University of Florida student Tasered at Kerry forum

[ranger2112]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bVa6jn4rpE

Police Brutality or just cause

[Acetriad]

I couldn't hear what he was saying for sure during the first part, so I'm not for sure if they were right to attempt to throw him out or not. When he started pushing and shoveing like he did though, they WERE right to restrain him. He was within his rights to ask what he did, but he should have tried listening to their response instead of continually hollering it out. As for the tasering itself, from what I could see, when he was tasered he was already being restrained on the ground by about 5 cops, or security officers, or whatever they were. The use of a taser is for subduing a subject. He was allready subdued. Its pretty obvious the people who were there thought it was a bit excessive from some of the reactions. I think it was excessive myself as well. I'm not saying this guy is nesisarrily a model citicen or anything, but when you're allready on the ground restrained (I think they may have had the cuffs on him, but I'm not sure) getting taser'd seems to be a bit much.

[ooga booga]

if he was still struggling hard and resisting I have no problem with the use of a little taser (it's only temporary pain, the guy will live). However when they already have him subdued, which it seems the case here, then there is no need for the use of the taser. They had him pinned down at that point, and it appears he is not struggling wildly anymore, and THAT was the time they used it. If they were to use it at all during that clip, that was not the time to do it, so I think they were in the wrong there.

[mechdestroyer]

ok now i understand the police have the right to arrest and retain anybody for 48 for absolutely no reason but i saw no reason to do what they did, even removing him when kerry is in the background saying that he will answer the question and it is important! what the heck!

the reason they tazered him i heard the cops say put your hands behind yoru back he wouldnt put them behind his back.

now im all about having police arrest us, but right there it seemed to me like that was just harrasment and really assualt just throwing him out,
i think if i was there and i heard him screaming like that i would have tried to come to his rescue, would have prob got charged with assualt on a cop but no, if anybody else was doing that to a guy other than the cops people would have stepped in.
he said he would leave walk out when he knew they werent going to let kerry answer his questions. they didnt give him the chance

cops shouldnt be able to do that man, their going to charge him with stuff, they would probably be best letting him go and forgetting about it. why charge the guy with resisting arrest, plus i never heard them say he was underarrest just started handcuffing him.

[mechdestroyer]

sry for the double post

but at about 27 seconds in, a cop on the right of him when they are trying to pull him out pulls a gun out on him it is a skinny black cop he has a gun out and pointed at him! now i dont know what tazers look like so that could be what it was but WHAT!

[ViSiOn]

Those cops just suck... 1 guy > 6 cops.

[Hamlet]

I couldn't hear what he was saying for sure during the first part, so I'm not for sure if they were right to attempt to throw him out or not.[...]

Sounds like he's asking, if he [Kerry] was in the same secret society (Skull & Bones??) as Bush. Imo they are way too brutal; he isn't posing an imminent threat to the police or the public. Freedom of speech (asking a Q) gets pwnd by tazers. Now, if it had taken part in Denmark, then I would have been outraged by it...

[Warl0rd]

land of freddom my $$$!

Note, i don't know US laws.

1- He made a question that wasn't offensive, so the police had no reasons to arrest him, at least here you can call anyone son of a .... in public and you won't get arrested for it, you can be charged for offense later on court, but you don't get arrested. I dunno if presidents, senators or vip have special laws covering them...

2- If the police decided to arrest him, (and lets ignore if they should do it or not) as a citizen you can't resist... Resisting gives them the right to do what they did, use necessary force to put him down.

3-Was the force used to put him down necessary and adequate? well he resisted, but there were like 6 cops around him, he doesn't seem a tough guy to put down and definetly didn't need to be tasered.

I hope he is able to put the policemans in court and get some $$$ to pay his college

[ooga booga]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sE76LQwT6qA&NR=1 In this video and angle you can see what was asked ahead of time, which may help clarify some things. He was asking the questions to get a reaction out of the crowd and Kerry, not really for feedback in normal questions you would ask. In this case the cops/security were right there by the microphone for the intended purpose if someone like him started getting out of hand they could remove him quickly. I don't think he was originally getting arrested. 2 cops were merely trying to escort him out of the room, merely getting kicked out if you will. When he started being even more disruptive and resisting, that's when the use of force was needed. The guy was an idiot and is apparently not the first video/incident that he's been in. He was still jerking around forcefully making it difficult for the cops to handcuff him, so they used the taser. They had warned him ahead of time, if he did not co-operate he would be tasered. He didn't co-operate, thus the taser. Pretty simple.

[Satan666]

but the real point is not that he was getting arrested, but that after being restrained that they felt to taser him. I mean with all the cops right there and him already in cuffs, where would he go, he had calm down for the most part and wasn't fighting anymore.