UCLA authorities use force to remove student from library

Shahreen Saifi Staff Writer

On Nov. 14, a student was discovered in the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Powell Library without his student identification, and University of California Police Department (UCPD) officers were called to escort the student outside. Powell Library policy dictates that only students are permitted in the Library after 11 p.m., and random checks are conducted after this time to ensure that the rule is followed. When Mostafa Tabatabainejad ’07 took longer than the authorities thought was necessary to leave the premises, the UCPD officers used Tasers to force him out.

After a short physical struggle between the student and the officer, during which the student repeatedly yelled “Get off me!” the officer shot Tabatabainejad with a Taser. The student fell to the floor and informed the officers that he had a medical condition. However, Tabatabainejad was shot with a Taser at least three more times, one of them, eyewitnesses reported, even after he had been handcuffed.

Tasers are electro-shock guns that fire small dart-like electrodes that embed in the skin and muscle tissue, impairing muscle and nerve function. Amnesty International has documented over 150 cases of death resulting from Taser use, leading some civil liberties groups to question the device’s ethical implications.

A video taken on a UCLA student’s camera phone reveals that Tabatabainejad was on the floor for most of the struggle, including when the officers told him to stand up and shot him with a Taser.

When bystanders protested and demanded the officers’ badge numbers, they were met with resistance. One student reported that when she asked an officer for identification he threatened her saying that she would “get Tased too.”

This incident at UCLA has prompted discussion at other colleges about policies on public restrictions to campus resources, such as libraries and computer clusters.

Vassar’s library visitor policy is that non-students are not permitted to enter the building after 5 p.m. Like UCLA, Vassar also makes use of random checks after hours to ensure that there are not any non-students in the library.

“We have a very safe campus and sufficient staffing to maintain our presence on campus,” said Director of Security Don Marsala. “We ask the entire community to be alert for any suspicious behaviors and report any incidents that might affect the safety of the campus to us immediately. We’re hopeful that anyone using the library will do the same.”

Although nothing as extreme as the UCLA incident has occurred at Vassar, there have been a number of incidents in the library in which Security had to be called.

In two of the cases, students in the Library called Security when they saw something that struck them as strange. “In one case, the person was a student at another area college studying. He was unaware of our policy and left without incident,” said Marsala.

The second time, a girl saw a suspicious male in the Library. By the time Security reached the Library, he had already left.

As for possible effects of the UCLA incident on Vassar Security rules regarding enforcement, Marsala said, “We haven’t changed any policies because of the UCLA incident. We constantly appraise our policies and make changes when appropriate and with the best interests of the College in mind.”