(no subject)

This is a UCLA student, working in a library. An Iranian student, asked to show his ID, believed he was being racially profiled and refused to comply. The officers reaction to that was to taser him FIVE TIMES, handcuff him, and eventually carry him out of the building.

(references: UCLA newspaper, CNN. Facts clearly compiled with an eyewitness account here.)

god damn. this isn't the first time the LA police has had trouble. In this video from July 8, I'm less sure what's going on, but what I see is pretty straight forward. The video starts out with a woman screaming "He's mentally retarded!" as police take away someone, can't see who. Then, a policeman on a bike runs over two people, a white woman and a hispanic man. The police club the two, knocking them over. (watch the slow motion version.) They struggle slightly and are clubbed repeatedly. They are lying totally still and an officer strikes them again. This is the only news reference I could find. Here is the court report from the organization who was in charge of the protest the victims were attending. Clearly, possibility for bias is almost certain, but the facts seem pretty straight forward. Another site, here says the police were seen chatting and laughing with the Minutemen on the other side of the street, the group the protest was opposing, just prior to breaking out in violence. That site also calls the Minutemen "facists" and is clearly biased, so take that with a grain of salt.

There's also this video, which has received a little more coverage. The man, William Cardenas, was accused of robbery. What happens is this: two policemen are pinning him to the ground, one straddling him and the other with a knee to the neck. Throughout the clip, Cardenas is saying/trying to say "I can't breathe! Can't breathe!". The policeman with his knee on his neck punches him, unprovoked, after he's clearly restrained, five times in the face

god bless america, land of the free.