I don't know his name, but I remember hearing about the student that was tasered during the John Kerry press conference.
I'm not saying he should or shouldn't have been, but I did notice he was saying "If you let me up, I'll walk out of here." If they were trying to get him to leave, then why didn't they just let him up? He only said one curse word, and it was after the police had taken him to the floor.
I think it was a little excessive. I don't think he should have been tasered. I won't go as far as police brutality, but it wasn't right either.
Poor guy didn't even get the answer to his question, either.
Was he being silenced?
I don't know.
It happened at the University of Florida, and the student's name was Andrew Meyer. Meyer was a journalism student who refused to leave the microphone after his alloted time to ask John Kerry questions was up. Police intervened, and it gets a little confusing after that.
You can watch the video on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sE76LQwT6qA&mode=related&search=
I don't think he was being silenced because of what he was saying, but because of how he was saying it. He was being selfish, obnoxious, rude, and certainly disrespectful to Kerry and the rest of the student body. Did the punishment match the crime? In my opinion, absolutely not!
My point is, watch the video, and make up your own mind.
I did watch the video. That's how I heard what he said. From what I saw, it didn't look like he had been at the mic very long at all. The police came up to him almost instantly, it seemed like.
I understand that for press conferences there are certain time limits and limits on numbers of questions that can be asked. I also understand that the people attending have to agree either orally or by contract to certain stipulations of the conference.
I don't think he started off rude. He was just trying to pave a background for his question, and as he said to inform the student body. He became rude after the police grabbed him.
I don't know what question limits were imposed on him, or how long he was allowed to speak, so it's difficult to tell if he was breaking those rules or not. Without having that knowledge, it's difficult to make a decision about what happened.
I just know that he wasn't being violent or that unruly. He only started cussing after he had been grabbed, and taken to the floor. Tasing him was uncalled for. I also noticed that at the end of the video, one of the cops was smiling and chuckling after the kid had been tased.
I definitely agree; that police officer's behavior was completely out of line.
However, if you read a few news articles about the story, you'll find that he was at the mic for longer than the videos show. Also, in my opinion, from what the video shows he wasn't being respectful, and his attitude was impertinent. I wouldn't want to be addressed that way. If he wanted to make a point, and clearly he was a former supporter of Kerry, then he should have found a better way to do it. It is my experience that people tend to discount the "crazies" that act in the obsessed and aggravated manner that this particular student did.