Saskboy left a comment on my post about the guy being tased and arrested and mentioned that he had three videos linked. The name of his post is ‘Brutal Police in Florida taser charismatic activist‘ and that in itself should tell you everything you need to know about his article. According to Saskboy:
He also mentions that one of the videos takes up from the beginning. No, actually it doesn’t, it just picks up from where he started badgering Kerry with his idiotic diatribe. Not that I think badgering Kerry the fool is a bad thing but this guy is acting like an idiot, particularly when he basically says “I will ask the question after I educate the audience”.
Saksboy also asks:
Just from the few videos that I have seen and the reaction to the rest of the audience this was not the beginning and it may not have been the first time that this guy was a pain in the ass, which would explain exactly why the police were standing behind him.
I don’t know if I would consider it fascism like The Huffington Post but I honestly think that arresting him went a bit too far in violating his rights. I’m certainly not saying that tasing his ass was wrong. I guess I would have had to be there to make that distinction and the police had to make a decision about what to do, so being an armchair quarterback after the fact is kind of pointless. From what I saw he needed to be thrown out of the event and if he had gone with police that might have been all that happened.
Aha, now we get to a few facts…
Apparently he had a history of taping his own practical jokes. Guess what dude, the jokes on you. No wonder the police were standing there expecting something, this definitely wasn’t the first time and although we do have the right to free speech that doesn’t give any of us the right to get up and make an ass of ourselves in someone else’s forum.
According to the University of Florida Mr. Meyer was asked to leave the microphone after his alloted time ran out and he refused. You can hear that in the tape as well as see him resisting the effort of the policemen to get him out of the room.
Technorati: Andrew Meyer,John Kerry,Don’t Tase Me, Bro,University of Florida
The guy’s a video blogger and journalist, of COURSE he’s going to film his “stunts” which is his chosen way to get interviews with important people.
“I’m certainly not saying that tasing his ass was wrong.”
Why not? Police procedure said it was wrong in this case, human compassion does too, and in a democratic state it certainly is. Fascism is the definition of what happened, look it up.
I frankly don’t understand why the fact that someone is taping a stunt – if that is even the case here – is even relevant to whether it is then ok to tase them while they are held down and not a threat to anyone. The more I watch the angry responses that many people have toward Meyer, the more I wonder about where they come from (which I write about in my post at Emotional Responses to the Andrew Meyer & John Kerry Incident. Why do people feel such anger toward a kid who, at worst, was simply being a bit of a prankster and at best was actually asking some tough questions that should be asked and got somewhat confrontational as he did it? Personally I think there are some real deep issues involved psychologically all around.
I frankly don’t understand why the fact that someone is taping a stunt – if that is even the case here – is even relevant to whether it is then ok to tase them while they are held down and not a threat to anyone. The more I watch the angry responses that many people have toward Meyer, the more I wonder about where they come from (which I write about in my post at Emotional Responses to the Andrew Meyer & John Kerry Incident. Why do people feel such anger toward a kid who, at worst, was simply being a bit of a prankster and at best was actually asking some tough questions that should be asked and got somewhat confrontational as he did it? Personally I think there are some real deep issues involved psychologically all around.
Tough questions such as whether Kerry was in the same secret society as Bush? WTF is that about?
It’s not that he was taping it but the fact that after having asked him to give back the mic since he was over his alloted time that he refused and then resisted.
If they did indeed tase him while handcuffed that was certainly against police procedures. I’ll wait for the facts to come out in that before making a judgement but the fact is that he was in the wrong, but unfortunately if they did use too much force that makes them in the wrong as well and he looks like a hero which he most certainly is not.
Somewhat off topic, I just finished reading his ( Meyer’s) diatribe against the media and how they portray Iraq and he has some really good points.
As far as how the police reacted I think it will play out OK, otherwise he wouldn’t be out on bail on his own recognizance since yesterday.
I am not defending the police but he was acting like an ass. When you are asked by a cop to move along and you don’t then they ramp up the response. When you still refuse and then try to resist, what the fuck do you expect? If it was me or you doing something as simple as loitering or jawalking they would act the same way if we refused to follow directions and then physically resisted when the tried to move us.