Greetings from Italy!

This has been a wild week so far. I've been here for 5 days or something and this is the first chance I've had to sit and write something. Its also the first place I've had internet at the hotel. We're in Florence right now, just got in last night from Siena. We're at a cute little Bed & Breakfast in the heart of the city. There is an amazing view: there's actually a beautiful old church across the street, right outside our window. Incredible.

Siena was awesome. I completely fell in love with that city. Its so cute and nice and...medieval. It was built a long long time ago by the Etruscans so its very different from the Roman cities of Florence and Rome. It used to be huge (over 200,000 people) a long time ago, but when the black plague came through it wiped out over 90% of the population and it hasn't really started building back up since the Marshall Plan gave it lots of money after WWII.

Wow, I just had to stop writing for a second because the church bells across the street started ringing...awesome! I shot a little video of it on Mad's camera, hopefully it comes out.

Anyway, so Siena is this awesome Tuscan city that's just oozing with character and history. You'll have to see the pictures to get a better idea. I wandered around there for hours upon hours while Madeline was in class and I had a great time.

Before that, we spent a day in Rome, since I flew in Saturday night. It was cool, but incredibly warm (80 degrees, at least). I was worried because I had brought lots of cold weather clothing and it was so hot! We saw some of the staple things, including the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, the Pantheon and St. Peter's Square (we were a little late and walked up at the end of the Pope's address to the masses, he did tell us to have a good week though, which is close to a blessing, right?

Before that I spent some time in London's Heathrow Airport, which was, well, ugly. We did circle around the city for 20 minutes or so before landing and that was awesome. I think London is next on my list.

I'm downloading pictures from the camera right now and we've taken close to 250 so far. I'll weed through those and post some good ones.

Well, breakfast is calling, gotta go!

Tasertastic!

If you're following this whole UCPD Taser incident, there've been a few updates. The Daily Bruin now has video of the event (warning: the file is over 50 megs, I highly recommend downloading it first). Also, the UCPD released a statement, which can be found in PDF on their web site.

Aside from the disturbing audio and video imagery in the various videos of this encounter, I find the UCPD's response almost as bad. I pulled a few quotes from the report to show you the "logic" employed by the department...

"As the officers attempted to escort him out, he went limp and continued to refuse to cooperate with officers or leave the building."
...
" The officers deemed it necessary to use the Taser in a 'drive stun' capacity." (that's where they jab you with it and zap you, instead of shooting you from afar)
...
"A Taser is used to incapacitate subjects who are resistant by discharging an electronic current into the subject"

Also, from another article on the DB website, "according to a study published in the Lancet Medical Journal in 2001, a charge of three to five seconds can result in immobilization for five to 15 minutes."

So, they deemed it was necessary to incapacitate a person who went limp? I guess immobilization is a proper response for not moving? I'm baffled.

The best part (or worst), is when a kid at then end demands the badge number from the tasering cop, who points and says "if you don't get back over there you're gonna get tased too." That second article points out that a cop threatening somebody who asks for their identification is criminal assault. Way to go UCPD.

I guess we'll see where this all goes from here. I'll keep y'all posted.

Fun with Tasers!

As you may have heard, a student was tasered a couple of times by UCPD officers in the CLICC Lab in Powell Library around 11:30 last night.

If you haven't read the article, the Daily Bruin broke the story sometime this morning. Pretty crazy stuff.

Now, this is the sort of thing we Angelinos have come to expect from the LAPD. I've heard LAPD officers defend themselves saying that going into dangerous neighborhoods late at night can really put you on edge and make you less tolerant of threatening behavior. I never thought about it, but maybe UCPD has to deal with the same thing. Granted, we don't really have "dangerous areas" on campus, but maybe all of those late night studiers at the CLICC Lab, overcome with stress from midterms and upcoming term papers looked a little on edge that night, and maybe Mr. Tabatabainejad's requests to be let go while he was walking out the door were more aggressive than the DB article made it sound. Regardless, I'm pretty sure that "excessive force" would be an accurate term in this case. As a friend of mine commented this morning, I'm guessing there are going to be a few openings at UCPD after today.

Coincidentally, at the UCPD's first annual recognition event last week, an officer was awarded the aptly titled "Meritorious Service/Taser Award." Maybe the officer involved last night was hoping to get it next year.

Oooh, I just found that NBC4 has a video from that night taken with a digital camera. You don't see too much, but the audio is pretty disturbing. You can check it out here. And whoever out there has that video, YouTube is awaiting your submission.

Federal Agencies and Mid-90s Rap Stars

On Tuesday I endured one of the most excruciatingly boring experiences of my life. I waited for close to two hours in the Passport Agency office with no phone, no book and just a muted TV mounted to the wall 30 feet away showing CNN for entertainment. I proved my naivete about Federal Agencies when I assumed this would be a quick trip. I mean, I did have an appointment, after all. Apparently, so did the other 50 people who were there with me. It wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't had to leave my cell phone in the car (no cameras in the building). Living in LA, it seems like a useful tool to have around, you know, in case you happen to see somebody you might recognize from TV or something. Of course, with the exception of the guy from "Dukes of Hazard" (the TV show) stuck in traffic next to me on PCH that one day, I have never experienced this culturally pervasive circumstance...until now.

Like I said though, I didn't have my phone to snap a picture, so now I have no proof of this momentous occasion. I mean, its not every day you see one of your Top Ten Favorite Mid-90's Rap Stars. That's right, I saw Artis Leon Ivey, Jr. at the Passport office. Well, you probably know him better as Coolio. You do remember Coolio, right? Gangster's Paradise? Keenan & Kel theme song?? Guy with the gravity defying corn rows?! Yeah, I knew the hair would tip you off...that's what clued me in. At first I was skeptical. I thought, "come on, if it really was Coolio, would he actually be sporting the crazy hair, just to turn in his passport application?" Then I realized "wait, who else would ever walk around with hair like that, but Coolio?"

And I don't want to get into any sociological issues about LA culture and its celebrity worship, but I couldn't help noticing that the lime-green-clad wash-up did arrive 30 minutes later than I and get his number called at least 45 minutes earlier. Ah well, I just want to know if the good folks at the Kinko's passport photo counter were able to fit all that hair in the picture and still maintain the State Department's exacting standards for passport photos.