Note: You can read the full account and get the link to the video
here. I believe that this would even be considered torture by Alberto Gonzales.
I have written a letter to the Chancellor of UCLA and to the Department of Justice (as they were the only ones with an email address I could find) concerning the torture of Mostafa Tabatabainejad at the hands of the University Police.
The incident that occurred in the Powell library on the evening of November 14, 2006 is a clear act of abuse of power and to allow the very same police department responsible for the mistreatment, abuse and torture of a student to conduct the investigation is like asking a murder to investigate his own crime and determine his guilt or innocence.
We, the members of the Ancient Apostolic Communion, demand that you solicit the help of outside organizations to investigate this situation. The FBI, the Department of Justice, the California Bureau of Investigation, the California Attorney General as well as state and local authorities should investigate this egregious abuse of power and the wholesale torture of a student.
To single out a student that was of Middle-Eastern decent was a black mark against what should be a fine learning establishment. To taser him 6 times while he was attempting to leave the library was torture and should be dealt with in a swift and severe action. All the police employed by the University that were involved in this incident and those that threatened, on camera, to taser students for asking for their badge numbers, should be immediately fired.
We are also calling for the dismissal of the Chief of the University Police for the fact that they failed to train or to insure that their officers had been trained in the use of force. No, I repeat, no law enforcement agency would authorize the use of a taser against a subject more than twice in a half hour. Any more than that can lead to heart failure or stroke. In case you are unaware, that means they could die.
The fact that this student survived does not absolve the University of its responsibility in this matter. We will be requesting that the FBI, the Department of Justice, California Bureau of Investigation, and the California Attorney General look into this matter.
And finally, because of a lack of solid leadership in the matter and for allowing the criminals to judge their own actions, we call on the University board to remove Acting Chancellor Norman Abrams. His refusal to meet this situation with the leadership and backbone necessary to resolve this act of racial profiling and the subsequent abuse, torture and threatening of students is appalling. He does not deserve to run such a prestigious school.
UCLA should be an institution of higher learning. It should be a place that parents feel safe sending their young adult children to for education. But this incident has destroyed the good name of UCLA and the lack of leadership and decisive action in this case has made sure that any hopes of repairing that image are gone.
We will be posting this letter on our websites and we will be requesting that prospective students look elsewhere for an institute of higher education.
I urge you all to write letters to the Acting Chancellor of UCLA as well as the Department of Justice. You can find the addresses at the end of this blog.
Such an act of abuse of power as well as torture of another human being is horrendous. What makes it worse is that they singled out a Middle-Eastern man and decided that despite the fact that he was cooperating, they would taser him 6 times anyway (one of those times in his rear end as they carried him down the stairs). And the Acting Chancellor's statement yesterday makes it clear that he believes they did nothing wrong and that the student was to blame for the situation. I guess it was his fault he was Middle-Eastern and it was his fault the shot him with a taser 6 times.
We already have a place that is in charge of such torture of Middle-Eastern folks and their sympathizers, it is called Gitmo. Now we have a west coast branch called UCLA.
Please email these people and let them know that we are not happy with their actions and that we want a quick response to this situation. (Please remember to be kind and courteous when emailing these people.)
Acting Chancellor of UCLA: cstogsdill@support.ucla.edu
Department of Justice: AskDOJ@usdoj.gov (For some reason Kos won't let me use the mailto on this address. Sorry.)