By Jessica Reed
Yesterday a UCLA student named Mostafa Tabatabainejad was publicly and repeatedly tasered in the heart of the University's library for not having or wanting to show ID. The whole scene, which was filmed by many students, can be seen on YouTube. The video is quite terrifying - especially its beginning when everybody seem to watch silently, up until the end where students start to openly question police officers, asking them for the badges and names. The story is largely written about in the blogosphere.
If the details are still blurry -many say the Patriot Act has little to do with it, even if the student mentionned it out loud before being tasered, and the Act has specific recommendations concerning public libraries- the fact that the video was online shortly after the incident happened is fascinating. With the gigantic potential of sites like youtube, are we witnessing a new form of spontaneous reportage quickly universally accessible?
