Bringing back strong memories of this incident, John Kerry has released a statement about the University of Florida student who was tasered for vigorously questioning Kerry during a speech at the university on Tuesday.
Police used excessive force on the unarmed 21-year-old man who was heard to yell, "Don't tase me, bro!"
Most of the audience sat still and watched as police tasered him and dragged him from the room. We would have thought liberal college students would have yelled or protested the use of excessive force the way students in the library at UCLA did when a student who'd forgotten his library card was tasered by campus po-po there.
We are in fact, very concerned that they did absolutely nothing. In fact, many members of the audience aplauded when the man was carried away by the police and were laughing as he was tasered. One woman in our posted video called the man "an idiot" - how sad to think that we're viewed as idiots when we try to change our world.
The guy was asking a lot of questions even heckling Kerry, but he was not violent and he was exercising his right to free speech - something that is often made a joke out of (like the guy at our school who wanted to post homemade porn on CCTV that was piped into patients at the local hospital,) but when freedom of speech regarding political opinion is violently repressed like this we freak and rightfully so.
John Kerry was heavily criticized on MSNBC's Tucker and elsewhere online today for his lack of outrage on the student's behalf and on the behalf of free speech. We aren't surprised - this is a man who has committed war crimes. Like a little taser action is going to bother him?
Kerry was heard to ask the officers to let him answer the student's question; we think totally knew how bad this was going to look for him.
The student has yet to release a statement.
Click here to watch the disturbing video of the incident. Six officers were on one guy. Amazing.
PS. Did you know John Kerry is from one of those dynasty families that are what's wrong with the world? Again, we're so naive but it was total news to us. "His first cousin Brice Lalonde, a future Socialist and Green Party leader in France...ran for president of France in 1981." We are so sick of familial nepotism. And not just in Hollywood and in politics - it's everywhere!
PPS. This article on Kerry in CounterPunch is amazing. We think it's a must read.
PPPS. The moral of so many of these lessons is 'Don't go to Florida.'
2 comments:
I don't think a Q & A situation usually permits speechifying. (Other clips of this event show that Andrew Meyer was at the mic for a considerable time.) By taking more time at the mic than his share, this jerk was denying others of their right to ask questions within a reasonably-alloted time. This jerk also resisted arrest as he was being escorted out of the room while disturbing the peace. This jerk was obviously looking for trouble and he found it. If he could only had mastered the skill of artfully asking a question or two, he could have relinquished the mic and waited for his answer, he could have embarrassed Kerry, and there would have been no problem.
(BTW, I'm speaking as a non-Kerry lover.)
The guy was an ass. I don't think anybody will argue that. But how much of an ass do you have to be to get tasered?
There are a lot of unanswered questions. Were the students briefed beforehand about conduct, things like how many questions they would be allowed to ask and how long students would be allowed to talk. Yes, he should have given up his mic-time and yes, he may have been looking for trouble, but still the cops used excessive force to remove him.
The most disturbing part of the video was the lack of indignation on the part of the students in the room. It seems like they were willing to sit back and let this guy, idiot or no, be abused.
Not to get on too slippery of a slope, but this seems like an early sign of entering a police state. The police have the ability to arrest anybody as an enemy combatant without charging them with anything. The letter of the law allows them to do that, even to U.S. Citizens/residents. That is the kind of thing that I'm afraid of when I watch videos like this, it's the slope downwards that I feel the U.S. is on.
(Also speaking as a non-Kerry lover)
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