UCLA Taser Incident

Olbermann on the incident: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZiIebst4fc&eurl=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZiIebst4fc&eurl=

Update from the LA Times: UCLA student stunned by Taser plans suit

The UCLA student stunned with a Taser by a campus police officer has hired a high-profile civil rights lawyer who plans to file a brutality lawsuit.

The videotaped incident, which occurred after the student refused requests to show his ID card to campus officers, triggered widespread debate on and off campus Thursday about whether use of the Taser was warranted. It was the third in a recent series of local incidents captured on video that raise questions about arrest tactics.

Read the rest of the article to get the student’s first statement on the incident (from his attorney.)

The original video is here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyvrqcxNIFs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyvrqcxNIFs

I don’t want to pass judgment on what happened. It does appear to be an excessive force case. Passive resistance does not, in my mind, ever justify use of a Taser. Was it truly passive resistance, or did something happen before the video started to justify it? I’ll be following this case closely, I think. I do know that it was absolutely out of line to threaten to Taser the student who asked for the cops’ badge numbers.

ETA: The Rude Pundit has more on this, and not too rude this time. (Work safe, in other words.)