UCLA, and why people hate cops

So, if you haven't heard anything about this, here's the story and video. I don't know what happened to start this incident, but even in the event that a first tasering was justified (and let's just say I'm pretty skeptical), the other five were clearly unwarranted.

This is clearly torture in my book. My book, meaning the dictionary: 'the act of inflicting excruciating pain, as punishment or revenge, as a means of getting a confession or information, or for sheer cruelty'. They were using excruciating pain, and the threat thereof, to punish and compel action from a person who presented no immediate danger.

I can't help but wonder whether this is a indication of the broader national climate (actually having to have a genuine debate about torture is sick enough). Are these cops going to plead the 'dick cheney said it was ok' defense? After all, if repeatedly electrocuting a man with 50,000 volts is a reasonable way to get someone to stand up, surely we can do even nastier things to extract important intel from possible terrorists/drug-lords/enron execs.

Lastly, I'm amused that the UCPD chief kept referring to them as 'peace officers' in his interview. Clearly, these men had no interest in peace. They did nothing whatsoever to diffuse the situation, opting rather to escalate it. What the hell do they teach people in police academy? Isn't there something in there about actually trying to fix situations? We heard 'stand up!' shouted about 50 times, but not once do we see any indication of a rational approach to ending the situation without violence.

If an officer can't be angry at someone and still be able to respond coolly & effectively, and treat the 'perp' with civility & basic respect; then he/she has ceased to be a cop. If a cop is a slave to his own adrenalin and anger, then he has become a vigilante with a badge.