Reply #22: He has a Constitutional right to protest peacefully.

[athena]

As the fourth and fifth paragraphs of the article explain, the student refused to show his ID because he felt he was being picked on because of his Middle-Eastern appearance. (Can you put yourself in his place and imagine what it must be like to be an American male of Middle-Eastern descent in post-9/11 America?) It's clear from the video that he was disturbed about his rights not being respected. He wasn't threatening anyone physically. Tasers were completely unnecessary and were used only to humiliate the student. It's not the job of the police to humiliate and punish. Their job was to protect the very person they were electrocuting.

Here is the wikipedia entry on civil disobedience:

In seeking an active form of civil disobedience, one may choose to deliberately break certain laws, such as by forming a peaceful blockade or occupying a facility illegally. Protesters practice this non-violent form of civil disorder with the expectation that they will be arrested, or even attacked or beaten by the authorities. Protesters often undergo training in advance on how to react to arrest or to attack, so that they will do so in a manner that quietly or limply resists without threatening the authorities.