Breakin' All the Rules

As a person of Middle-Eastern descent, I was horrified and outraged last night when I saw this video of UCLA campus police repeatedly tasering an Iranian student. Frankly, I do not see how this could be considered an acceptable response to a student who was merely failed to produce identification during a random ID check in the library. (I’ll admit though, I found it sickeningly ironic that the officers refused to comply with students’ requests for their badge numbers). When students called for the officers to stop, they were told to stay back or they too would be tasered. After the six-minute camera phone clip had ended, I felt sick to my stomach.

At the same time however, I was excited by the possibilities that this tape presented. Could it end up being the Arab equivalent of the Rodney King tape? After all, the student had been attempting to comply with requests that he leave the library when he was shocked. To me, it was clearly an abuse of power, a hateful act that could only be explained by racism.

But my research into this topic has me depressed. Naturally, I went first to UCLA’s site for the university’s official take on the confrontation. First, there’s the statement released by Acting Chancellor Norman Abrams. It’s callously brief, and frustrating in its refusal to address the obvious questions that this incident raises. And then there’s the UCLA Police Department’s Official Report. I’ll just whet your appetite with this choice tidbit, “A crowd gathering around the officers and Tabatabainejad's [the student’s name is Mostafa Tabatabainejad] continued resistance made it urgent to remove Tabatabainejad from the area. The officers deemed it necessary to use the Taser in a ‘drive stun" capacity.’”

Feeling disheartened, I turned to the major news sources, finally drawing most of my information from the LA Times not only because there was little professional coverage on this issue when I first searched, but because I generally find them to be a reliable source. The first report classed this incident with other cell phone videos that showed “questionable arrest tactics.” It provides a summary of witness reports that Tabatabainejad was on his way out of the library when he ran up against the campus police. This made me angry, but kept me thinking that this tape could be used to unite the Arab community and discourage racial violence. The latest LATimes article’s headline speaks for itself: UCLA student stunned by Taser plans suit.

But reading the article, I realized that Arabs will have to wait before we have a chance to bring anti-Arab sentiment to the forefront. Why? Tabatabainejad refused to comply with the request that he provide ID because he felt he was being profiled. As his lawyer said:

Tabatabainejad, when asked for his ID after 11 p.m. Tuesday, declined because he thought he was being singled out because of his Middle Eastern appearance. Yagman [the lawyer] said Tabatabainejad is of Iranian descent but is a U.S.-born resident of Los Angeles.
The lawyer said Tabatabainejad eventually decided to leave the library but when an officer refused the student's request to take his hand off him, the student fell limp to the floor, again to avoid participating in what he considered a case of racial profiling. After police started firing the Taser, Tabatabainejad tried to "get the beating, the use of brutal force, to stop by shouting and causing people to watch."

In doing this, in resisting, he immediately changed his position from that of one who is purely the victim to the instigator of the event. From the first time I encountered anti-Arab sentiment, I learned that to get along in America as an Arab you need to keep your head down. Had Tabatabainejad followed this basic rule of survival, he would not have been abused. Because he failed to adhere to it, he cannot be our hero.