California: UCLA student victim of police brutality

Mostafa Tabatabainejad, a 23-year-old senior, was working in the library computer lab until shortly after 11 PM, when he was asked by a security officer to produce his university identification card for inspection.

According to Tabatabainejad, he was targeted by library officials and campus police because of his ethnicity—he is a US citizen of Iranian descent. He has since filed a federal civil rights lawsuit alleging false arrest and the use of “brutal excessive force.”

According to eyewitnesses, Tabatabainejad was preparing to leave the library when he was physically detained by University of California Police Department (UCPD) officers who had been called by the security officer. When he responded with passive resistance, again because he says he was unfairly targeted, police shocked him several times in front of dozens of horrified fellow students.

The Taser gun was used in its “drive stun” mode. The officer first removed the cartridge, which fires two darts attached to wires, and then pressed the exposed electrodes directly into Tabatabainejad’s flesh over and over for what police euphemistically term “pain compliance.” In this mode, the Taser functions something like a cattle prod, whereas in its full mode it completely paralyzes the person targeted.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2006/nov2006/tasr-n21.shtml