Tasers and Free Speech

A few months ago I saw a very shocking video of a UCLA student being tasered by the police in a library. He screamed for help repeatedly, continued to be tased, and was tased some more when he tried to get on his feet. It was truly sick and was uncomfortable to watch.

Yesterday, Andrew Meyer, a UF student, was tased by campus police while he was asking questions of Senator Kerry at a forum. While the UCLA spectacle oozed of police brutality and over reaching, the only thing I could think of when I watched the video of Meyer was, "this kid is an idiot". Meyer getting tased came up at work today; some were defending his freedom of speech and based on a sampling of youtube comments a lot of people are concerned about his freedom of speech.

What about his freedom of speech? Meyer walked from the back of the line to the front, walked up to the mic and began asking Kerry why he did not contest the 2004 election and if he was a member of Skull and Bones. (What is the relevance of the fraternity question? Kerry gave up the job of PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES because he was in competition with his secret society frat brother? That's beyond reasonable. ) The moderator made the signal to cut his mic and asked the police to escort him out. The interesting question is why they chose to haul him away at that moment, why didn't they do it when he first skipped to the front of the line? There were better ways of handling the situation than asking him to be removed. When you ask tough/stupid questions, do you forfeit your free speech? Are you entering the bounds of the riot act and disturbing the peace? Although I sympathize with Meyer's politics, I don't think he actually wanted to ask Kerry a question, it was more a rhetorical statement that Kerry was a douche, in question form, like on Jeopardy. Still. He should have been heard and Kerry should have been allowed to respond, sans the screaming and Conspiracy Theory paranoia.

The other independent event is Meyer's getting tased. In this case, I think the officers were well within their bounds to tase him. His mic was cut, they thought he was a threat/disturbance, AND he was resisting arrest. While officers had him in custody, he was still flailing around trying to escape. Even after they had him on the floor in an attempt to handcuff him he was still squirming around. Guilty or innocent, that can be proven later, why wouldn't you just let the police calmly take you away. You can't scream out, "why are you arresting me, help me help me, don't tase me bro", while trying to escape from police officers, pushing them, and flailing around.

Meyers' story gets even crazier when he is brought down the stairs and the officers try to calm him down and have him take deep breaths. He asks those witnesses to ask about his whereabouts as it is his belief that "they're giving me to the government... they are going to try and kill me". Give me a break. Of course you're going to get tasered.

What angered me the most was the reaction of John Kerry. His actions, or inaction, was the root of Meyer's question and the root cause of why he lost the 2004 election; the man has no spine. When people wrote books and went on the news to openly question his Vietnam service and purple hearts, why didn't he just squash those right then and there? When Andrew Meyer was being hauled off and then shocked with a taser, all Kerry did was sit back and stumble on his words. Kerry said, "hey officers can we... hey folks... I think if everyone just calms down... I'll answer his question and it's an important one". This is ALL while Meyers is on the ground being taken away by the police. Why didn't Kerry just ask them to stop, firmly? Why didn't Kerry do something? Instead he carried on answering Meyer's question and joking that he wished Meyer was there swearing him in as President, and lamented that it was unfortunate that he was incapacitated. WTF. Where is his backbone, shame.

Eyewitness account from teh internets:

“As much as I concur that this was excessive force, let me remind you what led to this:

Andrew spoke up after the Dean of International Affairs had stated final question. The final question was being asked about Israel, and then Andrew got on the mic on the other side of the room (noting he was next on the mic), and then proceeded to tell Kerry that its not fair not to be able to ask more questions after listening to him for an hour, and the Dean exclusively asking Kerry questions for another 45 minutes, leaving students 25 minutes to ask questions. At that point, the officers try to subdue him, but Kerry sternly told the police officers to back down. Kerry then asked Meyer if he can finish the other question and then proceed to his. Meyer consented. After the last question was answered, Kerry asked Meyer, what is your question. Then you enter the video that has been circulating around, where he asks his question, not before Accent Speaker’s Bureau president, Stephen Blank (in some videos, front row left side of right aisle), signals the AV guys to cut Meyer off. Meyer then was confused what happened, and then was dragged up the auditorium. Meyer kept screaming why is he being arrested. The other videos do not show that Meyer was handcuffed, before he was tasered. I sat in the back row, with this occuring less than 5 feet from me.”