“TaserGate”
Senator Kerry was speaking at the University of Florida when an extremely motivated student asked him if he was President Bush’s fellow member of the Skull and Bones Society at Yale…
This is what happened next (H/T for the YouTube video goes to Michelle Malkin):
This is the Press release — from Ocala.Com:
Student Tasered at Kerry speech
BY JACK STRIPLING
GAINESVILLE – U.S. Sen. John Kerry’s speech at the University of Florida came to a dramatic close Monday, shortly after a vocal audience member was hauled off by police and shot with a Taser gun.
The audience member was preliminarily identified by UF officials as Andrew Meyer, a UF student in the College of Journalism and Communications. …”
(Snip!)
“… After the incident, Capt. Jeff Holcomb of the UPD said Meyer had been charged with disrupting a public event and placed in the Alachua County Jail. Holcomb said there would be an investigation into whether the officers used force appropriately, adding that employing a Taser gun would only be justified in a case where there was a threat of physical harm to officers.
As Meyer was escorted away, he was followed by several students, including Matthew Howland, 20. Howland, a UF senior who said he didn’t know Meyer, said he was “appalled” by the way UPD officers handled the situation. Howland acknowledged that Meyer had acted inappropriately by “rushing” the microphone and forcing a question on Kerry.
“It’s a perfect example of when officers take something to a level that is not necessary,” he said. “The officers escalated that situation.” …
Welcome to the United POLICE States of America, folks. I fully expect to see these police officers punished since the video PROVES this kid was not a physical threat to the officers — a “pain in their BUTTS”, maybe — a “threat”, obviously NOT. And, since WHEN did the act of being a self-important, obnoxious, WINDBAG in Public become a jailable offense? If that were the case, I would demand to know why Senator Kerry and his ninety-nine other [ahem... "Skull and Bones"] buddies in the Senate have thus far dodged the taser…
My personal friend, Jay Stephenson, of Stop The ACLU, is probably raising a few conservative bloggers’ eyebrows this morning by demanding the ACLU step up to defend Andrew Meyer ASAP for his right to question his Government without being tasered and apprehended by the police for doing so. While this may raise the eyebrows of many, it doesn’t raise my eyebrows in the least, but that’s because I know Jay on a personal basis and his real aim behind his Stop The ACLU blog is to stop the ACLU from taking on so many “B.S.” cases and to stop the ACLU from attacking gun rights and Christianity. In that sense, we stand in solidarity, although I am (reluctantly, as with the NRA) a member and Jay won’t be one for a very long time, if EVER.
But back to the main point — Jay’s point and my point — whatever happened to the “good ole’ days” when a common man or woman could approach and question their legislators without the fear of being tasered, or worse? Intelligent Americans, dumb Americans, rich Americans, poor Americans — there was a time in this country, and it wasn’t all that long ago, where ANY of us who were motivated enough could ask even the dumbest questions of our leaders without having to worry about being assaulted by government employees. That was the “America” of our Founding Fathers, and now we live in an “America” where our politicians are treated like, and think of themselves like, and are afforded the security of rock stars. They are NOT “rock stars”, they’re public SERVANTS — meaning, BELOW the Public as far as the “pecking order” was meant to be.
While I respect Senator John Kerry for allowing Andrew Meyer to ask his questions, and attempting to answer all of them, aside from the “Skull and Bones Society” question that seems to have been the catalyst for this event, I am APPALLED at the fact he hasn’t stepped up to speak up on Mr. Meyer’s behalf — for his right to question his Government. In other words, Senator Kerry, like the vast majority of our Federal SERVANTS — both sides of the aisle — feels this tasering and apprehension by the Police State incident at the University of Florida was justified…
And, it most certainly was NOT.
UPDATE: 1:10 PM, CST
Apparently, Senator Kerry decided he didn’t appreciate the negative responses (such as mine) that go along with his choosing to turn his back on a fellow liberal American at the scene where law enforcement officials broke the law by assaulting him with a taser gun. The Senator claims he didn’t see the heckler get tasered… hmm. Michelle Malkin is reporting two of the officers have been suspended…
From Political Radar (ABCNews):
Kerry Condemns Heckler Arrest
ABC News’ Rick Klein Reports: Sen. John Kerry on Tuesday comdemned the arrest of a University of Florida student at one of his speeches, saying that he was engaged in a “good healthy discussion” with 21-year-old Andrew Meyer when he was Tasered and taken into custody.
“In 37 years of public appearances, through wars, protests and highly emotional events, I have never had a dialogue end this way,” Kerry said in a statement. “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,” he continued. “I hope that neither the student nor any of the police were injured. I regret enormously that a good healthy discussion was interrupted.” …
Truly, I do hope the Senator is telling the truth and speaking from the heart, versus seeing the negative reactions and “flip-flopping”…
UPDATE II: 2:17 PM, CST
Crooks and Liars has a new video of the incident (below), which brings me back to my original sentiment — Senator John Kerry turned his back at the so-called “scene of the crime” on his liberal brother. Senator Kerry drones on and on and on in the background after being silent during the initial attack by the law enforcement officers at the scene, which means he saw the whole thing go down. The student is screaming “Help me! Help me!” at the top of his lungs — there is no WAY Senator Kerry missed the incident, in my not so humble opinion. I say:
Senator John F. Kerry was FOR the tasing before he was against it…
You tell ME:
***
A huge “thanks” goes out to our good friends at Real Clear Politics for including this post in their fantastic (as always) REAL CLEAR BLOGS roundup – filed under Debates & Discussion (versus our good friends at The Newshoggers? Ain’t no “bad blood”… we love those guys and gals.)…
Our friend Libby Spencer of The Impolitic SORTA agrees with me
So does our friend Michael Stickings of The Reaction, I think?
Other bloggers chime in — Interestingly, the Left appears to be divided (amongst ourselves), as does the Right on this one — (H/T to MemeOrandum): The Democratic Daily (Left – my friend Pamela Leavey and I might just disagree on this one); Huffington Post (Left – sounds a LOT like my own opinion); The Mahablog (Left); Althouse (Center); Shakesville (Left); The Raw Story (Left – objective); Ace Of Spades HQ (Right); The Newshoggers (Left); Hot Air (Right); Drudge Retort (Left); Don Surber (Right – snark alert!); Right Angles (Right – Oh, my GOD – this one wins the “headline of the week” award! My sides are STILL hurting!!!)
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2:49 pm on September 18th, 2007 1
Look, Kerry couldn’t hear what was going on and I believe that. And I am no fan of Kerry .
But, no one syhould be tasered when they are lying on the ground with four cops on them. that’s complete bullshit and I hope he sies the shit out of those cops.
2:56 pm on September 18th, 2007 2
What a load of crap.
The jerk was not simply asking a question. He was acting strangely enough, rushing to the mike, that he was being pursued by the cops BEFORE he even said a word. And then he just started ranting in a rather crazy way.
He was asked to leave, and escorted out. He was tased because he continued to act like a jerk and to try to break free of the cops and to fight them.
Your notion that in the “good ol’ days” this would never have happened is patently absurd. I dont know what planet you live on, but the truth is that police nowadays are far LESS heavy handed and brutal than in the past. Maybe thats why this incident stands out somewhat – the way they treated the guy was a throwback moment to the bad ol’ days (juiced up with a little hi-tech zapper, whereas in the old days it would have been a well-aimed left cross).
I dont think the kid should have been zapped – I wish the cops were a bit better trained at calmly but forcefully removing a nutjob from a public forum.
“Senator Kerry decided he didn’t appreciate the negative responses (such as mine)”
dude, you are really full of yourself, aintcha?
3:06 pm on September 18th, 2007 3
“dude, you are really full of yourself, aintcha?”
Of COURSE. That’s why I have a blog
3:30 pm on September 18th, 2007 4
GTL
Of course this was a travesty. The cops should have tasered Sen. Kerry. It was he after all that started this mess. He should have had the sense to withdraw when it became apparent that it was a lost cause. I think he’s personally responsible for the damage to whatever brain cells this “troofer” has left.
3:33 pm on September 18th, 2007 5
LMFAO, Chuck!!!
4:51 pm on September 18th, 2007 6
GTL
I have a lot of respect for you and your blog, but you are wrong about Kerry on this. IFirst if you look at the various video’s you can see it was a very large room, with a lot of people and Meyer was in the back of the room, with a crowd of people around him. It wasn’t possible for Kerry to know what was going on back there. Second, I know Kerry personally and have had the opportunity as a blogger to sit and talk face to face with him on numerous occassions over the past almost 4 1/2 years. He’s a warm, caring and compassionate man and a man who believes in the power of dissent.
To say that he is disingenious in his response is tacky at best. Kerry didn’t issue the statement because of posts like yours, he issued the statement because he is deeply concerned about what happened.
My post about this is here: http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=6607
5:04 pm on September 18th, 2007 7
Pamela, I appreciate you and your blog as well (as you know), but here is the one thing which concerns me — Senator Kerry cracked a joke about it while the student was being roughed up by the LEOS — something to the tune of “Well, I guess he won’t be swearing me in for President today…”. While I truly do want to believe you are correct, the joke (hear it on the 2nd vid) during the ruckus makes him look pretty bad, at least to me. And if that is the case, I couldn’t be as excited as you are about the man’s character, then again — unlike you, I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting him as you have.
Regardless, I admire you, Pamela, my friend; and your opinion is not only welcomed, it’s duly noted with respect, and your link will be added to my roundup
6:19 pm on September 18th, 2007 8
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6:32 pm on September 18th, 2007 9
I felt that his behavior was significantly bizarre enough to cause serious concern on the part of the officers. I can’t tell if the Tasering was justified or not, but the kid seems unharmed by the experience. It’s hard, for me, to judge the police harshly because I understand the concept of a thin blue line (that’s a lot of pressure.) One of the officers told the kid that he was going to be charged with trying to incite a riot. I think that the officers felt that was a real possibility based on the audience verbal participation that was taking place.
I have never resisted arrest. I’ve never caused a police officer to believe that I was dangerous. I have been protected on at least one occasion from potential harm by police officers who responded to my call.
I’m going to side with the adults that were present and close to the action – the police.
7:37 pm on September 18th, 2007 10
Thanks for breaking this down, GTL. I hadn’t really had a chance to see the details. Looks to me like the guy was either a bit unbalanced, and so should have just been ignored, or did it on purpose, as some have said, to create a scene, and, again, should have been ignored. That is one of the best ways to deal with people like that: ignore them.
On another point, Kerry should not have stood up for him because they are both liberals, but because they are both Americans. Politics has to stop somewhere. If I saw someone treating Nancy Pelosi, John Murtha, or Rosie in a terrible way, I would stand up for them in a heartbeat.
8:47 pm on September 18th, 2007 11
From what I have seen/read of this incident, the doofus (not Kerry, the other one) is one of those fringies who get their kicks out of disrupting public discussions by whatever means he can. Somehow the “peaceable’ part of the 1st Amendment gets overlooked by the fringe-folk. (Kind of like the “free exercise” part is overlooked by a lot of the more mainstream leftists.)
The 1st isn’t license to do anything you want to infringe on the rights of others. Kind of funny how it is the fringe left that is the only group that will attempt to take over public meetings or debates,shout down others, do anything they can think of to prevent others from being heard while shouting at the tops of their lungs that their rights are being infringed.
This is one of those situations where the only winner is the self-appointed “victim.” If no one does anything he gets to take over someone elses forum to blather his half-cocked conspiracy theories or whatever he thinks his point is. If he is not allowed to silence others and take over the forum, then his rights are somehow being violated.
On the other hand, a competent cop could have stretched him out with little fuss, bother, or commotion.
If a conservative tried the same tactics, likely words like Nazi and fascist would be applied to him.
8:59 pm on September 18th, 2007 12
lil’timpundit– the incident occured in auditorium, which is designed to amplify sound, Kerry knew damn well what was going on, and he tried to quell the situation, but i guess his vietnam heroism has since passed, for he did little else but crack a joke.
joe– you say the good ole’ days we’re when cops punched you, have you ever heard such agonizing screams resulting from a ‘left cross’. he was asked to leave? they attacked him at the podium, for what you say were his ’strangeness’ and ‘ranting’. enjoy your police state.
GTL: since when is the pursuit of truth funny? ‘troofers’? GTL- who isn’t an idiot in your opinion?
Pamela- kerry has met thousands of people, charm is his game. ‘it wasn’t possible…’ they’re in an auditorium, kerry’s on stage, i’ve been on stage, you can see everything, that’s how stages work.
eric, please. inciting a riot? the crowd of kerry supporters we’re applauding the police attack, what are you talking about?
william — ‘people like that’? who ask provacative questions? i think you’re in the wrong country buddy. try china.
i’m disgusted with all of you, and suppose i need to find a new blog, because this one is soft.
9:20 pm on September 18th, 2007 13
My first concern is how quick police are to use tasers and guns when confronted by a “threat” that doesn’t warrant such a response.
9:25 pm on September 18th, 2007 14
Dave M
What a classy guy you are. I worked for the Kerry campaign and have had attended many Kerry events as a blogger. On occassion, I’ve had the opportunity to sit and talk with Kerry, including last April when he was in L.A. taping the Tavis Smiley Show. My then 17 year old and I were his guests in the Green Room. I wasn’t bragging, GTL knows I know Kerry.
9:40 pm on September 18th, 2007 15
Hey GTL,
I was a bit puzzled by the RCPolitics “vs” thang too. I think it’s perfectly possible to see this as an example of police overstretch which Kerry should protest and be shamed for if he doesn’t (i.e. agree with you) while at the same time being annoyed at the wingnuts who are trying to make the incident itself somehow Kerry’s fault (ie agree with Shamanic’s post for us at Newshoggers).
Regards, Cernig @ Newshoggers
10:11 pm on September 18th, 2007 16
Hey, Dave M — you’ll notice I’ve edited all of your personal attacks out of your comment and hey — what remains is a decently-worded, thought provoking opinion without violating our POSTED COMMENTING POLICY. This is an “Almost Free Speech Zone” — ALMOST, because young folks in colleges and high schools read this blog and we do not allow personal insults to commenters or over the top profanity here, and that means I won’t allow anybody to personally insult you either here — if I am able to catch it. If this is too “soft” for you, there are plenty of other blogs (the majority of them) where personal insults are tolerated and in some cases, even encouraged. I wish you’d stay and voice your opinions within our posted guidelines, but would understand if you need to start posting at The Daily Kos or Malkin’s place instead. And yes, Pamela Leavey has been involved with the Kerry camp for years and is, indeed a personal friend of his and I give great weight to her opinion in matters involving him, whether he is my favorite politician or not
Cernig — EXACTLY, bro! Oh well, fun stuff anyhoo
11:32 pm on September 18th, 2007 17
fair enough GTL.
I just can’t believe some of the comments here sometimes, and for me, sometimes profanity is the strongest most effective language one can use. And I happen to know that most 8 year olds are familiar with profanity, yet I accept your rules.
As for your friend Pamela, I’m sorry to insult her…but I don’t really care who she ‘knows’. People have ‘known’ all sorts of ‘other people’ for thousands of years, it’s quite common actually, and not a big deal.
Pamela– I’m sorry that I’m not as classy and ‘connected’ as you are; guess you’re superior to me because you’re aquainted with a has-been politician who couldn’t beat a chimpanzee in a presidential election, and I’m SURE you’d NEVER use profanity– surely way too much class and ‘finishing’.
oh yeah, and as for the ‘crowd’ around Meyer, it was a bunch of savage cops attacking a guy holding his hands up in the air with a book (not very threatining). And again, I find it pathetic that you should be ‘name-dropping’ Kerry when obviously every famous person has ‘friends’ who’ll stick up for them no matter what, to their own advantage no doubt.
Anyway, this isn’t about Kerry– it’s the characterization of a bold student asking big questions as a’fringe’ lunatic. I’ll tell you what’s ‘fringe’– ivy league skull and bonesmen and their heiress wives who think of themselves and their ‘friends’ as ‘big-shots’.
We The People are the big-shots, not the well connected affluent.
but i’m just a dumb ‘troofer’ who knows planes don’t ‘vaporize’, so what do i know.
GTL, I usually enjoy this blog and your viewpoints…it’s just your readership really torqued me off tonight, I apologise to you Sir.
1:01 am on September 19th, 2007 18
Dave M — I’m sorry I had to go in and edit out the personal attacks, which I agree, reflected your outrage, but I’m glad you understand. I have a couple of neices and nephews who read this blog and they’ve told me their teachers have pulled it up in their classrooms to incite debate. I’m really proud of the fact that my blog can be introduced to a Public school, to children, and be acceptable for young eyes and minds under the watchful eyes of Public school officials. The points you make are EXTREMELY valid, I just look to be able to proudly stand by the “Slightly Left Of Center, But This Blog Is DIFFERENT…” label
Believe me, I know what you mean when you address the point that profanity can ram an exclamation point onto one’s point of view — I’ve often thought of creating a MUCH less “Acceptable In The Workplace” type of blog for that very reason
3:13 pm on September 19th, 2007 19
GTL– thanks for understanding my passionate outrage.
I will no longer attack your readers personally, or use foul language, which is unacceptable in a classroom or workplace for sure.
In retrospect, all I should have stated was that the incident had nothing to with Kerry. It is the actions of the police, who escalated the situation, and used excessive force that enraged me.
I apologise to those I insulted and should work on dealing with opposing views in a more constructive manner.
4:12 pm on September 20th, 2007 20
GTL
Nice editing job.
Dave
GTL tolerates me as a right wing gadfly because I tease gently( I hope). I am also quite capable of taking a teasing. I take it as an article of faith that everyone here is a loyal American with the best interests of the country at heart. We may disagree, but we are all still “family”. So, in that regard, feel free to joke and comment in the same vein that you would in a family setting.
So, in short, apology accepted, and let’s have a beer and talk amigo. 
9:20 pm on September 20th, 2007 21
Chuck- that was quite nice of GTL to edit my post rather than deleting it and banning me.
He’s a really cool guy.
I must say, I completely went overboard, and underestimated your personality, which you’ve shown to be very compassionate and amicable.
And I would be interested in meeting and discussing some politics with you, in a laid-back manner of course.
best wishes for you and yours,
dave m