Police Action
It’s interesting to see how quickly alleged police misconduct can be broadcast to the world.
University of Florida student Tasered at Kerry forum
What’s interesting is there are quite a few cases of campus security using excessive force on students.
Report Faults UCLA for Use of Taser
Campus police said Tabatabainejad refused to show his ID and refused to leave the building when asked. Tabatabainejad, a 23-year-old senior at the time, said he thought he was being targeted for his appearance. His family is of Iranian descent.
Now, clearly every incident should be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. We shouldn’t automatically assume either: A) Officers put themselves on the line, and because of this, should be given deference in deciding when to use force. B) Officers are brutal enforcers that will zap you anytime you get out of line.
We’ll leave that up to court cases as well as commissions to decide whether or not excessive force was used. Though, in the recent case of the student being tasered during an appearance by John Kerry, there is room for scrutiny and review.
Most interesting to me, is the reaction from blogs and opinion peieces that try to frame this issue in terms of Red State vs. Blue State or Liberal Weenies vs. Right-Wing Fascists.
The Right State, is a perfect example of this when it came to the UCLA case.
When the incident happened, The Right State posted a entry (Dated November 17th, 2006) along with some thoughts on the matter.
The student newspaper, the Daily Trojan, placed the blamed for the entire incident on the campus polices. The editorial is true liberal fashion is always ready to blame the authorities for perceived injustices and defend those who wantonly disobey those charged with carrying out the law.
Clearly, the liberal weenies are too concerned about this whole Civil Rights thing. Let’s show how REAL TOUGH us conservatives are!
Tabatebainejad was subsequently charged with resisting/obstructing a police officer. He should have been charged with much worse than that.
What would The Right State have charged him with? Well, for starters it seems
(he) should have been charged with resisting arrest, inciting a riot along with the other charges.
The problem with this kind of blog junk is the fact that this is not about wether the student is a liberal or conservative. This is an important issue about privacy as well as law enforcement and the question of force. When should you be required to show proper identification? What does the constitution state? What have court cases determined?
The Right State wouldn’t hear any of that.
The USC police may have over-reacted…some, but only time and a full investigation by the University and campus police will decide the matter. But to say that Tabatebainejad did not deserve any of his treatment at the hands of the officers is to be truly blind to the actions of a student who would not cooperate with the campus police. Hopefully the administration of USC will not kowtow to the whims of a bunch of ignorant adolescent moonbats looking for ‘justice’ while they are calling the episode in the library ‘a disgusting abuse of police power.’ In the words of John Stossel, ‘Give me a break!’
What is more interesting the Red State never mentioned the case again. Could it be that the review had found police misconduct and that policies would require immediate review? Maybe. Maybe they just forgot.
We’ll just have to see what the reaction is from the blogs with this new case. Will we see more partisan mud slinging?