Quote Originally Posted by Fengzi
This wasn't a case of someone just walkng down the road and a cop asking to see his drivers license. The guy was on private property and those in charge of enforcing the rules of that property, the campus police, asked for his id as a requirement for being in the library. His choice was to show it to them or leave. It seems he didn't want to do either.
Actually in another video (I wish I bookmarked it, same incident, much better camera angle, picked up just after the first tasing) the conversation went something to the tune of

"We said for you to show us your ID or leave"
"I was in the middle of leaving nd you stopped me"

How acurate this is, i'm not sure, but it seems pretty genuine, as it seems thru the rest of the video that the officers are just itching to tase the guy as much as they can.
I've had my share of run-ins with the police and as I've grown older I found that excercising this right isn't always the best option. Kind of like pouring gas on fire.
Agreed, but he still has teh right to voice his opinion without getting brutalized, imho anyways.
Well, what happens to them has a lot to do with how redneck the local sheriff is. Some of those boys don't go for new fangled contraptions like a taser. They like to do things the old fashion way Trust me, not every tree hugging hippie is fortunate enough to have a news crew documenting everything the police do.
Unfortunately not. There will always be police that can abuse their power because.. well, they can. Does it make it right?

Or...or...or...just let him do what he wants, maybe bring him a coke and a bouquet of flowers. Maybe bring him a pair of slippers and give him a massage. Please, give me a break. The LAPD has a lot more important things to do than coddle to the whims of some jackass who wants to start some shit..
But they have all the time in the world to tase someone because "he won't get up from being tased"? I know, anytime someone doesn't feel like dealing with bullshit cops, they should be tased, it's a real time saver! then they can go after the real evils of society like marijuana smokers :P
Could be, I won't argue this point at all. But the the sad fact is, when it comes down to a situation like this, it's usually not the cops who pay for it. The best way to deal with a cop is always "yes sir, no sir" be polite and do what they tell you to. Unless you want to be a PrisonPlanet headline, that is. Don't forget, their job basically guaruntees that they deal with scum for a good portion of their day. The last thing they want to deal with is some jackass who wants to start an argument.
This is the worst part about being in a position of power, how to take crap properly from one instance and not let it affect the next. The proper way to stop an arguement is not to tase people. I don't think it happens very often in such an extreme way, I'm sure a lot of cops abuse their power, but not to this extent. There are relatively few videos of this nature, so that tells me it's not happening with witnesses daily, and out of a nation of 300 mil, that's not bad I guess.

The bottom line is that if the guy had just shown his student id, or even said something like "I believe your only asking me because I'm Middle Eastern so I won't show you, but I will leave", it wouldn't have happened. But he didn't. He decided to start shit and he paid the price. Did the police go too far? Probably. But remember, it was his actions that got him tased. As the saying goes "If ya can't stand the heat stay out of the kitchen"
But that's could've been what did happen, by the comments on the video. But no matter what happened beforehand, the only way those officers should be tasing people is if that guy was a physical threat and was showing intent of physical harm.

My roommate and i were disussing this today, actually. What is a citizen allowed to do in an instance where the police are breaking the law? I truely don't know, and wish I knew where to start. I was joking around saying that I'd strip down to my skimpies and state "I have no deadly weapons, I'm unarmed, but wh you're doing is wrong, and now I'm defending myself" haha