FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS: TASER vs. CRYBABY

[doleitout]

If this Kerry incident has confirmed anything to me it is that university students can be the most self-righteous, tactless, clueless, tunnel-visioned, knee-jerk reactionary people on the planet

Comments

[_je_taime]

i am surprised about this, coming from someone as apathetic as yourself.
you don't care about anything enough to get off your lazy ass and do something about it until someone else tries to, then you just find it annoying?
andrew meyer is a jackass. that is true.
no one is trying to martyr him. that is also true.
the issue is not free speech or what he was saying but the complete overreaction of the police. they never told him he was being arrested, they just grabbed at him. he thought he was going to ask his totally mind blowing questions about the skull and bones society and that everyone in the audience would be like "whoaaa i had no idea! thank you andrew meyer!" but all of a sudden he's being dragged away by police and possibly arrested? i'd freak out too! besides, those six or seven cops could easily have carried him/pushed him out of the event without tasering him. tasers kill people. their use is unacceptable in situations like this.
i don't think that the topic of mr. meyer asking angry questions should enter anywhere into this discussion. why should he NOT have the right to question a public official? should they be able to get away with whatever they want and never hear from us about it, even when we have an opportunity to make them answer us face to face? perhaps if more people questioned congresspeople like this (but with valid questions), they wouldn't be so goddamn maniacal.
you sound like a republican.

[whoa_bro]

NO YOU SOUND LIKE A REPUBLICAN!!!!!1

fucking reactionary bullshitter.

[doleitout]

I sound like a republican? Perhaps it's that us/them mentality that leads to stupid clashes like the one in question. I must be a fucking asshole to say something that doesn't follow the ultra-leftist partyline. I'm not interested in ridiculous dichotomies.

I must have really struck a nerve for you to make such personal accusations. I am not apathetic, but I also do not see the point in things like riding bikes in large groups and reenacting riots in the plaza. Those are very silly things to me. I'm so glad that caring about 'anything' excludes all the things I care passionately about, but you do not, or perhaps not to the degree that you do. That is very convenient. A lot of people agree with me on this, so they are also probably republicans or something.

This little diddy on why tasers should be taken away from police officers was taken directly from the ever-relevant SDS facebook group about the incident, with well over 5,000 members, including you:

3. Because of the hundreds of deaths that have been attributed to their use, and because their very existence on an officers belt encourages their excessive use, tasers can not be standard issue police equipment on campus.

Tasers kill HUNDREDS of people? According to Amnesty Int'l, the amount of people killed by being tasered by cops from June 2001 and March 2005 was about 100, with many of the deaths possibly attributed to having serious medical conditions when exposed to the shock. Guess what kills more than 100 people in four years - being shot and being beaten to death with blunt objects. Guess what cops will still have when you take away their tasers. Pick your battles.

Also the reason people want to take away the tasers is because simply having them encourages police to overuse them? One cop tases some dumbass after warning him he will be tased if he doesn't calm down, and now every cop is a maniac. I'm sure police officers appreciate the idea that people want them to be treated like children. That certainly will not encourage any sort of abuse of authority. Are we going to have to put the cookie jar on top of the refrigerator, too? Why don't we have higher standards for entrance tests into the force instead of taking away their least lethal modes of defense? Or we can arm them all with nerf bats.

Should people have the right to question public officials? Of course, but that didn't happen here. There were no questions, there was an incoherent rant. This is a former presidential candidate, and this kid should have known tensions would be high. He didn't get escorted out for questioning Kerry, he got escorted out for stealing floor time and causing a scene. He took more than his share. He stole time for questions from other people who might have these valid questions that you desire. Then he resisted the ejection, so he got arrested. OOPS.

But on the subject of your mean-spirited value judgements upon me: Activism is a hobby. It is not an absolute good. It does not determine who is a good person and who is a bad person by who does it and who doesn't. And like a hobby it takes many different forms. Just as some people build models trains, and some people watch movies, and some people play tennis - some people bomb abortion clinics and some people write letters and some people yell at public speakers. Hard to put a value judgement on that.

I care about political matters enough to vote, keep informed, and engage in discourse, but not enough to carry signs and yell, and start facebook groups, and make easily ignored publicity stunts on campus. If what I do regarding politics isn't enough for you, sorry 'boutcha. I have other hobbies. Too bad I'm working my "lazy ass" off trying get into grad school and working and trying to keep physically active and indulging my interests in film and books and linguistics all while finding time to have a personal life. Oh, and I also like to follow politics, but I'm not marching on Washington so I don't care about anything.

[whoa_bro]

i propose a ban on the nonprescription use of the morning after pill and i'll be goddamned if i'll vaccinate my daughter against hpv. she'll be a total slut. having access to things encourages use of those things. this country is turning into a moral toilet and i'll have no part in it. NO PART IN IT!

let's start a facebook group about it.

[whoa_bro]

ps: you're a spineless liberal.

[doleitout]

So yeah, I maintain my criticism of the way this fiasco has been handled. This is because I cannot believe the amount of sensationalism and debate just over what happened when the evidence is right in front of everyone. On video. From several angles. Viewing it carefully, one would discover the police did tell him why he was being arrested, and they warned him about the use of a taser, and this was all after peacefully (though briefly) attempting to escort him out. The police here are not heroes, but they weren't acting in a way that warrants them being fired. But people like to argue. And I maintain my criticism because I actually do care about this kind of stuff. I care about the integrity of the issues, and this kind of sensationalism is going to be overlooked as just that, and there goes your cause. And even if it's not overlooked and the SDS gets everything they want, two officers will be fired and the rest will have to resort just to shooting people and beating them up. Huzzah.

Yeah, I do find the situation pretty fucking annoying.

But I'm a good ol' boy, red-blooded, flag waving republican. Did I sell out, too? PUHHH LEEZ.