Police Used Excessive Force to Tase Student, Investigation Says

The Frat Boy News daily campus police report for Tuesday:

UCLA (compiled by SignOnSanDiego.com)

A UCLA campus police officer used excessive force when he repeatedly shocked a student with a Taser gun during a confrontation in the school library last fall, an independent investigation has found.

Police accountability expert Merrick Bobb said in a report released Wednesday that the officer's decision to use a Taser gun on Mostafa Tabatabainejad was “unnecessary, avoidable and excessive.”

Tabatabainejad was shocked Nov. 14, 2006, after arguing with a campus police officer who was conducting a routine check of student IDs at the University of California, Los Angeles, Powell Library computer lab.

Much of the confrontation was captured on video and posted on the Internet. The footage and resulting campus outcry prompted Abrams to bring in Bobb for the outside review.

Campus police said Tabatabainejad refused to show his student ID and refused to leave the building when asked.

Tabatabainejad, who was a 23-year-old senior at the time, said he declined to show his ID because he thought he was being targeted for his appearance. His family is of Iranian descent.

Footage from one student's camera phone showed Tabatabainejad screaming on the floor of the computer lab. Police said they shocked him after he urged others to join his resistance and a crowd began to gather.

Tabatabainejad has filed a federal lawsuit against UCLA, the police and several officers over the incident, contending his civil rights were violated and the officers violated the Americans With Disabilities Act. The lawsuit says Tabatabainejad has bipolar disorder.