UF student tasered during John Kerry speech
University of Florida (College of Journalism and Communications) student Andrew Meyer was tasered today at a John Kerry speech at the university. Andrew Meyer was removed from the microphone after asking several questions of John Kerry and was forcibly taken down by at least five police officers. He was already on the floor of the auditorium and surrounded by police when one used a taser on him.
To see what the police look like in the throes of excited delirium, see the video footage at You Tube.
Andrew Meyer was charged with "disrupting a public event."
This one's not over - not by a long shot.
Reminds me of the incident in Brattleboro, Vermont at the end of July, when two peaceful activists were tased by police during a non-violent protest.
3 comments:
Any rational person can view that video and see that Andrew Meyer is clearly a whacko. He was not asking questions, he was taking over the forum. He continued on and on with a diatribe, the forum was coming to a close, and he would not remove himself peacefully when asked to do so. If he had not been an ass and attempted to resist being peacefully removed from the podium, we would not be talking about this today. Andrew Meyer brought this upon himself. He planned it and staged it with help from his friends. He is out to make a name for himself and he did just that.
With the right to free speech comes responsibility. There is a certain professional way in which one conducts oneself at a forum such as this and clearly Andrew Meyer was anything BUT professional. He was irresponsible in his words and his actions yesterday. When he was asked to remove himself from the podium he should have done so and not mouthed off and resisted the officers attempt to peacefully remove him. The person responsible for what happened to Andrew Meyer was Andrew Meyer himself.
It was a publicity stunt from start to finish. Now his face is all over the internet, he'll appear on Oprah, Larry King Live and sue the University. And maybe if he's lucky some ragtag piece of print journalism might actually hire him.
It's funny because while I think tasing Meyer was absolutely beyond the line, I still can see some of Jessica's side. I think it's a really complex issue. But to me what's most fascinating is how strongly people seem to feel on both sides of the debate and thinking about what motivated Meyer even if he was seeking attention. I talk about it at Emotional Responses to the Andrew Meyer & John Kerry Incident if you're interested. I'm glad if nothing else this incident is stirring up some much-needed debate about a lot of issues.
exactly. meyer may be a whacko, but he shouldn't have been tasered.
the argument for tasers as "less lethal" than firearms must be considered through incidents like this. had the cops not had tasers, would they have blown his brains out and said "sorry for the interruption, senator kerry. carry on, we'll clean this up."
it's obvious from incidents like this that the taser is used whenever they don't feel like getting into a wrestling match.
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