Monday, September 17, 2007
florida student tasered at kerry speech
i'm posting this video, along with the commentary that the guy that posted it says.
"I couldnt get to my camera in time to record his entrance, but this guy basically comes running in with 4 or 5 cops in tow and says he has been running around trying to get in to ask a question and the cops are going to arrest him for it. they almost do it then but Sen. Kerry says he will answer it. he then answers a previous question someone else asked (i cut that part out because it isnt important to this video) then the guy asks his questions and when he is done all hell breaks lose. to the cop haters: i have no doubt the cops were going exactly by the book, the problem isnt them, its the book! they were doing their job and looked just as confused as this kid (this isnt something that they deal with often)."
this may turn out to be a big deal, it may not. some issue i'm curious about:
1. did kerry actually win? what sort of proof is out there on this claim?
2. is this police brutality? how do we define that? i'm sure there are issue of reasonable force, but i wonder about tasering someone, in handcuffs, especially if they're not being violent. i remember a case in madera a few years back where a suspect was in cuffs, in the back of a cop car. the officer mistakenly shot the guy, but said she was going for her taser and grabbed the wrong weapon. now, obviously that went too far, but the whole idea that they were going to taser someone that was already restrained, in custody bothers me.
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13 comments:
I think two things, first the guy seems to have a flair for the dramatic, and not neccesarily when he is being tasered because I am sure that hurt but the whole time until then he is trying very hard to get and keep everyones attention on him. This of course doesn't mean he deserved that treatment but he wasn't going to step away from that microphone until he was done with his rant but we also don't know what went on outside before he came in to ask his question.
Secondly, that is really poor quality footage to make any real assessment in my opinion, but I am not a cop hater so perhaps I am biased. I just think more information is needed.
true, I meant to mention how poor quality, difficult to follow the video is.
He was on the ground and I'm sure they either had an arm behind his back or a knee on top of him. There were at least four cops there.
I think it was excessive, but I'm a cop hater so I'm biased that way.
Why they tried to escort him out before he was finished is something to think about.
sorry, the cops seemed pretty calm until the kid became physically defiant.
Have you seen the video from about 6 months or so ago at the UCLA library where they tasered a guy who wouldn't leave the library?
My understanding/assumption is that the taser should be used to subdue a physically violent person. It seems that it has become a tool of convenience for some cops, not much different from the way Homer uses a gun in that on Simpsons episode to turn off lights and get a ball down from the roof.
sure, the cops were calmly standing there in the video until after the question, and the guy didn't want to leave. i don't have any problem with the cops telling someone to leave, within reason, and escorting them out. and, if they need to put him in cuffs, i also understand.
i start questioning tactics when you have four cops restraining a guy. or when you have a guy pinned down, who's not fighting or being violent and then he's tasered.
I've seen the video Steve, it's stomach turning.
What I don't understand is why the cops who calmly stood there and let him ask his question couldn't calmly stand there and let Kerry answer it. I imagine at that point, the guy would have had a great opportunity to leave or be escorted out. Instead, they let him ask his questions and then tell him to get out? The fuck?
From an article I found today:
"A university spokesman said campus police cut the microphone and removed Meyer because he had overstayed his allotted time to question the senator."
Are you kidding me? I'm sorry sir, you've gone over the time allotted and now we must throw you to the floor and use our tasers on you. What the fuck kind of political process is that?
adam, you're taking it beyond what the video showed. they didn't get aggressive with him until he was refusing to walk out with them. the student would never have ended up on the ground if he had just walked out.
the REASON for why they made him leave is definitely questionable. using the taser obviously wasn't necessary.
however, the student is by no means without fault. if he had just walked out, he would have never ended up on the groud or even tasered.
No, I'm not questioning the escalation of force by the police officers. Once the dude started resisting, they needed to make sure no one was harmed. I understand that.
I'm questioning one, why the guy was cut off, and two, why they did it when they did.
And as far as taking it beyond the video, yes, I'm working from the video and other sources, like the one I mentioned in my last comment where an official spokesperson made the quoted claim.
So what really bugs me is that this person got passionate at the microphone, overran his allotted time and apparently that was enough for four armed officers to shut off his microphone and try to forcibly remove him.
what bugs ME is that what was happening obviously bothered other people in the crowd. "police brutality" "rodney king" everyone has their phone recording it.
if it really bothered people, why didn't they do anything? if it was polive brutality (and I am not saying it was, but people apparently thought so), why not intervene?
chicken shit college students are all talk about changing the world.
but what can you do? say you're there, and the cops are overzealous in their arrest. if you step in, the taser is going to be the least of your concerns. you can be a witness, document with tape, tell the cops to stop, all of which happen here. but, you touch an officer, you're going down hard.
in related arguments, some of the florida officials are pushing for this kid to be charged with violent resist of arrest, a felony, rather than the misdemeanor he's been charged with.
i guarantee that you're getting a felony charge if you physically intervene. so, if you're down for that, then step up. which, maybe we should be.
good stuff people.
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