If you haven't seen the LAPD taser video, it isn't for the faint hearted. It's the second time in the space of a few weeks that LAPD have been in the news for brutalising Angelenos. Basically, a UCLA student, Mostafa Tabatabainejad, is shot with a taser gun repeatedly, including when he was handcuffed. When I saw the video, I didn't know what he did, nor did I care after seeing it. I'm not interested in excuses, because that's all they'll be. Even caged animals wouldn't be treated with such disregard. Simply put, the guy was tortured. Of course America doesn't practise torture, apart from waterboarding which VP Dick Cheney thinks is a no-brainer.
A taser gun is a cattle prod for human beings, so imagine how it must feel being electrocuted repeatedly. The Observer did a piece on it a few years ago, and a US journo got a taste of it for a news report. The way things stand, LAPD chief, Will Bratton hasn't made any silly statements like the last time when one of his officers punched William Cardenas in the face as if he was trying to knock him out. According to Bratton, "as to whether the actions of the officers were appropriate in light of what they were experiencing and the totality of the circumstances is what the investigation will determine." That's a cop out, if you'll excuse the pun.
Watch the videos and squirm in disgust:
If you're interested in his "crime", he refused to show the campus police his ID.
4 comments:
This is awful and disgusting to watch. Almost as disturbing as hearing the guy squeal in pain is the fact that the students just gawp for the first two or three tazes. Its only when the poor guy is making extreme pain noises that they intervene.
Don't you love America (my favourite country).
This is pretty sickening.
Are we back to the days of Volpe and Abner Louima?
And now there is the case of the 23 year old shot by the NYPD on his wedding day (yesterday). It is sickening as Azuka notes, and infuriating.
this is really sickening.
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