UF student Tasered after questioning John Kerry

Well, you had to figure the guy was staging a scene, especially with someone so close to tape it all up by the microphone. The rest of it just played into his hand.

And the cops wouldn't be catching a lot of shit if they had run him out the door without Tasering him. Now he's gonna be all over TV for a few days.

 

The cops weren't evil.
They were, however, vicious and incredibly stupid -- which is pretty much how many of us want our cops to be these days.
And RSC? Kerry was a hero. Just not that day.

 

The cops did nothing wrong. Nothing.

Here's a little hint -- if the cops tell you to move, you move. If they seek to put handcuffs on you, don't resist. If you do resist, don't complain about the consequences.

 

I kind of agree with that, though I doubt he was holding the book at the time he was on the ground.

Another bit of truth: If it's taking more than one cop to put handcuffs on you, you're resisting arrest and a taser might actually be in order rather than a nightstick to the shins.

As I've said above, I think the use of the taser might be over the top and not entirely necessary. But after watching multiple angles of the situation, my sympathy for the kid lessens.

 

Wonder if any cameras caught that part? I saw a couple comments elsewhere from alleged witnesses also claiming that this guy was being a disruptive dickhead even before the parts we see and had essentially barged to the front with camera guy in tow and taken over the mike. Hence the applause when the cops first started dragging him away.

But, even if he was a disruptive attention-whore, using the taser still seems terribly stupid and unnecessarily brutal. As Zeke said, if 4 cops can't control one unarmed normal-sized college student without using a taser, they've no business being cops. The guy wanted to cause a scene with himself at the center, and the UPD gave it to him beyond anything he imagined.

 

Paging FB ... Paging FB.

 

It doesn't matter. As a college student myself, I was horrified to see that someone who showed just a little bit of passion towards politics got shot down as soon as he presented some facts and asked a question to Kerry. If he was just making an ass of himself and rambling, Kerry wouldn't have dignified his (rant) question with a response. Too bad the kid couldn't hear it.
I go to a school (Florida Gulf Coast University) that has done a pretty good job of bringing in political figures to speak (Powell, Gorbachov, etc...) and students hardly show. In a time when politics are more important than ever, other college students will see this video (However skewed it may be) and never speak up when they otherwise feel they should.
There are a million reasons why this is an atrocious incident...

 

You call that courteous?
Are you kidding?
Disorderly conduct is what it was. Nobody was arresting him until he started to fight off the cops. They clearly were just going to escort him out of the building. Resisting that led to the multiple cops on him, and resisting when he was down led to the tasing.
Given what happened in the spring, you're realling going to charge these cops with OVERreacting? Seriously?

 

I can't believe how many people are taking the cops side. You're right dude, Let's all live in a world where we never question authority, never wonder why as youth we are thought to be uninformed and continue to fit the bill, and take everything at face value.

 

Vicious? Seriously, FB, watch the seven minute long tape I had posted earlier and explain to me where "vicious" comes from. Is it your position that anyone ever using the taser is automatically vicious?

http://video.nbc6.net/player/?id=157250

They're not punching the kid. After multiple warnings, they gave him one shock from the taser on the lowest level possible to get him cuffed because he was resisting them doing that. Once he's up they don't do anything else physical to him other than escort him out, nor do they start shoving the camera guy out of the way or try to block him. That's vicious?

The other thing I think is surprising on this board is that not one person seems to have thought about what happened at VT. That was a college kid acting outrageously and making video tapes so he could make his big statement. They didn't think this guy was the next Cho, but they weren't going to find out he was the hard way by not getting his arms cuffed after he kept trying to keep his hand free. Plenty of other people at the speech asked questions, some contentious, with absolutely no issues. This wasn't a group of "vicious" cops out to silence dissent.

 

Bet some of you are sorry it didn't happen at a forum featuring a Republican.