Student Tasering at Kerry Q&A

[MosesPresley]

I can't possibly be the first to start a thread on this. Could someone please give me the link?

If I am well...

[Wiglaf]

Brat deserved it.

[Aeson]

[Wiglaf]

He cries like a little baby.

[Aeson]

He should have offered Kerry his credit card.

[VetLegion]

Originally posted by Aeson
He should have offered Kerry his credit card.

QFT.

[Wiglaf]

[Aeson]

His full question(s):

[Agathon]

Yeah, because people should always be tortured if they go over the limit in question time. The next time a congressman protests at being cut off when trying to finish his question, he should be dragged out by six cops and tasered.

As usual, the Poly fascists are all for torturing citizens.

If you watch the whole video, it's clear that this guy was trying to get in three questions right at the end of the session. One was about the election being stolen, and one was about skull & bones, and I can't remember what the other one was, but it was similarly innocuous. Kerry said he was happy to answer the questions, and started to do so. For some reason, the police started to grab this guy and then cut off his mike, which made him angry.

The guy was 100% right to resist the police grabbing him. He wasn't breaking the law. He was asking a question, which the person in control of answering the questions (Kerry) was happy to answer. He was also 100% right to be pissed off. If Kerry had refused to answer the question due to time constraints and this guy had created a ruckus and demanded that he answer them anyway, then I can see a case for restraining him.

But that's not what happened.

They are dragging him away for asking questions which the questioned person is happy to answer. I've been to dozens of events just like this one, and occasionally questions go over time and people get obstreperous, but I have never seen the cops drag someone who was asking a question away.

It's not like the guy was ranting and raving at Kerry. He was asking questions that Kerry wanted to answer. For that his civil rights get violated. I don't blame him. Any reasonable person would be mad as hell at being treated like that.

And of course the ****ing pigs have to overreact by tasering the guy. How on earth can you justify tasering someone when there are six cops holding him down. Tasering is unnecessary in that situation. In a better context, the crowd would have beaten the **** out of the police (Lord knows they deserve it sometimes).

They really need to ban the taser. It sounds like a good idea, but it is just open to too much abuse like this.

[Kuciwalker]

As usual, the Poly fascists are all for torturing citizens.

[Wiglaf]

Taser is better than beating him unconscious.

He did not just go over time. He essentially told the female cop to **** off when she told him to ask a question instead of just ranting. That pissed the police off and was probably a minor infraction that could definitely warrant being removed from the facility. Then his actions are just inexcusable. If a cop puts his or her arm on you and you start screaming and squealing and shoving them away, you have broken the law and deserve a day in the clink.

His stunt at the very least disturbed the peace and the administrative function of a school event, which is a misdemeanor.

[Wezil]

His settlement money is going to be sweeeettt.

[Agathon]

Here's what Kerry said.

In 37 years of public appearances, through wars, protests and highly emotional events, I have never had a dialogue end this way. I believe I could have handled the situation without interruption, but again I do not know what warnings or other exchanges transpired between the young man and the police prior to his barging to the front of the line and their intervention. I asked the police to allow me to answer the question and was in the process of answering him when he was taken into custody. I was not aware that a taser was used until after I left the building. I hope that neither the student nor any of the police were injured. I regret enormously that a good healthy discussion was interrupted.

In other words, Kerry said... WTF!?!?!


From the UF student newspaper

By Editorial Staff

We are in utter disbelief about the events at Sen. John Kerry's speech Monday afternoon. It doesn't matter if we agree with Andrew Meyer's opinions, if he should have been led away from a microphone at the speech or even if he should have been arrested.

We do not believe University Police Department officers should have used a Taser on a student who was not seriously endangering another person.

We've seen video of the incident - it's all over the Internet - and nothing leads us to believe this student should have been Tasered, especially in an auditorium full of students and a U.S. senator.

Some will say this incident could have been prevented if Meyer had allowed UPD to escort him out of the auditorium. Some will say it could have been prevented if Kerry hadn't allowed Meyer to ask his question once the Q&A portion of the forum was over.

We aren't here to debate whether Meyer should have been arrested or even asked to leave, but Meyer was unarmed and he wasn't threatening to harm anyone. Annoying students, maybe. Some audience members cheered when police attempted to lead Meyer away from the microphone.

But some also screamed for the police to stop when officers began Tasering him.

In November 2006, a student was Tasered by University of California-Los Angeles police in an event that sparked outrage from people around the nation. The student was asked to show his student ID in a library computer lab. When he didn't, police started to drag him out of the building. His resistance led to the officers using a Taser on him.

It's impossible UPD didn't know about that event. It's impossible it wouldn't have affected UPD's rules regarding the use of Tasers.

And now UF can expect backlash similar to what UCLA experienced. We wouldn't be surprised if this doesn't attract lawsuits and bad publicity. Potential students might think, "Go to UF, get Tasered? No, thank you."

Tasers can be an extremely useful tool for police officers, but like anything that could cause pain, it's a tool that must be used sparingly, only when absolutely necessary. As Spider-Man and his uncle said, "With great power comes great responsibility."

That doesn't apply just to cartoon superheroes.

What does this mean for Accent, which sponsored Kerry's speech? If an event with Kerry - with his longwinded statements and a monotone voice that is enough to lull us to sleep - warrants a police unit and sparks the biggest controversy, what does this mean for already-controversial speakers such as Dr. Jack Kevorkian, who is scheduled to speak next month? The speech has students riled up and there's still a month before Kevorkian comes. Will Accent bring in attack dogs and tear gas to keep protestors at bay? We're sure it won't come to that, but no one expected this either.

One thing we do know is Accent cannot censor itself because of this event. It cannot forbid future Q&A segments with speakers. It cannot fear backlash. Accent is not at fault for Monday's events --- we cannot stress that enough.

UPD's actions are inexcusable and out of line. It owes an apology not just to Andrew Meyer, but also to all of UF. We must be able to trust those who are supposed to protect us. We should not have to fear them.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Wiglaf
Taser is better than beating him unconscious.

He did not just go over time. He essentially told the female cop to **** off when she told him to ask a question instead of just ranting. That pissed the police off and was probably a minor infraction that could definitely warrant being removed from the facility. Then his actions are just inexcusable. If a cop puts his or her arm on you and you start screaming and squealing and shoving them away, you have broken the law and deserve a day in the clink.

One part of the English common law that hasn't made its way to much of the US is the right to resist an unlawful arrest.

"Pissing the police off" is not justification for an arrest. Breaking the law is. There is no evidence that this man was breaking the law.

His stunt at the very least disturbed the peace and the administrative function of a school event, which is a misdemeanor.

Bull****. Kerry was answering his questions. Some disturbance.

[Wiglaf]

UF is a school full of idiots, so it's not surprising the editorial staff seems to be too. I like how their article quotes Spiderman.

If a kid barged to the front of the line to ramble a list of questions despite the Q&A period being over, and if he resisted police efforts to make him stop, then he deserved what he got. He was interrupting a school function (yes that is illegal), disturbing the public (also illegal) and finally resisting verbal warnings and physical attempts at arrest (you guessed it -- illegal).

The cops can't wrestle with the kid forever.