You go talk to someone and ask for ID and have them refuse you ID in a place where thousands of children and young adults go to and expect to be safe. Who are you talking to? What are they doing there? Why are they there? Do they even belong there? What are their intentions?
So lets get one thing straight. The Officer acted properly and within the guidelines of the LAW AND DEPARTMENT POLICY. What more can you ask for. Did you want him to get permission slips from everyone in the area or take a group vote to see what he should do? "How Bout hug the Offender and gave him 2 bucks for some coffee."
FYI anonymous II, I wore the "polyester" for 17+ years and in all that time I never allowed a situation to escalate to that level. While the student involved clearly overreacted, so did the campus police officers who should know better . According to several accounts, he was on his way out of the library when he was confronted by the police. If he was leaving, PROBLEM SOLVED.
As far as your rhetorical questions go: "in a place where thousands of children and young adults go to and expect to be safe. Who are you talking to? What are they doing there? Why are they there? Do they even belong there? What are their intentions..." This kid WAS one of the young adults "expecting to be safe." And my guess is that if a college-aged person is sitting at a table in a university library reading room with a books and notebooks, THEIR INTENTIONS ARE TO STUDY. As many of my former colleagues used to say in response to accusations of racial profiling, "If it looks like a duck, acts like a duck, and sounds like a duck, it's probably a duck." This kid looked, acted, and sounded like a student. This whole incident could have been resolved far more easily if the officers had maintained their cool a little better.
"Hey, lets get some of those students screaming for the Officers Badge numbers create a "student patrol" and lets see if they do better." Actually, it was a student patrol officer "they are called Campus Safety Officers, or CSO's" who set this whole fiasco in motion.
I am a UCLA alumni, so I know firsthand how important the role UCPD performs for the campus is. I also know that UCLA is not a high crime area. Officer Duren said that he patrols UCLA just like he would want his own neighborhood patrolled. Well guess what; UCLA is not a neighborhood. It is a university. The UCPD serves a very unique community, unlike anything a conventional police officer works in. They do not need to assume that everyone they encounter is a criminal or intends to harm anyone. This is not to say that they should dole out hugs and coffee "Puhleeeeeeze!", but they should adjust their tactics to make a better fit with the realities of the environment they work in. As it stands right now, they already have a use of force model that if far more liberal than the LAPD or LASO use, both of which fight real crime on a far more regular basis than the UCPD. Neither the LAPD nor the LASO are allowed to use their Tasers on handcuffed detainees.
I am not condemning the police here. I am only saying that they handled this particular incident very badly. CRIMEFILE is right to say that the "simple solution was to submit to the arrest and whine about it later" but then again, this person's only offense was to be rude to a CSO who was not even a sworn officer. I cannot help but think that being electrocuted five times is excessive for being rude to a CSO. Maybe it's not excessive in some countries, and we can all be glad we don't live there.
We can speculate all we want on the footage but the reality is none of us were there. It's easy to point fingers when you're viewing situations from the sidelines. I highly doubt this student was a threat but he was causing trouble from the beginning. I'd really like the opportunity to ask this person what was so hard about providing ID. How dare they randomly check students and people they are unsure of as to their reason for being in the library at such a late hour? As an authority figure you never know if you're going to be dealing with someone who is unstable. So they tasered him to subdue the pain in the ass... This story evokes no emotion from me to sympathize with this jerk. I'm sorry... just tired of these trouble makers.
Anonymous said..."I highly doubt this student was a threat but he was causing trouble from the beginning."
Actually, from the beginning he was sitting quietly at a table reading a book. That doesn't cause much trouble in a University library.
"As an authority figure you never know if you're going to be dealing with someone who is unstable. So they tasered him to subdue the pain in the ass..."
A lot of people say that officers should err on the side of safety, but I think the problem here is one of presumption and where to draw the line between where someone is merely upset at being disturbed while studying (I agree that the racial profiling thing might be a red herring, but if that really was his perception it is worth considering) and when a person is truly a threat to officers or the public who needs to be forcibly subdued. The problem was not that he was breaking the law (it is not against the law to not have a student ID at the library) but that he was being irate towards a security guard and was still irate when the police arrived. It was not necessary to take this student into custody, indeed he was never even booked for anything. The objective of the police was to resolve the situation and restore order to the library. Electrocuting an irate individual is not a good way to calm them down, as the infamous YouTube video so clearly shows.
Crimefile, you have written a number of commentaries on your blog against searching individuals entering courtrooms to the point of endorsing a refusal to be searched, and lambasting the TSA. But on this comment thread you have blamed the student, saying that he "was looking for trouble with his refusal to show ID or leave" (actually by many accounts he was leaving when the police arrived). This seems contradictory and I wonder if you would like to clarify.
I’m a strong believer in our Bill of Rights. The UCLA incident is a involves the school’s private property rights that have been forgotten about by the critics of the UCLA police response.
The school has a right to know who is on their campus. The also have the absolute right to remove trespassers. The student involved and his supporters just don’t understand the private property issues involved. Had the same thing taken place on a street off the campus, I’d be on the side of the arrestee.
The use of the Taser appears to be within policy. The student critics don’t like the policy but it’s the policy nonetheless. The Taser did not injure anyone or anything but pride. Its time for the students to both learn from this and to get over it.
Thanks for your reply Crimefile. I have to say that I've enjoyed your blog.
I am still not convinced though by your argument that the notion of private property applies to a campus library, especially UCLA which is a public university administered by the State of California. In that sense the campus and its facilities are as public as a courthouse, where you have previously stated that a person is justified in refusing to be searched. If anything an airport terminal, which you have also commented about, is private property in a stronger sense than a public university or courthouse. In addition there has historically been a greater need to identify people entering airport terminals and courthouses as a matter of public safety, and make to make sure they are not bringing weapons with them. The reasoning behind airport security is obvious, and I am sure you are aware of the recent courthouse shootings, including the one in Tennessee last August when a woman smuggled a gun into a courthouse to help her husband escape as he was awaiting sentencing and killed a corrections officer.
This is not to say that college campuses are free of crime, just that the realistic danger of crime is substantially lower than a courthouse which processes criminals or an airplane which is a popular terrorist target. Furthermore, ensuring that only students are using the library after a certain time of day is not going to put a dent in crime, especially property crimes which are the most common crimes that occur in UCLA's libraries. I don't think you will disagree that students are just as likely to be thieves as anyone else, and so interrupting them while they are studying to ask for their student ID is not very useful. Why not have campus security and the police focus their efforts on spotting people who DON'T obviously belong there and asking THEM for identification rather than random students who are doing what students should be doing.
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