There are so many things wrong with this video that I don't even know where to start.
You can see another video, posted at Daily Kos here that shows the student's full question.
Sure, he ranted and raved just a bit. But, he barely got his 'impolite' question out before the University of Florida Rent-a-Cops started harassing him. If you ask me, more people should rant and rave like this. He's clearly upset that Bush's administration is clearly ripping the Constitution to threads, edging towards ANOTHER ill-conceived war, and that Kerry could have stopped it if he had forced the issue on the 2004 voter suppression reports.
If more people were this passionate, then we might have a chance at bringing this country back from a state of absolute apathy in the face of corrupt government. This guy made the people in the room feel uncomfortable because of his passion and tough questions.
Because of the uber-sensitive environment that George Bush's "free speech zone" society has created, everybody is on edge and thinks that free speech has gone away. I'm not sorry to say that most of America needs a reality check. Serious issues are before us and sober conversation with polite head nodding isn't gonna make anything better.
NEWSFLASH: The government might be spying on you and have suspended habeus corpus, but our right to free speech remains. And that means you can be a nutso, annoying, know-it-all jerk. That student didn't cross any line that put him into illegal territory. Period.
Have you seen the bumper sticker, "If you're not angry, you're not paying attention"? This guy was paying attention and it rubbed some people the wrong way.
Those Rent-a-Cops, unjustified in the initial moments of confrontation, further failed to properly handle the situation. There were FIVE cops there and there's no reason they couldn't remove him from that room and handle it outside of the company of an entire auditorium. Their actions fueled the situation and they should be held accountable for it.
This whole thing makes me sick because it represents a lot of what is wrong with America right now.
UPDATE
MSNBC is reporting that the taser that the student, Andrew Meyers was shocked with was a full 50,000 volts. I'm not sure what that means, but it sounds pretty brutal to me.
The President of the University of Florida has placed two of the Rent-a-Cops on paid leave while their actions are investigated.
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I'm all for maintaining some decorum when in public. But this was a questin & answer session regarding politics. Free speech allows for some passion to be expressed in topic that effect the nation, and evenb those that don't.The police must have given this adminstration the handbook for despensing of that pesky little right, along with human dignity. There way to much Steriods in the 'preotect and serve' division of our national institutions.Time we take these institutions out and knock the shit off them, things have been crawling out from beneath them- DICK.
John Kerry should have gotten down off the stage to tell these people to leave the kid alone. What, would they taser him?
I'm also shocked by all those people just sitting there and watching, I might have gotten up to say, could you just leave the kid alone, you are causing more of a disruption than he was.
I felt a bit ill watching the video as this guy asked the most relevant question, "What did I do?".
Tasering a student for asking a question or going over the time limit is insane. Anyone who thinks this tasering a student under these circumstances is ok needs psychiatric treatment. There is something called free speech,it means that one can ask a question, an uncomfortable question that this brave kid was doing. tasering such acts is unamerican. First, what kind of idiot police are these? Five big hunks cannot control a single guy? What kind of moronic police training do they get? This is what happens if you equip these imbeciles with tasers and the like. They will use it at the most innocent of situations where a simple overpowering of the guy would have sufficed.
For university police to act like stalinist thugs like this and take on a student for asking a question is shameful and those who support such acts are a disgrace to humanity!
Thank goodness for instant video-capturing beyond the reach of censors.
Use this precious right while you still can.
"My country is more valuable to me than these criminals."
"My country stands for truth and justice and if neither of these things are in you, then you are unfit to rule my country."
"My country stands for truth and justice and if you violate the law or fail to uphold the Constitution while you hold a position of public trust, you will be Impeached from that position (by Due Process of Law), and then you will be bound over to the Courts. Meanwhile, you will be forever barred from holding a position of public trust again, and if you are convicted (again, by Due Process of Law) you cannot be pardoned."
"My country stands for truth and justice and if there is probable cause to believe you violated the law, you cannot avoid an Impeachment trial because the Congress, BY LAW, CANNOT 'CHOOSE NOT TO' hold one, any more than a Grand Jury can 'choose not to' consider a case."
====
Article 2, Section 4: "It's not just a good idea; IT'S THE LAW."
I find it ironic that you posted your opinion on a moderated forum. On Huffpo, if a comment is deemed abusive, it is removed, same as that jackass was removed from his forum. This comment is an example of freedom of speech under Huffpo's terms (as the link to the rules reminds me). I agreed to those terms, and if this comment is deemed abusive and removed, so be it. Likewise, that jackass agreed to the terms attached to asking his question, but he violated them and he was removed, same as I would be removed from Huffpo for abusing my privileges here.
I wonder... if this comment received multiple flags as abusive, would it be removed? Perhaps the word "jackass" is too harsh for delicate eyes. If so, who ultimately decides if it should be removed? Is it determined by the voters or a moderator, either of whom would judge it subjectively? It would make an interesting experiment, don't you think? Like a challenge to the status quo.
WASHINGTON D.C. " Sen. John Kerry issued the following statement today, in response to the arrest of a student at the University of Florida.
"In 37 years of public appearances, through wars, protests and highly emotional events, I have never had a dialogue end this way. I believe I could have handled the situation without interruption, but I do not know what warnings or other exchanges transpired between the young man and the police prior to his barging to the front of the line and their intervention. I asked the police to allow me to answer the question and was in the process of responding when he was taken into custody. I was not aware that a taser was used until after I left the building. I hope that neither the student nor any of the police were injured. I regret enormously that a good healthy discussion was interrupted."
If going on and on, annoying people in a public space, asking tough and/or obnoxious questions and meandering on long rants was cause for removal and police intervention, then two-thirds of the population of Huffington Post (and most of the internet) should now immediately expect to be kicked off their computers, dragged away by the cops, and then tasered.
Why not put it to the test ?? Go to a city council or county commossioners meeting, sign-up to speak, sign the little agreement that you will honor your time limit, etc. Then, when it's your turn to speak.. do so, loudly, with some venom. Then when they turn on the light or politely ask you to step down, go on a rant..
Now... what happens next ???
...so, go do it and report back here on HuffPo. Then you'll have something to say....
Bush-Cheney avoided the Law - Bush-Cheney lied about just everything to avoid the Law ...
There are rules to the game - and if we support a bush-cheney aproach to the rules - Then we have accepted there caricature of America - A Lawless country - Wild-Wild west mentality of who's the fastest at a LIE ...
When your in a Q&A - you respect those rules - when your in a field - scream all you want ...
Becoming a lawless country is not what we are fighting for ...
The Kid should have respected the rules - and the police should not taser a kid on the ground ...
They both broke the rules ...
Again as this war goes on there will be more protests and more questions - The rules of the game need to be laid down ...
A place to scream at - and a place for Q&A ...
Rules of LAW - The preservation and growth of The Constitution of these United State's ...
Polite socials rules are quite different from the utter disregard for the law that we've seen from the Bush Administration.
It's NEVER wrong to challenge the status quo when the status quo has become shear apathy. We need hundreds of thousands of people asking tough questions, making audiences uncomfortable, demanding tough answers from elected officials.
You are right Lane, it is NEVER wrong to challenge the status quo. But remember, even if I don't like the rules for speaking engagements like the one in question, it does not give me the right to violate those rules, especially if I have stated that I understand those rules.
We need to ask the tough questions. But they need to be done appropriately. If this young man wanted to rant, he could have petitioned the University to allow a protest outside the venue where he could have yelled, screamed, vented, and made his target uncomfortable with scathing and damning questions and statements. When we undertake to change the rules of the game to meet our own agenda, we make a mockery of the rule of law and diminish the beauty of the freedom of speech.
This young man did not have his freedom denied. If it is true that he intentionally violated the stated rules, then he should have been removed. If excessive force was used in his removal, then the officers responsible should be held accountable.
We want accountability from our government but we don't need to abuse the rules of engagement. Shouting matches turn most people off. Asking pointed questions in a respectful manner should be the goal.
I'm glad to read your viewpoint about him being able to ask a question, maybe an uncomfortable one. My follow up is 'when did our political leaders become so 'god-like' that they should be immune to those they represent?' God forbid we ask a poignant question to those we PAY to represent us? God forbid they are confronted to answer for their actions. This entire system is an outrage. What's worse is that this kid is going to be labeled 'a radical' because he had a question that will be viewed as 'out there' and he wasn't 'polite' about asking it. Good for him! We need more of this in our country!!!
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Posted 03:19 PM on 09/18/2007
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Posted September 18, 2007 | 09:18 AM (EST)