Home sick today, I was in my room when my mother called to me from the family room. She said "Nora, you have got to watch this video." By the end of the two minute and 23 second ameteur video I was in tears.
What was the video you may ask; something about the war, some killing spree or some other equally heinous crime? No, no and no. I watched a young man approach the open microphone at a "self-proclaimed town hall meeting" for Sen. John Kerry, being held at the University of Florida Gainesville campus, and ask a question, "Is it true you were in the same secret society as George Bush in college?"
Police came up and proceeded to apprehend the young man and try to lead him out of the building. All the while people are clapping for him and cheering him on. Andrew Meyer is asking the police what he did and why they are arresting him. It is only at this point the audience becomes alarmed at the scene unfolding before them.
It does not seem fair that there are 6 police officers "escorting" one young man especially when he starts to give in and tries to state that if they would let him go he would walk out of the building.
You hear Meyer yell, "Don't taser me 'bro!"
I start to cry as you can hear Meyer scream in pain as they are sending 5,000 volts of electricity into this young mans body.
This is a very disturbing act performed by police officers. What did this young man do? Ask a question, isn't that protected in our First Amendment rights, last time I checked it was. In the duration of this video you never hear the officers read him his Miranda rights, which is another right they decided to violate. Another disturbing observation is the faculty member standing at the back of the room extending his hand as to say, 'I want no part in this.'
I sit here horrified and saddend by what society has come to. Is it no longer that we can stand up and ask our electedofficials a question about their past? What does this teach our young people? That they should be afraid to ask questions and that they should become apathetic Americans.
Our Constitution is being swept under the rug along with other values that founded this country all in the name of fear and fear of terrorism. We have forgotten what our Founding Fathers did to secure our rights; we have forgotten the sacrifice and the struggle they endured to fight for what they felt was rightfully ours. As a democracy is the road we are traveling a dangerous one?
Click here to learn more and watch the video
bless your heart, Nora, I also cried, I'm afraid that we all just had a good look at our future... the good news is that we no longer need to fear all the people who "hate us for our freedoms."
I dont think the Police overreacted by a lot AFTER he was grabbed. The reason they had for grabbing him? I have no clue. Looked like S.O.P. with non lethal force applied.
Not to mention had he stopped screaming we might have heard what Kerry's answer was.
I would need to see a video of the entire speech to see what possible reason the police could have had for restraining him.
yes John, standard operating procedure...in a tolatarian world. We've become a banana republic. Kerry missed yet another opportunity tohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiradcejA6o look patriotic, but he's quite used to this thuggery, it happens every day on capitol hill.
Perhaps your initial response ought to be rethought, especially in light of the fact that the so-called victim is a: 1. Known video prankster; 2. That all arresting officers reported that he only "resisted" when the cameras were on. Can you say, "setup"?
A better perspective can be found at: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,297287,00.html
he's charged with resisting arrest, no crime having been commtted, yeah, I can say set up. can you say facsism?
Re: John Swift
It really did seem to me that the guy was acting to a perceived threat. Not to reality.
Having been on the receiving end of non campus police when I was just as loud but much less coherent? He should count himself as lucky.
I am not going to argue for or against one side or the other a whole lot. All we see is a snip of video.
Fasicm? Tolatarian world?
The reality I have always known is that police have guns, I do not. Being stupid around police can get me dead. It is common sence. I am simply happy if they decide to use non-lethal force.
Well I checked out the info on the Fox News link, and here are my conclusions: they are blaming him to be like any other college student, like protesting the war and blaming the media for not enough coverage of the conflict (which his beliefs are criminal in the minds of the conservative right like fox news) and then they are saying that he set up his OWN camera to film his encounter with Sen. John Kerry. Who wouldnt want that on film? I know I would.
There are plenty of meetings I've been to that have been taped by the people putting them on. And in regards to the comment made by the woman police officer who said that he was quiet going down the stairs -- well that makes sense. Would you be doing a lot of talking after you had been tasered? I think not. Just some food for thought.
P.S. I think we are getting away from the real issue: That this young man asked a question and as a result he was arrested and physically assulted. Sounds like something else in history. Some young people making a statement and as a result law enforcement got out of hand and attacked. Anyone heard of Kent State during Vietnam? I don't want history repeating itself on this one. Do you?
no disagreement whatsoever, John Z. nothing surprising here, hell, I'm not even sure why I feel the need to point out the obvious; we live in a fascist police state. I guess I'll never be as comfortable with that,as some of my bee blog bros...I'm a third generation anti-fascist, I'm hard-wired that way.
p.s. if that scene had played out in Caracas, Fox news would put it in heavy "rotation" as evidence of the draconian totalitarian, socialist regime of Hugo Chavez! as it is, the whole worid is quite literaly watching.(via utube) what do think they make of it,T.C.? We have no moral high-ground. To be fair it should be said that if a liberal showed up at a Clinton rally with an anti-war sign, her goonsquad would eject them post haste, and if they resisted, the outcome would look the same.... clearly only a fool or a self-promoting idiot,(not mutually exclusive,)would disobey law enforcement, they don't tolerate any breach of protacol, but he had not done anything wrong!..if being loud, boring, and obnoxious, were the criteria, Rush Limbaugh would be serving consecutive life sentences.
"known video prankster" ?
who decided that, fox news?
He looks to be a regular college kid with questions about what's going on in his (free) country. It appears from the video he was given an opportunity to ask a question of Kerry, and then he gets rustled off for some reason.
It looked to be an open forum type meeting (he was at a live microphone). What exactly was the problem?
I think he had every right to question his arrest. He wasn't waving a gun or making threats or being disruptive. He was just participating in the forum. What is this, 1984? Do we now have to concede to the thought police?
The officers, or whoever made the order to remove him, totally overreacted in my opinion.
There are plenty of people out there who aren't like you and probably disagree with you. But that's no reason to zap them.
Everyone here needs to take a deep breath, calm down and watch the video of this "kid" again. There are several facts that all of your rants missed.
1) This was not a kid! He is 21 years old. That makes him an adult.
2)If Florida is like California there are laws that deal with disrupting events on a school campus
3)The "kid" wasn't asking questions, but going off on his own political rant.
4)He was obviously asked to stop talking and/or leave because he can be heard telling the guy in the suit that he could talk and make his point because John Kerry talked for 2 hours.
5) Based on the above facts, the officers were justified in escorting him out of the building. Had he walked out with them, I am positive he would not have been tased.
6)He was not tased for asking questions, he was tased only after he began resisting officers and refusing to comply with their lawful commands, which made him subject to arrest.
7)Finally, all of you are fond of quoting this 21 year old man as saying, "Don't tase me bro." You need to listen a little closer and you can hear the officers repeatedly say "stop resisting, put your hands behind your back or you will be tasered." He refused to comply and this was a lawful use of force.
Contrary to popular opinion, tasers have NO potential to be lethal and cause NO lasting injury to the person being shocked. Read some scientific studies instead of the crap spouted by the ACLU (American Communist Liberation Union)
David, can you cite some of those "scientific studies" that conclude tasers have "NO potential to be lethal"? I did a quick Google search ("taser death") and found a number of cases where tasers were cited by medical examiners as the cause of death (even disregarding the various liberal websites that came up on the search results).
Why DIDN'T Kerry want to be president?
While I may agree somewhat with you Nora, you may want to know what you're talking about (i.e. Miranda Rights) before making youself sound just like another sheep following the herd.
Do you even know what the Miranda Rights are? Miranda Rights are not given to someone just because they are arrested. They are provided when that person becomes the main focus of a criminal investigation.
Also, if you would have done any homework of your own you would know that Meyer is known for "staging" these kind of events for publicity.
And just because someone under arrest states "if you let me go I'll walk out of the building" does that mean police officers should believe all people under arrest and let them go too so they can walk out of where they're not supposed to be?
Nora, I highly recommend you start thinking for yourself instead of merely repeating other people and educate yourself before writing your ideas for the world to see.
Nora,
I decided to read through these remarks again and I came across yours stating we live in a "fascist police state."
Have you ever traveled outside of your nice, safe, comfortable town/city/county/state/country? If not, I suggest you take a vacation to somewhere that does not allow you even a fraction of the rights you so freely enjoy on a daily basis. After that, then make a comparison. Until such time I would recommend refraining.
Having served in the military for 10 years and being a former police officer I can bet you have absolutely no idea what living in a fascist police state is really like. In fact, I believe it shows an amazing amount of disrespect on your part towards people that actually do live in a "fascist police state."
And as for having a "reason" to zap him... you should first educate yourself on the Force Continuum. Tasers are much safer than being struck by a baton which has the possibility of causing major physical harm. And Tasers are immediate having no lasting effects unlike pepper spray. And officer shootings have significantly declined since the inception of Tasers. So, ask yourself, what would you rather have... struck with a baton, pepper sprayed or shot? I think a 5 second Taser ride is the best way to go personally (I would rather be Tasered than sprayed any day of the week). And yet it could ALL be avoided if people quit thinking that they can do WHAT they want WHEN they want. It appears that the vast majority of our society believes they do not have to follow rules/laws, can do whatever they want and do not have to suffer consequences for their actions. Yes, it was an open forum to ask questions but Meyer was going beyond asking a question. He was obviously attempting to excite the audience which is the very beginning of a riot. Now, do I believe the audience was going to riot? Of course not. But Meyer was not following the rules of the forum. He was being disruptive. That is why the microphone was taken away from him and he was asked to leave. If he had done what he was asked to do, nothing would have happened. And by the way, it was not the police that turned off the microphone or wanted him to leave. Contrary to popular belief, it is not the police that makes the rules, they only enforce the rules (which again is why most people don't like them. Because most people in our society can't stand being told what to do).
And about the only time Tasers have the possibility of causing death is if that person has a pre-existing heart problem and/or drug or alcohol abuse.