UF student Tasered after questioning John Kerry

Have you read any of the background on this, Okie? The video hardly tells the whole story.

From what I've read, the guy wasn't supposed to be on the mic at all, the time for asking questions had passed. But he was allowed a question anyways after he'd forced his way to the front dragging a camera man with him and belligerently demanding his turn at the mic. The fact that they were letting him ask after the alloted time was itself an unnecessary accommodation and show of courtesy. Hence the short fuse and quick cut off when he used that time to make an obnoxious screaming ass of himself.

 

Tony, you wouldn't recognize a strawman argument if it bit you in the ass.

But in the spirit of the thread, here you go

 

So by your logic, any time someone doesn't comply with the cops 100 percent, they should get tasered?
I'm not arguing whether the guy was resisting arrest -- I think he was -- but I can't understand how that many cops can't handle one guy without going for the stick. It wasn't like he was throwing punches.

 

By that logic, that fat pig Mark Madden should already have been filled with enough voltage to keep the Golden Triangle lit until 2170.

 

If you had any idea what they were, you wouldn't keep posting them.

 

I admit I didn't know that (assuming it's correct), but I still think it all happened way too quickly.
Was the guy a danger to anyone?

 

There are at least two sides to this debate, with valid points on whatever side you take. Let's not polarize the discussion just because someone has a viewpoint that you don't agree with.

I started this thread because I knew it would be a hot topic, in a time when trust in government and authority figures certainly leaves a lot to be desired. And when people are frustrated because they don't know if their voices are being heard.

Upon further review, I think the kid was grandstanding. And the cops were too eager to lead someone into a resisting-arrest charge (it's easy to do, as shown here). And Kerry stood there gawking instead of handling a heckler, which any politician should know how to do -- especially a senator and former presidential finalist.

But you don't expect to see chaos and Tasers and one-sided arguments break out during a public forum -- a free assembly designed to encourage debate -- on a college campus, so there are a lot of reasons why this episode never shoulda happened. It was an intellectual gathering, so cooler heads shoulda prevailed.

 

Hey man, don't you know the markeplace of ideas is a dangerous thing?

 

They should be able to cuff the guy without using a taser.

The tactic I've seen most often used in that kind of situation is one officer kneels on the suspect with one knee on his back and one knee on the back of his neck. This pretty much immobilizes the guy, and the second officer cuffs him.

Seriously, if it took six of them and a taser to get the cuffs on this guy, who by all accounts wasn't resisting in anything more than a half-hearted manner, what would they do in an actually hostile situation?

As JR said earlier, the average bar bouncer deals with more trouble than this on a nightly basis and gets it resolved with holding a guy down and electrocuting him.

The guy was clearly being a douchebag. He'll likely be convicted of disturbing the peace and/or resisting arrest.

But if I was in a life or death situation and needed help from the police, I hope they have somebody better than these clowns to send.

 

No, that's not something I ever came close to saying. The taser is one tool cops use. The guy has no injuries - he was fine. I could understand some people reacting as they are if they had tasered him while he was still speaking, or seemed eager to get physical with the guy. It didn't happen that way, or even close to it. Watch the video - all they're trying to do is get him out of there, at one point just carrying him. Use of the taser was clearly a last option (after multiple warnings) to subdue the guy enough to cuff him after he had shaken loose from two officers and forced his way back into a room he was being ejected from.

 

Four cops oughta be able to shout a guy down just as easily as they can beat him down.

 

No, I don't think so. And I agree using the Taser was pretty dumb and unnecessary.

But, from I've read, this guy's hardly deserving of sympathy. He went in there with the purpose of provoking a scene somewhat like this. He just didn't expect the taser.