, at
5:22 AM
I want to know why this individual was being detained and tased. Sure, he had an outburst, but he was clearly not violent. Even if people and/or politicians do not agree, it is his constitutional right to voice his opinion. Whether we like it, or not. It's real sad to see the very authorities that we trust to protect us, to put us down for our beliefs and opinions.
By , at
5:22 AM
He was Tazzed because he was resisting arrest
He was being arrested because he was resisting being removed from the building
He was being removed from the building because he was disruptive belligerent and out of turn.
Senator Kerry was at the school to speak on trade. He was scheduled to be there an hour he had already been there 90 minutes.
The young man cut in the line to ask questions and when his time was up he continued to speak in a disruptive manner.
Also from what I've read this kid has a history of being disruptive at these sort of events.
He was looking to make himself a martyr and i guess he succeeded. Unfortunately.
The police were completely in the right.
And BTW if you are a Senator on the floor of the Senate and you do what this kid did, there is a man called the Sergeant at Arms, and the Speaker will have him remove you. Its up to you how.
He was not being arrested. There was no declaration of arrest. He was assaulted by those police.
This is insane, you tell someone their time to speak is over just because you disagree with what they're saying? He was assaulted with a tazer because he was resisting arrest, the reason for which was not explained to him, which constitutes a breach in the arrest guidelines. I guess police just like hurting civs when they can "get away with it":=
By , at
10:04 AM
He was being arrested. You see how they were subduing him and putting handcuff on him? That's because he was being arrested. After the fact and after police could extract him from that situation he was creating he was taken outside and informed he was being arrested, you can youtube the video for proof.
His time to speak was over because his time to speak was over. There was a Q&A section of the conference, students had qued up to get their chance at the mic. Senator Kerry who had been scheduled for an hour and had already been there 30 minutes more said he would only be taking one more question, he is a very busy man I would imagine. This young man jumps to the head of the line, interjects himself asking questions which had nothing to do with the subject at hand. When he was at about his third question (with a long preface) his mic was cut, he could have stepped aside and Mr. Kerry offered to answer his questions. He didn't step aside he got belligerent with the officers who tried to get him to step aside, he was loud and he was officially being arrested for attempting to incite a riot (youll see that in the video i mentioned above if you youtube it).
When you resist arrest, police officers will go through various methods to subdue you, he was warned prior to being tazed. Had he rolled onto his stomach and put his hands behind his back he would not have been tazed.
You say police like to hurt civis when they can get away with it. How could they get away with it? They were being filmed by at least 5 people, they were in front of a Senator of the United States and in a room full of stupid "MY RIGHTS" college students who know very little about the actual world and think stuff like this will fly.
How could the authorities we trust to protect us do this? Yes, we trust them to protect us against this very thing. Against a disruption to our civil peace.
Now i am all for protest and civil disobedience, but you don't ask "why am I being arrested" You know why. There are laws and some laws should be broken but when you break them dont ask why you're being arrested. Be arrested, and when/if you're released do it again.
This kid is no hero and its disgusting that some people want to think of him as such.
He was being disruptive and rude, and was acting like an idiot: They did the right thing, let him speak his peace, wait it out and be the bigger person.
He rambled on like a fool, with points worthy of consideration, but in a condescending, rude manner that ultimately just amounts to name calling and disruption: They were right to cut his mic.
He yelled an carried on, causing more disruption: they were right to have him removed from the building. Not arrest him (Though detaining may not be a bad idea), but yeah, throw his butt to the curb.
Then they Tazed him. This was absolutely stupid. He was not threatening anyone, he was unarmed, he was just ranting. If I tazed every person who was a dick, I would go broke buying batteries. Police use Tasers against people who are dangerous but unarmed. And when he yelled, "Please don't taze me" practically crying, Im pretty sure hes not much of a threat. I can not think of a more effective way to make this loon look like a hero instead of the fool he is. They should have not been stupid, and dragged his ass outside.
Manfredo has absolutely no brain in his head and all of his comments are filled with lies.
"When he was at about his third question (with a long preface) his mic was cut, he could have stepped aside and Mr. Kerry offered to answer his questions. He didn't step aside he got belligerent with the officers who tried to get him to step aside, he was loud and he was officially being arrested for attempting to incite a riot (youll see that in the video i mentioned above if you youtube it)."
Why would he step aside when no one ever told him to step aside and no one told him he was being arrested (clearly no reason to conceivably arrest him, since he didn't even come close to committing any crimes whatsoever)? The cops just grabbed him out of nowhere wordlessly and he asked what was going on and they refused to answer. Saying that he was inciting a riot is just total madness lies.
"Had he rolled onto his stomach and put his hands behind his back he would not have been tazed."
Wow. He was ON HIS STOMACH WITH HIS HANDS BEHIND HIS BACK WHEN HE WAS TASED. He was on the ground with a million cops surrounding him and he was begging to not be Tased when he was Tased. No one in the world who even claims to have a brain in their head could say there was any reason for him to be Tased.
By 
Bobby Crosby, at
2:11 AM
I understand and agree with the comments that he spoke over his turn and was beligerent and disruptive and was being escorted out of the building for that, but it is a violation if his rights to not inform him of that reason. He asked repeatedly why he was being arrested and was given no answer. Whether it would have changed his behavior or not, we can't know, but I think it was clearly obvious that he was panicked because he was being arrested, had no idea why, and was not answered despite repeatedly asking why. Furthermore, I ask the question, What was he resisting? If he had been loud and spoken out of turn, and then left quietly, he would have been escorted out of the building, not arrested. What he resisted was the escort. There is no law against that. At what point did the police have a right to move to arrest? You can say it's resisting arrest, and I'm sure the courts will agree, because they don't want to set a precedent that would allow any loopholes for resisting arrest. However, you can only resist arrest if there are grounds for arrest prior to the resistance. Otherwise, it's resisting something else. Nothing he did prior to resisting were grounds for arrest. They have a right to detain him, but there should be no grounds for arrest.
He wasn't being arrested. At no point did the police state he was under arrest or read him his Mirandas. They just flat out assaulted him and police are doing that too often these days, then they wonder why people shoot them. What's even more disgusting than the police are the students who just sat there doing nothing.
By , at
5:57 AM
The local news here in Florida has uncovered that this guy had been planning to cause a disruption of the event to the point where the police were going to arrest him. He is a journalism student and has a website that is dedicated to his "jackass" style of journalism. Before he got up to speak he had a cameraman get up and begin videotaping.
Besides that point, once the moderator told him his time was up, he was no longer "entitled" to speak. The moderator then summoned the police to restore order to the event. The police then had the legal right to order him to stop disrupting, and he refused, when the police tried to take him into custody for disrupting the event, he refused to comply and became actively resistant by pulling away, and once the first hand cuff was applied, he had a weapon (albiet one that the police provided him, but a weapon none the less), which is why he ended up getting tazed.
The unfortunate part is that since it was a "University" setting, the officers who were only trying to keep the event going smoothly are now subject to ridicule, scrutiny, and possible loss due to some dipshit.
By , at
6:03 AM
1) It's a public forum.
2) John Kerry is saying "Let me answer his question" if you're listening.
I think Jon Stewart got it perfectly correct when he said it was an unfortunate combination of "police overreaction and student douchebaggery" ...
It's cute because every major newspaper in America would've carried this on the frontpage if Bush had been present instead of Kerry. He was being disruptive, but free speech has the right to.
By , at
7:51 AM
Free speech doesn't give you a right to yell "Fire" in a building when there's no fire, so I disagree that it gives ou the right to be disruptive. If he had been spouting his diatribe on his lawn to his friends, then sure. No problem. But he was on school property and the administrators of the school and/or event decided they didn't want it occurring on their property.
By , at
8:24 AM
I agree with the police in this situation. I was expecting some kind of shadow tactics where they quickly dragged him off and then tased him, but that's not what happen. When they cut his mic, he began to yell. When they tried to escort him out of the building, he resisted and struggled against them. When they began to put handcuffs on him he continued to resist and put on his little display. He was warned that he was going to be tased. He did not stop. I am 100% with the police on this one.
Whoever stood up for the kid being tazered is a fool, and deserves to be tazered himself.
The kid was disruptive, and should have been removed from the building, but in no way should have an unarmed kid already subdued by 4 or more officers be tazered. That is just flat out wrong.
And they should at least have replied when he asked if he was being arrested - that is within his rights.
I won't make a generalisation about the police because I know there are good men and women working for our safety out there, but these cops seemed to have been out of line here, much as the kid himself was.
By , at
8:43 AM
Yeah, I got my feathers all up in a puff over the same sort of first ammendment stuff you guys have all been talking about. Then I found out that this guy planned to do exactly that, wanted to get an overreaction from the police, calmed down immediately and was amicable to the police as soon as the cameras were turned off, and has done stunts like this in the past. Somehow I have real difficulty caring about a damn thing about this now.
By , at
8:44 AM
First of all Bobby, I can tell you only saw the videos because you don't know the whole story. When he ran to the fornt of the line the cops moved to escort him out, but Kerry said to wait and that he would listen to his questions. This is why you see two officers behind him at the start of the video.
An organizer behind the cops (again, clearly visible in the videos) gives the signal to cut the mic and has the cops escort him out. Notice WHERE they grab him as they walk him out. If they were arresting him they would've moved to put his hands behind his back, which they did not.
It wasn't until he resisted and tries to run away from the cops that they got rough to subdue him.
Also, he was NOT on his stomach when he was tased. The videos CLEARLY show that he had moved onto his back and had just freed an arm from one of the officers. He was neither on his stomach, nor cuffed.
There are terrible instances of police brutality, like the rave incident in Ohio, and still more injustices caused by the cops. THIS IS NOT ONE OF THEM.
Oh yeah, and THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH FREE SPEECH. He was not tasered for what he said, he was tasered for what he did. Try to resist police officers, and attempted to incite riot (telling people to help you and stop the cops is inciting riot whether you think that's right or not)
Honestly that looks more like a skit that this idiot staged in order to prove some kind of point.
By , at
10:11 AM
Im glad some people can see through this guy and his stunt and they've set Bobby right, but i'll just add this. In certain situations the police are allowed to subdue and detain you before the pronounce that you have been arrested. I think this is one of those situations. Also there werent a million cops around him or even "19" as reported by Fox, there were probably 5 or 6. You dont get a fair fight with the police, they will subdue you with maximum efficiency because they dont want to get hurt, maybe you do but they dont so they will take no chances.
I think we can ALL agree that tasing wasn't necessary, and just ended up making the police look bad, and the kid into some kind of martyr for his cause (whatever the !@#$ it is). There were, like, what, four officers wrestling with the kid? The only reason I can think of using a taser in that situation other than laziness or a fear of him breaking someone's nose is that they just wanted an excuse to tase someone. It's a borderline case, but I think it's pretty apparent that the police could have, and SHOULD have (more to avoid controversy than because it's the right thing to do) subdued him through other means.
It's excessive use of force, and the kid likely won't have to deal with any charges due to the nature of his arrest, but remember: it's just a !@#$ing hell of a lot of pain. Maybe a bit of psychological damage. He's not dismembered, or suffering serious brain damage. Maybe he'll twitch for a few weeks... I mean, that one news guy got tased! and he said "It hurts!"
C'mon, doesn't anyone watch the news anymore? Being tazed is the new IT THING! Or whatever...
I say, someone should be sacked for this. But that's the limit on things.
Thomas, try actualy reading the other comments. I suggest this one: By Anonymous, at 6:03 AM
By , at
3:01 PM
That kid was an idiot.
I've been arrested, and when the cops come, you do what they say, because we, as THE PEOPLE have invested that authority IN them. That's what they're there for. I'm no fan of Kerry, but he didn't deserve this kind of beligerant dogging either.
He was being completely uncooperative with the police, and they had to escalate the force used. None of the force was deadly or permanent.
What other means they could have had to subdue him? Beat him with a club. That's just about the only other option a cop has, isn't it? Trust me, that look worse than tasing.
I just wish they'd have stuck that taser in his mouth. Freaking crybaby jackass.
'Help, help, I'm being repressed! Now we see the voilence inherent in the system...'
Bloody peasant.
By , at
6:27 PM
Ok, the kid was a jerk. He wanted attention. He deserved to be treated harshly and rudely by the police. He deserved to be dragged outside...which they could easily do, the kid wasn't big. I think everyone agrees that the kid was an attention mongerer, planned this stunt, and was a jerk. Being a jerk doesn't make you lose your legal rights however...
Now the tasering. Why do police use tasers? The answer is to subdue dangerous people. Use of force is under strict guidelines, and for good reason (If someone has a primary source on guidelines of force, could they please interject it here, I forgot where I read it). Abuse of power is an easy thing to be done by the cops. A taser would be used on an individual who is presenting a threat to those around him. This kid was NOT A THREAT. He did nothing besides rant and yell. The police had complete control over him, vastly outnumbered him, had him pinned, and had no indication whatsoever of danger presented by him. He committed no crime, and was not under arrest.
From a practical perspective, whet did Tasing do? it made him slightly more docile due to electrical shock rending his muscles weak (However, given his crying, I bet he was already sufficiently docile). But it did not prevent nor accomplish anything productive except call for more paperwork, more power and publicity to the student, and grant his defense many opportunities to call foul, grant him public sympathy, and legally endanger the police department and the officers involved. The polices action did not accomplish anything, but rather endangered themselves and there superiors with no practical purpose. Honestly, I think this is best described as police laziness. Hes being difficult...eh, taser him, problem solved. But obviously, since were talking about this here, there actions turned a simple ejection into a media circus.
How could things have POSSIBLY gone better for this douchebag student? The police granted him stardom and a get out of jail free card on a silver platter.
Adam: please, please, PLEASE, do not talk out of your ass like that. The police used the taser because if he continue to resist either the cops or he himself would suffer injury. The cops HAD to cuff him at that point, and they were unable to keep his arms together without breaking them. They used a taser to make his muscles lose control so they could quickly and easily cuff him without causing any actual harm.
Pain sucks, medical bills suck more.
I agree with both views here.
Yes, this kid is a bit of a douche. He's an idiot. We can all figure this out.
BUT
The police shouldn't have tazered him. He did have a right to know why he was being escorted out or arrested or whatever, and the answer to that should not have been that.
Once you explain everything to him, if he keeps being an idiot, by all means, go ahead and shock the dude.
I could rant on how silly the people saying "OMG Taser! The HUMANITY!" are, but, instead, I'm gonna share someone else's viewpoint, since they were able to sum it up into something far shorter than anything I would've written.
"Actually, I'd call that fully justified. He was causing a scene, resisting arrest, and doing a decent job of wrestling with at least four cops. Had it continued, there's a good chance someone could have gotten hurt, and in order to ensure that didn't happen, they'd eventually have to hurt him.
Your constitutional rights don't mean squat if you choose to use them to infringe on someone else's.
Protip: When four police officers say stop struggling, unless you've got a superhuman feat of strength in reserve, you best comply whether you're in the right or the wrong."
As a sidenote, I'd like to point out that a taser is far less potentially physically damaging than the other non-lethal methods the police have at their disposal.
By , at
3:11 AM
It's possible that every word Keith said was a lie. None of it made any sense on any level.
"He was warned that he was going to be tased. He did not stop."
Did not stop WHAT? He was ON THE GROUND with tons of cops surrounding him and he was asking them not to Tase him because they were INSANELY OUT OF NOWHERE FOR NO REASON THREATENING TO TASE HIM, for no stated reason -- they gave him no instructions that he wasn't following. It's like if you're standing in line to buy a movie ticket and a cop comes up to you and says "I'M GONNA TASE YOU!" and you stand there and go, "Uh, please don't Tase me, bro!" and then they Tase you anyway. That's what happened here.
"The police used the taser because if he continue to resist either the cops or he himself would suffer injury. The cops HAD to cuff him at that point, and they were unable to keep his arms together without breaking them."
All of those words are lies and make no sense on any conceivable level. Nothing in the world was stopping the cops from handcuffing him. I do not believe it's possible that you honestly believe several cops couldn't cuff this CRYING KID who is BEGGING THEM NOT TO TASE HIM. He clearly was at his weakest moment and was willing to do anything they wanted in order to not be Tased. He was not resisting in any way -- how the fuck could he resist anything while he's on the fucking ground with tons of cops on top of him? If they can't figure out how to cuff him (and there was no reason in the world to conceivably cuff him or arrest him obviously), then they have no clue how to do their jobs and no one taught them how. I guarantee you any one of us could have cuffed that kid ourselves with one fucking hand while he's on the ground and we're on top of him with a Taser and he's crying and begging to not be Tased.
Some fucking moron, probably Keith, insanely said that he was inciting a riot by asking for help. People dressed as cops, but not in any way acting like cops, were assaulting this kid and dragging him away to who knows where -- if I was the kid, I'd think they weren't even cops and might have been people trying to kill him, who knows. They refused to tell them why they were assaulting him and wouldn't answer any of his questions.
And on and on and on.
This is a fact: No one with a brain says that the cops had any reason whatsoever to Tase him or to arrest him.
By Bobby Crosby, at
4:35 AM
You know bobby, I like +EV but I had no idea that you got your ideas for Corbin's / Clancey's / Harold's various acts of stupidity from yourself =/
Jesus christ, it's been spelled out repeatedly for you in English and yet you choose to ignore it all.
*shakes head*
By , at
7:03 AM
For the people saying they were dragging him out for no reason, and that he didn't know why: You do realize the video exists because he had his friend filming? And he had his friend filming because he went there with the express purpose of causing a disturbance.
On another note, the event was ticketed. The tickets were free, but you were required to actually apply and get one, so they could do background checks so that some attention hungry "journalist" didn't rush the mic and cause a huge scene. If there's any failure by the cops at all in this story, it's that this stupid kid who thinks he's making a name for himself as a journalist was able to get into the event at all, as he didn't get his ticket- which would've undoubtedly been denied, as he has a history of stunts like this.
Why didn't anyone help him? Just because some asshole cops want to suppress the rights of the people is no reason to back down defending a fellow american in need he has every right to ask whatever the hell he feels like asking and for all you duchebags who say he was insiting a roit is that really the best excuse you can cook up? a room full of students isnt going to "roit" if just because questions uncomfortable questions were asked doesnt mean your precious civil peace is going to be shattered or does it? Are the real answers to those questions really that shattering? cuz you could say Kerry didnt know that he won or he doesnt know what skull and bones in but he does and he did and there is a need to know why he didnt answer or couldn't maybe the peace should or could be broken behind the real asnwers to those questions could Kerry have just thrown the election cuz skull and bones wanted bush up there instead? Smells like it.
By , at
9:25 AM
This is just disturbing. America seems to want to spread democracy about the globe, and yet have yet to embrace it themselves.
I thank the lord I come from a decent, liberal country.
Every day I see these things coming from America and I that god that I am Welsh.
By , at
11:43 AM
Bobby, if you don't believe me about what happened before the video then that's just too bad. I don't know why you'd think ?I would lie like that.
As for what happens DURING the video, maybe you haven't been watching the same one? http://youtube.com/watch?v=6bVa6jn4rpE
The video I just linked VERY CLEARLY shows what happens. You can see with your own eyes that, just before he is tased, he breaks his arm free. You can also hear the cops telling him to stop resisting or he will be tased.
And to pope, I would ask the same 'not speaking out of your ass" courtesy from you. Kerry answers the questions in the background.
This topic is amazing to me. You seem to have to kinds of people:
A) People that tend to give cops the benefit of the doubt.
and
B) People who think people become cops so that they can beat people up and abuse their constitutional rights.
I'm more of the 'A' group.
Anyone who thinks that some jack ass obviously trying to cause a scene at a sitting senator's speech, who is told he may ask a question, but then rather than asking a question, goes on a tirade against the speaker, while not giving the speaker a half a second to answer the questions within the tirade... then refuses to step away from the mic, then starts yelling when his mic is cut, then refuses to obey the cops, then resists arrest, then wrestles on the ground with the police trying to keep from being hancuffed...
That somehow it's the COPS fault that he had to be subdued (again, by the least physically harmful method available to the police) by taser... is obviously from group 'B'.
Which to my mind is an irrational sort of way to think, but more power to you. lol.
By , at
6:15 PM
Ok,comments without seeing the whole 15 min video are not valid. Why, because you don't see the whole story. He was talking to the police while at the back of the line. The police warned him 4 to 5 times about being rude and causing trouble. They also warned him before he got to the mike that he keeps up he would be arrested for distrubing the piece. Then this idiot ran to the front of the line and pushed someone out of the way. Kerry for once was nice & accepted questions from him (me not a kerry fan)..Then went long and spouted crap and conspirecies (<-- sp?) .. Ok, he is intitle to his opinion.
But, the police had the right to do what they did.
Gee, I don't know.. If a cop warns me I personally listen.
P.s. I have been tazzer.. Not fun. but also not harmful unless you hit your head on something.
I believe everyone has equal rights until you infringe on someone elses.
By , at
7:34 PM
There's no 'clearly not dangerous' to a cop. Cops are trained to believe everybody could, would, and will hurt them, because, as every cop has experienced, everyone can, will, and has. He was disruptive, and if he'd gone out quietly with the police nothing more would have been said, perhaps 'disturbing the peace'. He resisted and fought with the cops.
In a case like this you read them their rights AFTER they are subdued. You can't read a person their rights until they're gonna sit and listen, and he was aggressive and trying to get away. Personally I think he wanted tased and wanted the attention.
If, once on the ground, he would have laid quietly and stopped trying to break away, he would not have been tased. Instead, he continued to scream and thrash.
And YES, though there are many cops there holding him down, they tased him. That is for their safety. People forget or do not care that police officers are routinely injured every day in this country trying to keep the asshats of the nation safe from themselves.
By , at
7:40 PM
Wow, and people wonder why I quit the police force. There is no good reason for such an excessive use of force in this situation. All the police had to do was handcuff and drag him out. They already had him down, if 6 cops can't a skinny college student cuffed after a takedown there is a problem with tactics and training in that department.
I'm just gonna throw my 2 cents in here and agree with the people who say the cops did what they should.
The entire time he's resisting arrest and screaming like they're doing something wrong, when they're acting according to protocol. Notice that they had the taser on his chest for a while while they were trying to get the handcuffs on him, and yet he's still fighting against them and yelling "get the fuck off me".
He was clearly resisting arrest, and the officers used non-lethal force to subdue him. I don't see what the problem is.
By , at
12:46 AM
To Anthony:
As a former police officer, you really should know exactly how difficult it is to actually put someone in handcuffs who doesn't want to be handcuffed. If someone doesn't want to be handcuffed, which was the case here, there are two ways to overcome that resistance, first is to use physical force and make him do it, which could result in broken bones, cuts, hospital visits, blood bourne illnesses, etc. The second is to use pain compliance which is what the taser is. The person, to avoid being put in pain again, will comply with the officer's instructions.
What you misunderstand from watching the video is that 6 officers are not required to put the guy in handcuffs. 6 officers are required to put the guy in handcuffs without injuring him. Does a 6 on 1 scuffle "LOOK" bad, probably, but how bad would it have been if it was a 1 on 1 and the officer end up putting the guy in the hospital?
By , at
4:45 AM
Haha, several american police officers are incapable to subdue a scrawny student and need to use a taser. That's really rich.
By , at
12:38 PM
Several are capable, so is one on his own. The trick is doing it without anybody getting seriously hurt.
By , at
2:41 PM
they needed to use a taser because the jackhole was resisting arrest. For what reason you may ask?, the one where he was being belligerent cock knocker, and interrupting a public Q&A. The police probably did read his rights, and he obviously had to have had some kind of idea as to why he was being arrested. They should've shot the mofo, to make an example. This is exactly like what happened to that dumb bitch from MIT in Logan Airport.
By Andrew Scanlon, at
3:21 PM
I woudn't call those two exactly the same. She was just dumb enough to walk in an airport wearing a cirucit board with flashing LEDs and holding a lump of play-doh, and think everything would be just fine.
Whereas he was doing it on purpose.
By , at
12:37 AM
By the way everybody, I don't know if you've ever been tazered but you don't say "ouch, ouch, ouch" you go numb and become slightly paralyzed. SO I think he was saying something untrue.
By , at
3:11 AM
I think that if 6 cops cant escort a single, unarmed, scrawny student outside of a auditorium without handcuffing and tazering him, those cops have no business being cops in the first place. Then again, I've understood that these are campus police which are nothing more than glorified security guards, so no wonder.
It should have needed no more than two of those cops to do it, heck, that big black cop should've been able to just pick him up and carry him outside himself..
I see some say that he was tazered "so to prevent him getting injured or cause injury to the police" to which I have to say, there's a better way to achieve this, its called communicating, which those police are unsuccessful at, because while they talk to him, they're not listening. Like when they tell him theyre gonna taze him unless he stops resisting, and then does it anyway.. they do not reflect upon the fact that he is resisting in a attempt to defend himself against being tazed in the first place.
This could have been handled with less violence or with no violence at all.
And then this would've never ended up in the evening news.
By , at
5:07 AM
This guy gets little to no sympathy from me. He was being belligerent and causing a commotion and things were getting out of hand. The police were perfectly in the right. However, getting tazed hurts and I think the threat of being tazed would have made him stop here. He was practically begging not to be tazed. If they had given him a bit more time to digest that they were going to taze him he might have settled down. But who knows.
Someone also mentioned the MIT student. Seriously, just because the media wants to make it look like she did it on purpose doesn't mean she did. It's kind of like with the Mooninites thing. Afterwards all the news crews in Boston were up at arms about how Cartoon Network should be ashamed for having played this prank... when really it wasn't a prank. It was not their intention to make people think these LCD things were bombs.
By , at
7:50 AM
My understanding is that in a private venue put aside for a specific purpose authorities and security arranging the event DO have the right to evict anyone they consider to be disruptive or nuisance.
You DONT have a 'right' to be in private property (which includes a school), however you may well be allowed in provided you adhere to their rules.
As far as I can see he wasn't being arrested, he was being escorted from the premises, its the right of any owner of private premises to do this.
Also - for those claiming it violates his right to 'free speech'. Everyone has a right to their own views, but should they be allowed to spout unsolicited and irrelevant opinions at every given oppurtunity? Secondly is everyone else obliged to listen to that?
Even if the answer to the first question is 'yes' the answer to the second is a definite 'No' his rights were in no way violated by being kicked out, and to be honest he more then deserved to be evicted.
As for the Tasering, well I know things are done differently in America, in Britain he'd probably have been pepper sprayed because he WAS struggling and he WAS resisting - if its acceptable for US police to Taser people in those circumstances then they shouldn't be faulted
By , at
8:55 AM
Let me just say that as a member of the royal canadian mounted police I think all you people crying out 'police brutality' can just go to hell.
Or better yet you smug bastards can maybe donate to this site.
http://www.nleomf.com/wwwboard/index.shtml
By , at
3:43 PM
anyone who's part of the RCMP and believes that police brutality doesn't happen or that the excess force used by police in certain situations is "just and fair" should realize that as we're all human, we should be treated equally. tell me that you'd wish to be arrested by this ragtag team of police, who can hardly hold onto one belligerent student. oh, and before you ask us to donate to your cause right after condemning us, remember that the church enjoys doing the same.
By , at
8:53 AM
I apologize for the hateful things I said yesterday. And you are right, it was a bit pathetic the way these officers handled this student.
That last post was frustration on my own part towards the way cops are treated by student groups sometimes. I remember a friend of mine from the states who was at a war rally and took a rock in the eye which just about put it out. He told me the thing he most remembers about that day was that he could hear people congratulating whoever it was in the crowd that had thrown it.
I know your right. The way these officers acted deserves to be scrutinized. I guess im just tired of the knee jerk 'doughnut eatin pig' response that I had my own stupid ass knee jerk response there and for that I apologize.
By , at
4:45 PM
"This is a fact: No one with a brain says that the cops had any reason whatsoever to Tase him or to arrest him."
See, that's the kind of retarded bullshit one spews when he watches a 15 seconds clip out of context and jumps to the wrongest conclusions he can.
By , at
6:22 AM
I just wanted to point out that you can hear him very clearly at all times & a few choice people(the cameraperson & another histerical woman) and no one else. Clearly this guy was miked & this view was from his camera. It is most likely that while he was yelling he was being told exactly why he was being led out in a calm even tone-which is what a trained officer will use. He may even have been read his rights but he didn't want us to hear that. The only time you can really hear an officer is when they were getting ready to taze him & started to get louder(and he also shut up for a second to let the camera hear the cop threaten to taze). they could have forced the cuffs on him without they tazer but it was most likely that they realised that this guy was pulling a stunt & they knew this camera was there. I can see that this guy was trying to get injured, if you look at how he is resisting & know anything about wrestling(the real kind) then it would appear that he was trying to get an arm broken because that would quite possibly of resulted & how nice would that have been for his career. This guy was a jackass & frankly deserved to have his arm broken for resisting arrest but to many people are prepared to blame the police for anything. The men & women who serve us have to walk on eggshells to keep there jobs but face possible death or injury with EVERY encounter. They did the right thing
By , at
3:12 AM
I can't believe all the people crying police brutality. He was resisting arrest, plain and simple. Also, he was fighting the officers every step of the way, even when they had him on the ground he was sunfishing and trying to break free. A tazer is the perfect utility for that situation, as the officers had to escalate use of force.
God, would you have rather they take out their batons? That would look MUCH better on video, and would probably put the guy in the hospital no doubt :\ Before you talk out of your ass, it's best to understand situations like this from the police perspective (I've been on several 'ride-alongs' with officers, and let me tell you, their job is no cakewalk).
The tazer resolved the situation and compliance was immediate. Textbook example of why tasers are now becoming commonplace in police services everywhere. No residual damage (unlike batons or pistols), and keeps the cops themselves safe.
By , at
12:54 AM
News archives | March 2004 | April 2004 | May 2004 | June 2004 | July 2004 | August 2004 | September 2004 | October 2004 | November 2004 | December 2004 | January 2005 | February 2005 | March 2005 | April 2005 | May 2005 | June 2005 | July 2005 | August 2005 | September 2005 | October 2005 | November 2005 | December 2005 | January 2006 | February 2006 | March 2006 | April 2006 | May 2006 | June 2006 | July 2006 | August 2006 | September 2006 | October 2006 | November 2006 | December 2006 | January 2007 | February 2007 | March 2007 | April 2007 | May 2007 | June 2007 | July 2007 | August 2007 | September 2007 | October 2007 | November 2007 | December 2007 | January 2008 | February 2008 | March 2008 | April 2008 | May 2008 | June 2008 | July 2008 | August 2008 | September 2008 | October 2008