Quote:
Originally Posted by meglamaniac
This seems a pretty clear and extreme case of racial profiling to me.
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Not the case. Anyways I read this thread over on SA. That thread was mostly bullshit. There was however a couple of decent posts. I shall copy/paste one of them which sums up my position on this subject rather well.
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Man, there needs to be a little bit of empathy here.
From the students side: Its 11:30pm, theres only one reason to be in the library at 11:30pm, and thats because you're doing something important - that would usually be stressful. So a stressed, busy student gets told to leave for what is ultimately a trivial offence...bound to make anyone irritated, amplified by whatever stress and fatigue he's under.
I'm one of the mildest mannered guys you'll ever meet, and I've flipped out given the right combinations of stress, fatigue, illness and external asshattery. You can't say you'd be perfect examples of logical citizen compliance 100% of the time - even if this guy is an asshole with a much shorter fuse than he has right to have, everyone does have a flipout point.
So he takes his time, dawdles, makes noise, whatever - but he's heading for the exit. Campus cops stop and harrass an already stressed person (I say 'harrass' because theres no reason to physically escort someone from a building they're already leaving) so he has a few choice words for them - though nobody ever mentions a physical threat. He doesn't expect the campus cops to taser him if he's not providing that physical threat.
From the campus cops side: They get a call from the library about some guy refusing to leave. From the time I spent in security, what they got from comms was two or three words and some sort of "**** off" phrase...the bare minimum detail. They arrive in, the librarian points out the student, they still don't know whats going on except that the librarian is concerned with the guy's behaviour. So they stop and try to question him - reach out to stop him, get a "Don't ****ing touch me!" and a huge bit of non-compliance. Its late, nobody's at their best at 11:30pm, they have no idea if the guy's actually gonna flip out, they draw taser and threaten, then fire. Crowd starts to gather, pressure's on, guy's still being noncompliant, so they threaten him again.
Letter of the Law (as I understand it, IANAL): (1) Student was in the library without ID - librarian has every right to order him out. (2) No physical force is to be used by the campus cops unless making an arrest and/or enforcing a Tresspass. (3) (Dunno if this is written in Law, wouldn't surprise me if not) Tasers are to be used only as a deterrent where there is threat of injury to the officer, not as a tool for forced compliance.
My personal opinion: Dude was being an asshat, but understandably so, judging from the time, place, and nature of the 'offence'. Use of the Taser was not justified, tresspass was, arrest - maybe. I hope the campus cops get the nuts sued off them for excessive force where none was really necessary.