UCLA: Students or Political Activists?
Obviously, too much time on their hands…
Zafir Omair, a first-year UCLA student, marched Friday afternoon with 200 fellow demonstrators to protest the UCPD’s use of a Taser on a student in Powell Library last Tuesday. Protestors marched from a rally held in Meyerhoff Park to the UCPD station. (Photo: ANDREW HSIEH/daily bruin senior staff)
The DailyBruin reports:
“A Taser was used five times on Mostafa Tabatabainejad, a fourth-year Middle Eastern and North African studies and philosophy student, in Powell Library Tuesday night after he reportedly failed to comply with police officers’ instructions to leave the building in a timely manner.
Tabatabainejad failed to produce his BruinCard during a random check after 11:00 p.m., a university policy intended to ensure that only UCLA students, faculty and staff can use the facility late at night.
Tabatabainejad did not present his identification because he believed he was being targeted because of his Middle Eastern appearance, said Stephen Yagman, Tabatabainejad’s attorney.
Because he “believed” he was being targeted? As we asked in an earlier post, would he try the same stunt at an airport? If he were pulled out of line, would he commence his agitation?
The Turkish Press reported Mohammad-Ali Hosseini, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, condemned the use of the Taser on Tabatabainejad, who is U.S.-born but of Iranian descent.
“Iran is quite serious about protecting the interests and rights of its citizens and will spare no effort at upholding their reputation and dignity,” he said, asking that the police officers involved be disciplined.
Reputation and dignity?
We are talking about the country whose national leader, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, condemns Israel by publicly stating it should be “wiped off the map,” calls the Holocaust a “fairy tale,” they rejoice in the memory of 9/11, and threaten the U.S. with “harm and pain.”
Oh, yeah, and they want nukes. For peace. Of course.
Thanks, Mohammad. You’ve got a lotta chutzpah.
UPDATE:
HotAir: “Tasermania: Another (alleged) UCLA student speaks”
(Another perspective)
RELATED:
Mostafa Tabatabainejad, UCLA’s Angry Campus Activist
(Be sure to read the comments!)
November 20th, 2006 at 11:35 am
When it comes down to Ahmedinejad, sometimes people should be taken for their word. Hitler was clear with his assertions of the Jews, and no one really took him seriously.
November 20th, 2006 at 4:27 pm
he try the same stunt at an airport? If he were pulled out of line, would he commence his agitation?
It is a college university Library not a bloody Airport.
Tabatabainejad did not present his identification because he believed he was being targeted because of his Middle Eastern appearance
Would you even comment on this story if he was white? And if he was white and was call guisppe would you say he is of Italian origin? Just ask yourself that question?
“Iran is quite serious about protecting the interests and rights of its citizens and will spare no effort at upholding their reputation and dignity
Considering that their reputation is for hating Jews maybe they will say tazers are a zionist conspiricy?
November 20th, 2006 at 4:43 pm
Simon,
You took the quotes out of order, and thereby lost the context and relevance.
First, according to his attorney: “Tabatabainejad did not present his identification because he believed he was being targeted because of his Middle Eastern appearance.”
If he was white, green or yellow, but “believed”…umm, that authorities were asking him for his ID only because maybe he’s gay, or likes dancing in the moonlight, or maybe a lurker from a nearby community college, none of that would matter: The point is that he was simply asked to show ID and refused, and stayed around until cops arrived. Whatever reasons he invented in his mind are regardless of that fact.
We then pose the question: “would he try the same stunt at an airport? If he were pulled out of line, would he commence his agitation?”
That’s a fair question. Because as long as he “believes” he’s being singled out due to ethnicity, than why wouldn’t he try it everywhere? For instance, any company that hires him and passes him up for a promotion, do they run the risk of him “believing” that it was because of his race? Sounds like a liability.
In the end, Mostafa Tabatabainejad created an incident and described the altercation as an issue of racism. His ethnicity only became relevant because he made it central to his story. And now his attorney is making the claim quite clearly.
As for your quip about tazers being part of a “zionist conspiracy,” it almost sounds like al-Jazeera has started their “reporting”…
November 20th, 2006 at 9:18 pm
This guy is a student so their policy failed. He’s studying philosophy, he’s at the library doing what he’s supposed to do. Should he have shown his ID, maybe, should have been tasered under any circumstances involved above, no. Over 200 people in the last 5 years have died form taser guns. Also I saw the video of him being tasered on caught by another students cell phone and posted on youtube here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyvrqcxNIFs
You can see that they kept tasering him because he wouldn’t stand up, well the results of taser are muscle spasms, so not being able to stand up is only natural after the electrical shock.
Also he was acting very upset in the video, another affect of tasering is that it causing people to not act themselves, your brain is a muscle too. Ever stuck your thumb in a light socket on accident, it can cause emotional reactions.
So tasering is really just causing problems for no reason, and let me remind you, he was a student with every right to be there. And this is not an airport, it’s a school where you pay 50,000 or more a year to be able to study, an environment that is not targeted by terrorists, an environment where your theoretically supposed to have ID to be present after 11 pm, but next time some one doesn’t have it, please UCLA security guards, don’t taser the students!
November 21st, 2006 at 1:35 am
How hard is it to leave when before the police were called the staff told him the rules and regulations? He is a fraud, and so are those people who shout for him. This is more about third world entitlements than meets the eyes. If a Christian pulled that stunt in Egypt right now, they get their heads chopped off. Oh Wait they are doing that now without even causing a disturbance. My bad.
November 17th, 2007 at 10:11 pm
Where can i buy ephedra products….
Buy direct ephedra. Buy ephedra. Buy online yellow jackets with ephedra. Buy ephedra online….