After Protests, A Defense Of Our Boys In UC Blue

The recent Taser incident at UCLA has incited strong opinions from campus communities, most of them angry at the UC Police Department. But at least one aspect of the incident can be put in perspective through an analogy to a less serious infringement.

Imagine you return to your car or Vespa after a fine meal at your Southside eatery of choice, and find a $40 parking ticket waiting for you on your windshield. Annoying, but certainly not a jailable offense, right?

You ignore the ticket and the fine, and go along your merry way. You keep on getting notices and bigger fines and a couple other parking tickets over the next month. You ignore each and every one: After all, it’s a free country, and you should be able to park wherever you want without discrimination.

All of this is fine until a cop car sees your license plate number, tows your car, and tosses you in the local jail. Refuse to pay your fine? Then, under normal conditions in most states, in jail you shall stay.

Does this course of events constitue an abuse of power by the state? Locking you up and impounding your car simply because your meter expired? There’s your Patriot Act! There’s your abuse of power!

Of course, this hypothetical situation, drawn to parallel the unfortunate uproar brought about by the repeated Tasering of Mostafa Tabatabainejad on the UCLA campus on November 14, is not the same as the original incident. But it is instructive nonetheless.

Advocates of Tabatabainejad (including around 100 Berkeley students who stormed Sproul Hall on November 20) paint a picture of a sadistic, faceless police force who mercilessly torture innocent minorities to get their jollies, but this is simply not fair to the UCPD who serve and protect us. This portrayal most egregiously fails to emphasize one key point: Tabatabainejad did not have permission to be where he was (a minor offense not unlike a parking ticket) and repeatedly and belligerently defied requests to leave.

Tangentially, there are many who insist that he was in the process of leaving, but this forces one to consider the circumstances: If he were indeed leaving, officers would not fire their Tasers, as the thing they want most is for him to leave, since it means less energy, risk, and paperwork for them.

Those who assume and even declare with little to no evidence (the video is entirely inconclusive, and eyewitness reports are conflicting) that the police acted as Tabatabainejad was leaving are throwing these officers in a kangaroo court with no way out. Despite all the furor over desecration of the Bill of Rights by the UCPD, these officers should enjoy the same privilege as the victim. They are guilty until proven innocent.

Returning to the topic, Tabatabainejad repeatedly refused to leave when asked to do so by library staff and UCPD. Along the way, he disturbed the peace, obstructed a peace officer and goodness knows what else. To claim cruel and unusual punishment in this instance is akin to complaining about jail time for a parking ticket.

If Tabatabainejad had gone through the doors of Powell Library at any point before the officers’ Tasers went off (and no one can argue that he did not have numerous opportunities), there would have been no incident. UCLA provisions allow for the use of Tasers on noncombative suspects if they are potentially dangerous, which Tabatabainejad, without the gift of hindsight, may have appeared to be.

If the Tasers were as powerful and dangerous as many student protestors assert, then Tabatabainejad would be unconscious, much less unable to spout off rhetoric on the Patriot Act.

Such as it was, the energy it must take to make such political statements in the moment could have been diverted to such monumental expenditures such as standing up when officers tell you to.

Furthermore, few have bothered to consider the alternatives available to the officers that night. They are far from harmless. Pepper spray? Nightsticks? Dragging Tabatabainejad out kicking and screaming, potentially injuring him, the officers, and the largely belligerent contingent of student bystanders? And on a side note, officers aren’t required to give their badge numbers to anyone outside of the actual person being arrested/subdued.

People must realize that the activism that made Berkeley such a great place must be tempered by a thorough evaluation of both sides of the issue. Let’s not throw these officers under the bus to sate our need to be self-righteously politically correct just yet. They aren’t always the bad guys.

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