UF student Tasered

[superindianslug]

ok... so a student at my school got Tasered by the police yesterday at a speech that John Kerry was giving. everyone on campus has been freakin out about this. They're saying his 1st amendment rights were violated, that it was police brutality, so on and so forth. they even staged a march to the university PD today. I was in class so I don't

Comments

[dainasplashes]

I came to somewhat the same conclusion as you, after reading like 5 articles and watching a couple clips. But in some defense of the protesting people, the first clip I found on YouTube make the police look pretty bad, because it just showed the guy asking one question and then being grabbed and, without explanation, hauled off. Even though he was flailing and clearly resisting arrest, he was yelling so plaintively, it tugged at your heartstrings.

Maybe schools should give lessons on dealing with police, around the time they teach kids to "stop, drop and roll." You know, things like call them Sir and Ma'am. I got taught young, cause my dad had been a cop awhile and gave us an idea of how to treat cops so they're likely to let you off with just a warning. And resisting arrest is just pointless unless you're putting on a show. Otherwise, you can sort things out in court.

It looked like police told him he'd be charged with inciting a riot but then he was ultimately charged with resisting an officer and disturbing the peace, which are more reasonable charges. The part about him calming down and joking with officers in the car was apparently in the police report, based on The Washington Post's account.

I do think police might've been able to handle it better. Tasers are scary, even if they do usually just make you hurt for awhile, and I'm not convinced that was necessary. But I could be wrong. The guy clearly was not completely in the right, either. I agree that it's not a free speech issue so much as a police conduct issue and a student conduct issue.