The UCLA senior hired a high-profile civil rights lawyer who is accusing the campus police of “brutal excessive force,” as well as false arrest. Mostafa Tabatabainejad, 23, is of Iranian descent but U.S.-born, and had refused the officers’ request to see his campus ID because he thought they were racially profiling him.
Watch the video of Tabatabainejad being Tasered. As of Friday, it has been viewed over 300,000 times.
Los Angeles Times:
The UCLA student stunned with a Taser by a campus police officer has hired a high-profile civil rights lawyer who plans to file a brutality lawsuit.
The videotaped incident, which occurred after the student refused requests to show his ID card to campus officers, triggered widespread debate on and off campus Thursday about whether use of the Taser was warranted. It was the third in a recent series of local incidents captured on video that raise questions about arrest tactics.
Attorney Stephen Yagman said he plans to file a federal civil rights lawsuit accusing the UCLA police of “brutal excessive force,” as well as false arrest. The lawyer also provided the first public account of the Tuesday night incident at UCLA’s Powell Library from the student, Mostafa Tabatabainejad, a 23-year-old senior.