today.ucla.edu — Earlier this month, the UC Police Department at UCLA held its first annual recognition event to hand out numerous awards including - get this - "The Meritorious Service/Taser Award". This event took place just several weeks before today's news and video of reportedly excessive use of tasers on a student at a UCLA library. 3rd award down on page.
Nov 16, 2006 View in Crawl 4
pwozneyNov 17, 2006
Absolutely. I'm in with homer and martalli - if a cop tells you to do something then it is best to do it and take your lawyer to them later. You could probably have some reasonable success representing yourself in court, if the cops had nothing on you and you weren't acting in a threatening manner.Cops deal with some really crazy people and if you appear crazy they will have to subdue you and figure it out later. Admittedly, the UCLA video is hideous and a gross misuse of power, but that kid should have shut up; instead he continues to shout insults (however warranted) at the cops.Definitely the UCLA incident is an terrible misuse of the technology and the cops should be reprimanded; but at least this kid can live to tell his story. If it was a gun, clubs or their fists the cops were using he might not be around today.
yez70Nov 17, 2006
Rewarding people for the use of force is idiotic. It compells others to 'strive' to win the award which also leads to serious lack of judgement in most cases - such as this one. What's next? An nobel prize for the effective use of a nuclear weapon? Yea, why not? Screw intelligence and diplomacy.The award should be given for effective use of non-forceful measures instead. That would be a far higher honor and accomplishment.
peppermintpigNov 17, 2006
Your books are past due! TAZER FOR YOU!!! Heh.. just imagine all the different ways tazers will be used by rewarding the use of force.
lunacy182Nov 17, 2006
People need to read the article and not just the title. The title is very misleading. He is being awarded for using non lethal force, when lethal force could have been used. He went the better of the 2 routes and is being rewarded for not shooting and killing the patient. Oh and this article has nothing to do with the kid that didn't have an ID. A lot of people seem to think it does.
swizzleyNov 17, 2006
@ John184"If a cop threatens to uses a weapon to force compliance with a command that is called Assault"This is not even remotely true. If I (as an identified police officer) am dealing with someone and I give them an order - and they fail to comply, force will be used. It could range almost anywhere on the use of force continuum from open hands (grabbing, pushing) all the way up to an impact weapon (baton) or less-lethal (taser, bean bag gun, etc.) depending on the amount of resistance the suspect chooses to use. A police officer always maintains one level of force above the suspect to remain in control of the situation. A level above or below that would be innaproiate and dangerous for the suspect and officer.I've been trained on several different models of the taser (and received a five second "exposure"). It's not something you ever want to experience, but much better than getting shot. In this article officer's were rewarded for using the taser as a "less lethal" option when it appears lethal force would have been reasonable.
aukxsonaNov 17, 2006
Next they'll hand out awards for most criminals shot before trial!
oracle95Nov 17, 2006
You know he is, his lawyer probably had the paperwork all ready the day before the incident happened. This thing was staged, plain and simple.
oracle95Nov 17, 2006
That's no way to talk about Muslims who'd rather stage a protest and a lawsuit rather than look for a job and earn a living.
managoreNov 18, 2006
HahahaOh wait you're serious :/