"Here's your Patriot Act!"

Just in case you thought everything was peachy now that the "good guys" won the election last week...

You may have seen clips of this on your local news yesterday, but it doesn't even get at the impact of the full seven minute video:



Briefly: A UCLA student who "just happened to look Middle-Eastern" was asked for his ID while studying in the Powell Library. He did not have it with him, and so was asked to leave. He took his time packing up his stuff, but was on his way out when the campus police returned and grabbed him by the arm. He said he was leaving and asked to be un-handed.

Then they tazed him. Repeatedly. Once he was on the floor, completely incapacitated, the police demanded that he stand up. When he was unable to stand (yes, repeated tazings can make it impossible to stand for about 15 minutes), they tazed him several more times.

Bystanders who asked for the cop's badge numbers were told to shut up or they'd be tazed.

Read about the incident in UCLA's student paper, the Daily Bruin.

Why I love technology: A cellphone camera and a YouTube account brought this abuse of power direct to the public. Without it, the incident would have been a back-page local story about a few college students "claiming" that the police were rude.

As long as we've got our tech-toys, the fascists can't win.