Don’t Taze Me Bro

September 17 2007 saw an incident at the University of Florida in which a student who was asking Senator John Kerry a series of questions relating to his relationship with the Bush family and the alleged rigging of votes in Florida during the Presidential election.

The questions that the student, Andrew Meyer,asked John Kerry were:

1. Why did John Kerry never dispute the elections after rigging was obvious in Florida?

2. Why has George Bush not been impeached yet after invading two countries illegally when Bill Clinton was impeached for a his indiscretions?

3. What relationship does John Kerry have with the Bush family after it is reported that both men when they were young were both members of the “skull and cross bones society” in University?

None of the questions were answered, although Mr Kerry stated that he didn’t mind answering them.

While being led away by officers, Meyer resisted, and police used a taser on him while he was being held down.

In a report dated October 24, 2007, CBS News reports that Florida Department of Law Enforcement had said that police were justified in their use of the tazer during the incident!

Meyer was charged by police for resisting an officer and disturbing the peace, and has since avoided criminal charges by apologizing and complying with terms of a voluntary 18-month probation.

From what I can make out, Meyer was out of order in the way he asked questions, and refused to step down once his alloted time was finished.

This is apparently where the trouble started.

His next mistake was to start resisting the officers who were trying to escort him out.

Had he gone quietly, the chances are that he may have simply been led to the door and allowed to leave.

By resisting the officers, he escalated the situation.

Having said that, while he was on the floor, Meyer was ‘Tazed’ by the the officers, when he appeared to have been unable to resist any further.

In my opinion, this was unjustified, and in turn put the spotlight on the officers.

While the meeting was a privately organized event, with organizers being able to set rules and guidelines as they saw fit, allowing the student to speak, and have his questions answered, would have saved a lot of ill feeling and anger.

Not allowing the Senator to speak, would have put him at a disadvantage, making it appear that he endorsed the police action.

The incident has been played and replayed across the Internet over the past few months, and has now been turned into a computer game.

The whole thing has left a bad taste in my mouth, as well as a growing concern about the possible overuse of Tazers.

Then of course, one wonders about how free freedom of speech actually is.

Claiming that we live in a democracy, and then shutting people down in a forum such as this in such a violent manner only serves to make people wonder.

Regardless of whether or not police and the authorities feel that their actions were justified, they were seen by many people to in fact be heavy handed and bullying.

Part of living in a democracy is being allowed to share an opinion, and to ask questions, or is this too, an inconvenient truth?

I love the quote from Voltaire below, but wonder how far we are removed from this principle of democracy today?

Did it ever exist?

I sometimes wonder when I hear news of someone from the far right or far left being banned and/or demonstrated against.

Wouldn’t it be more profitable for society to let them have their say, and present a counter argument to their point of view?

Or are we fearful that we may be found wanting somewhere in the debate?

“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Voltaire

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Please Note that the opinions expressed in this post are mine, based on the information that was available to me at the time of writing.

My comments on both the Police and Student involved are not intended to apportion guilt or blame, but are simply a reflection on how this whole thing could have been handled a lot differently.