Okay, so as I normally do, I get up make my coffee, make myself breakfast, and settle down to read the news from all over the country (I love the web!). The first article I come across is about a student, Andrew Meyer, from the University of Florida who is asking Senator John Kerry questions. Appartently Mr. Meyers time was up, so the powers to be turned off his microphone. This upset Mr. Meyers and he stated so. From what I can tell, he didn't become physically confrontational and the police moved to remove him from the hall. Mr. Meyers frequently asked, "What did I do?". After a small tussle with the police, one which I would have had too if I didn't know why I was being removed, he was tazered by the police and then removed. Throughout this tyraid, Senator Kerry kept telling the police to let Mr. Meyers to ask his questions. Of course in the heat of the moment, the police didn't hear that and continued on.
May I ask, when is it okay to use force and remove someone by tazering them? I watched the video over and over and can't see where Mr. Meyer was wrong. He had a legitimate reason to ask why he was being detained. Again, I would have fought too. The police were taking his rights away, in my opinion. I can ramble on all day about this, but I won't. I just wanted to write about it and see if anyone else had any opinions.
I think that the University needs to conduct a full INDEPENDANT investigation and the officers should receive at the very least a 30 day suspension, without pay, and a reevaluation of their duties of when to use force. We should not be afraid to push for our rights.
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Police need better training in recognizing when someone is an actual threat.
The problem here is better threat training? As someone who has just a bit more of personal, first-hand experience of police against citizenry, it has nothing to do with mistaking if you are a threat or not. It has to do with unquestioned obedience, complete power over you, complete refusal of accountability for their own actions, and a sentiment that pretty much anything they do is the law and is right.
The police need to be trained better in respecting the constitutional rights and civil liberties of its citizens and NOT violating them. The police need to be severely penalized and fired for violations of anyone's civil rights. 30 days? Pfh. Do you know how screwed up all those students' views now possess on the true extent of their freedom of speech and the blind power that police exercise against harmless, questioning citizens? How about a year's termination? How about terminated permanently? Otherwise the message a short suspension sends is that this kind of behavior isn't that serious. 30 days is nothing. It's pocket change.
How about you help me put pressure? http://www.progressiveu.org/140509-breaking-news-university-student-arre...
And no where in the constitution does it say that if you take more than your allotted time at a question and answer session means you should be silenced, arrested, manhandled, tasered, and jailed.
This is not democracy.
We do not live in a democratic society. We do not have a government that respects the civil liberties of its citizens. We do not have freedom
We are just told that we have them -- until they become disapproved.
Citizen Press Revolution
Here's a link to the video. I went and found it.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/18/student.tasered.ap/index.html
I don't think they should have tasered him or even dragged him out. I would have been upset too. Police tend to be nervous when someone refuses to go quietly.
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~Fallon~
"Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something." Henry David Thoreau
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Police were "nervous"? Not at all. They were angry that someone said the simple fact that he was being arrested for doing NOTHING wrong.
Police hate when citizens don't comply with their every whim and demand. Police expect their power to be respected -- even when they are in the wrong. The police culture focuses on compliance and force. The police culture hates when citizens recognize that their civil liberties are being violated. The police do not protethct the people's freedoms. They protect the state against the people -- regardless of their freedoms the people are supposed to have.
It is interesting especially how corporate media is spinning it when it is compared with a student video posted on youtube. Corporate media is not the friend or watchdog for the public. If it wasn't for youtube, this probably wouldn't be known about as much.
FYI, check out my take which has two videos of the event to compare and a corporate media's article on it.
Andrew Meyer was the last one in a long line that was made longer by Kerry blathering forever in his answers. Simply because his allotted time for a political spectacle was short, he made the obvious observation outloud: "he's being going on for two hours, I think I can have two more minutes".
We aren't treated as citizens. We are treated as subjects.
The government has no respect for the public and no respect for its freedoms.
Citizen Press Revolution
False arrest, false imprisonment, kidnapping, assault, battery, silencing political speech ... they should all be fired, arrested and tried. Who the f**k do they think they are? All the other students in that hall should have jumped the jack-booted thugs then and there!