Police Brutality?

There's some stuff on the internet about a University of California student that was tasered by campus police because he didn't have his student ID with him and could not justify his presence in the student library. As I understand it, there is an 11 PM "curfew" at the student library at which time you must show your student ID or be asked to leave.

This is a pretty common practice and I remember that when my ex-wife was going to the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, they had an almost identical policy.

I was reading the LawDog and he has a great take on this and on the use of force in general. I will link to the post here. Take some time to read it over, very interesting.

I also found Chris Byrne's commentary outstanding. I will link to his post here.

I believe that both parties share equal fault here. I think that when a citizen is asked to leave a place, that he/she should do so. Why cause a problem if you don't have to? Sure, you may have a "right" to be there, but the people in control have a "right" to ask you to leave should your behavior become unacceptable. The same as in your own home, you may invite a person in, but you retain the right to request that that person leave should their behavior become unacceptable. It was unacceptable that this person could not produce an ID on request, the policy is well known and posted clearly. Why couldn't he just say, "damn, I forgot my ID, I'll go get it." and then leave without causing a bunch of fuss and bother? The old "if you don't start any sh, there won't be any it policy.

On the other hand, why the blue fuck did he need to be tasered 4 times? How many cops does it take to change a light bulb? Now, I couldn't see the video (which is on Chris Byrne's site) very well, but the person in question did say he was gonna leave, why not just say OK, leave now and this ends? Why not get him on the ground then have the 4 officers pick him up and carry him out? Tasered 4 times? You know that couldn't have been very much fun. I'm not a cop, but I've worked in security on and off for almost 10 years. I just don't get it, I think it was handled badly. Very badly and by both parties. No one is without some guilt here. The guy in question should have just left and the cops should have tasered him down and carried him out, there was no reason for this incident to go on as long as it did.