UF student Tasered after questioning John Kerry

No pastor, it doesn't make it OK to taser him -- satisfying, maybe.

 

Pastor, get off the self-righteousness soapbox and get a sense of humor. Didn't 21's post strike you as just a tad bit facetious?

 

boy - I'll be sure not to cross you.

 

Ha! It's funny 'cause I don't know him!

 

You know you want it. 8)

Crass--I was serious. Not in the literal sense, I'm not a taser kind of gal. But I have no sympathy for this jerk whatsoever.

My opinion: were the police too aggressive in removing him? Maybe, although this wasn't an isolated stunt by this guy. But once you're being removed by police, and you're resisting arrest by a half dozen Keystone Kops officers, you get what you get.

 

So suddenly we are now allowing cops to be overly aggressive whenever the hell they want as long as they can find some information in the victim’s past that justifies their actions.

I am also interested in what makes him a jerk. Would it be his website? Or does have some history of jerking his friends around? Is he cruel to those he knows?

 

Pastor,

If people don't want to be tasered, all they have to do is meekly submit to authority.

Now, is that so hard?

(However, the video is evidence enough that the kid is a blowhard).

 

As has been stated ad nauseam, the kid is a douchebag.

But I am truly disturbed by how quickly we are willing to jump down the "anything the cops do after you resist arrest is jake by me" wormhole.

Truly disturbed.

 

HE STOOD ON A CORNER HOLDING UP THE HARRY POTTER BOOK AND A SIGN THAT SAID 'HARRY DIES!' TASERING IS TOO GOOD FOR THIS GUY!

Look, this is the world we live in now. These are campus police, working in the wake of Wake Forest and other atrocities. Security is high and tolerance is low. How long should they wrestle with a showboat who was already screaming like he was being disemboweled, before they even had him on the ground?

This was a stunt--he had no interest in asking Kerry a question, and he had no interest in the answer. Perfect world, Kerry says 'Hey, let him finish his question,' and he does, and Kerry answers, and even if he responds with 'Senator, I think you're a complete jackass,' he's had his moment. But it wasn't the moment he wanted...now he's The Guy Who Got Tasered and he'll probably have his own TV show within a month.

 

Well, aside from the website and evidence this guy's a habitual attention whore, and the obvious douchebaggery shown on the video, you might also consider the stories filtering back about his behavior at this very event that does not appear on the youtube videos, including that: 1) He wasn't supposed to even be on the mic as the alloted time for questions had actually ended, but he was allowed a question anyways after he'd barged to the front, cutting in front of others who'd been waiting ahead of him, while dragging another person with a camera that he'd brought to film himself, and demanded the mic; 2) While doing so, according to a CNN report, he stated "I listened to his [Kerry's] crap for 2 hours he can listen to me" (and minutes later responded to being cut off by again saying "he got 2 hours" as if he thinks he's entitled to the same time at the mic as the featured speaker people actually came to see); and 3) according to our own Rufino's source, responded to a request that he introduce himself by saying "My name is fuck off".

You might also consider his post-arrest conduct, as detailed in the story Markvid posted earlier, that he only acted as we saw when there were cameras around and as soon as he was out of the camera's eye calmed down, told the cops they did nothing wrong, while asking them if there'd be cameras at the police station.

Does any of this excuse the decision to taser him? No, that was piss poor judgment by some keystone cops. But I hope we can dispense with the notion that this guy is a victim deserving of our sympathy.

 

Unfortunately, this isn't a "sudden" development. Those we entrusted to run the government have been working on multiple alternative retroactive explanations for the war in Iraq for 4 years, 6 months.

 

So you are going to argue that the dopey cops were watching his website when he walked in and said, “Hey, I know that guy!” I see. Of course, it is also possible that his website doesn’t mean fuck all on this topic.

Oh no! He was on the microphone too long! Taser him!

As to cutting in line, well, then he should be told to go back to the end of the line. Maybe they should start tasering line-cutters at all of the Six Flags across the country.

Again, are you going to seriously argue that because he was rather uncouth he deserves to be tasered?

Yeah, um, I’m not going to go by “Rufino” an anonymous poster on a message board to generate facts from an event. Rufino claims he is a friend of one of the cops which (if true) means he is biased from the beginning. I also read his comment about the taser being on the lowest setting… I’ll believe all that when it is actually reported.

I will also comment that saying “My name is fuck off” doesn’t deserve a tasering.

If the guy didn’t deserve to be tasered then he is a victim. And as a victim you better damn well better be sure he deserves some form of sympathy in this instance. If the guy goes home, beats up a girlfriend and ends up tasered by the cops, I won’t be sympathetic in that situation.