Update: FWIW, I just called the Chancellor’s office at UCLA and the Office of the President of the University of California to register my disgust. Here is the contact information, which I got from the lengthy Metafilter thread:

Interim Chancellor Norman Abrams
Telephone: 310-825-2151
Fax: 310-206-6030
Email: chancellor@conet.ucla.edu

President's Desk
UC Office of the President
1111 Franklin St., 12th floor
Oakland, CA 94607-5200
(510) 987-9074
Fax: (510) 987-9086

And below is the text of the email that I just sent to the UCLA Chancellor <chancellor@conet.ucla.edu> and UC President, Robert Dynes <robert.dynes@ucop.edu>:

Dear Chancellor Abrams and President Dynes,

I have read Chancellor Abrams’ statement on the tasering of the student in the UCLA library this week. I think that statement is wholly inadequate.

I am not aware if Chancellor Dynes has made a statement at this point. The UCOP website home page shows no evidence of any such statement. I am beginning to suspect that, had the event not been videotaped and put on the Internet by courageous UCLA students, the University would have been entirely silent on the incident.

As a librarian at Colorado College, and a former librarian at UCSD, I think the University leadership needs to make a much stronger statement that they will not accept police brutality at UC campuses; that the use of a taser on a non-violent subject is excessive in the extreme; and that the officers involved will be immediately suspended pending a thorough, fair investigation.

I have great respect and affection for the University of California, but I am extremely disappointed by the lack of leadership you have shown in this case.

Sincerely,

Steve Lawson, Humanities Librarian

Wired Campus points to the YouTube video and several news stories about UCLA cops repeatedly using a taser on a student who wasn’t following their instructions.

The video is appalling. My favorite part is right near the end when the pig tells a student bystander that if he doesn’t back up, he’s going to get tased, too.

I wonder what I would do if I were on duty when something like this happened in my library (though the idea of our college security getting tough with someone is pretty comical). Call the real police? That might just make things worse. Call the director, certainly. Grab the library camera and get photos of all the officers involved?