UF student Tasered after questioning John Kerry

Big difference between toe tapping love in the men's room and denying a person's right to free speech. Even if Kerry couldn't stop the cops from being idiots, he should have been man enough to do more than mumble "I'll answer it, that's an important question." He should have made a stronger effort on his mic to tell them to leave him alone or get down off the stage and make a statement by putting an end to the situation himself. What will the cops do arrest him.

I think he made the biggest statement of his life by doing nothing!

 

Clearly overshadowing his service in Vietnam.

 

You're right, ATL. He isn't the police chief. But he could have asked to let the question be asked long before the cops arrived and before the mic was cut.

The attention whore kid got what he wanted. He made a spectacle of himself while trying to make a point. Pats on the back at the UF Progressive Student Alliance meeting are sure to be handed out.

The crowd was reacting because they don't like attention whore loudmouths much, either. Even if they mostly agree with the point attempting to be made.

 

Tony YOU ARE WRONG!!!

The kid did nothing but ask a question. Was he being a dick about asking it, yes, but there was no arrest needed to be made so he can't resist for commiting no crime.

F' the Gestapo!

 

Watch it again, PoO, the punk is struggling with police right to the end. He had it coming.

And thanks for the compliment.

 

Absolutely overshadowing his service in Vietnam. We are talking about the guy who couldn't even toss a grenade more than three feet and got the shrapnel stuck in his ass?

I have always said I respect his service in the military, but just because you serve in the military doesn't automatically make you a decent person.

 

I'm not arguing either side here .... I'd just like to know the events leading up to that moment. One of the articles says that the guy at the mike prefaced his remarks by saying that the cops already threatened to arrest him. They also mention him 'rushing the mike'.

I'm not advocating the tasoring of anyone but the crowds response to the cops dragging him off would indicate that there were events preceding those on the tape that might colour the situation slightly differently. I'm just saying that I would like more context.

 

The audience member was preliminarily identified by UF officials as Andrew Meyer,
a UF student in the College of Journalism and Communications.

 

You're wrong there. They started to move him away from the mike and he pushed and swung his arms aggressively at the cops. Right there is enough for arrest. Then they calmly tried to lead him away and he went into full-diva attention-whore mode. I laughed out loud when the guy who acted so tough started crying out "Help! Help!" and that was long before he got tasered.

 

I was just pointing out that a Senator has no authority over the police. Kerry getting involved in such a direct manner after the police were handcuffing him opens up a whole variety of possible outcomes that could not be predicted at the time. The cops backing down to someone who has no authority over them when they are cuffing someone they see as resisting arrest is probably the least likely of outcomes especially when there is almost assuredly adrenaline involved . Now that would have truly been something!

As a previous poster pointed out Kerry would have been best off by telling the moderator to let him finish the question. I doubt he had an idea that the scene would turn so ugly though.

The kid was resisting arrest although when the taser was applied it was over the top since he was clearly pinned. I highly doubt much will come of it as I have seen worse use of tasers turn to nothing. The best thing the kid has going for him is he is a young white male.

 

So we have no right whatsoever to question the police? None? None at all? Cop tries to hustle you away for no apparently good reason and you're supposed to let them handcuff you and walk out like a sheep? Sorry. I don't buy that.

You're telling me that if six cops jumped you, refused to answer your questions about why they were arresting you and threatened to Taser you, you wouldn't be less than eager to go along with what they said?

I'm sorry. I'm tired of cops throwing their weight around because they're cops and, dammit, people have to listen to me.

Jesus. What the hell kind of democracy is this where elected officials can't handle a little angry questioning?

 

Swung his arms aggressively at the cops? He put his arms up so they couldn't grab him without explaining why they were doing it. He wasn't throwing punches.