lol basically he gets out of hand and gets tased. http://youtube.com/watch?v=6bVa6jn4rpE you dont hear what he was saying before so this is another video that shows what he was talking about into the mic. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIYTJ75U4NU and here's the remix http://youtube.com/watch?v=AkMkGOpAF4s&mode=related&search=
man. the cops totally played into this guy. This guy staged this and cops did exactly what he wanted them to do. there is absolutely NO excuse for tasering a guy in order to silence him in a university political Q&A session. cops should be fired and the event organizer who asked police to escort him out should be disciplined even though the guy was a douchbag . . . he DID make a statement.
I disagree... He was afforded his right to speak, then they were asking him to leave. Instead of leaving peacefully he decided to fight them all the way. Were they supposed to just let him ruin the whole event just to get his 15 minutes of fame? Just how long were they suppossed to let that bullshit go on for??? As far as I'm concerned the guy was a douchbag and got what he deserved.......
Notice the guy in the suit next to the woman cop whispers something into her ear and then she goes up to remove him. I wonder who he was and what he said.
I disagree...if that many cops can't pull one skinny punk outside, they don't deserve to be in uniform. I don't see how use of a taser was needed at all. Just because something isn't lethal, doesn't mean they should be able to just use it on a whim. The kid was out of line, for sure, but he wasn't being violent and wasn't putting anyone else at risk. I call bullshit.
I mean everyone said they'd vote for someone other than Bush...until they met John Kerry. My interpretation of this was that the kid was asking too many questions, they couldnt get him to stop asking them and requested that he leave. He refused and then they proceeded to taser his ass. This was of course from watching the video w/o sound
A taser is an intermediate force weapon, same as OC spray..... it's used in situations where the subject is noncompliant, and it prevents the officer from having to move up to the next level of force..... it also prevents injury to the perp, as the alternative is "hard" hands or possibly impact weapons..... the kid staged everything and gave his buddy the camera, Q&A time was over (and the rules laid out specified a limit of one question per person anyhow), and he was asked to leave..... when he refused, the police helped him leave..... he was told he was under arrest and was told, several times, to put his hands behind his back..... when he refused to comply, he got zapped..... big deal..... And another thing: if you're going to remove a disruptive individual from an assembly, are you gonna send one or two meat-headed goons with badges in to snatch the kid up by his hair and drag him out of the room? Or would you rather send four or five in some sort of attempt to quietly escort him out? This kid's intention from the beginning was to cause a scene, the officer's just had to react to what was happening at the time..... Furthermore, this kid pisses me off because his stunt screws stuff up for people that actually have legitimate concerns and want to ask questions..... just like a few bad cops can give all the other ones a bad image, this half-brained hippie college kid sets back other college kids (and anyone else, I suppose) who wish to voice their opinion..... And once again I'd like to say how awesome I think it is that from the second that this video hit YouTube people started cop-hating with absolutely zero information about what really went on...... just outstanding, thanks again kid.... :slap:
Just to clarify, no cop hating here. I honestly don't feel that strongly on the situation, I mean the kid was a douche. I just think the tasering was a little uncalled for. To each his own.
This kid was simply a punk, but that many cops should have been able to hog tie his ass and drag him out with no problem, and no tase. I am from New Orleans and have seen quite a few out of control crackheads get hog tied during Mardi Gras. My problem is he will probably sue as the media as I have watched since it happened is mixed and that usually means he has a case. Just to make clear no probs here with cops but a few friends and family cops in New Orleans would have had the punk out in seconds.
Regardless of how much of a dickhead the kid is, he did not need tasering. Blueline, the cops may have told him to put his hands behind his back and warned him about tasering him but regardless of the warning, a kid should not be getting arrested at a Q and A session, let alone tasered. If told someone I was going to kick them in balls it wouldn't make it right, much in the same way I feel about this incident.
What is wrong with you people...? They had every right to tase him. Instead of being arrogant, all he had to do was stop talking, turn around, and walk out the door with police. He wouldn't even have been arrested, just escorted out, but instead, he insisted on making a scene. And furthermore, he continued to fight and resist arrest, that warrants a taser, plain and simple. Its a non-lethal device used to make combative suspects compliant, and it did its job. He didn't obey the commands of police. He became more and more agitated. He fought with police. SO He got tased. And arrested. He had plenty of time to make his decision, thats what he wanted so thats what he got.
^^^:bigthumb: Cops: "You're causing a disturbance and you need to sit down." Punk: "No...." Cops: "You're causing a disturbance and you need to leave." Punk: "No...." Cops drag Punk out.... Cops: "You're under arrest, put your hands behind your back" Punk: "No...." Repeat several times.... Cops tase punk.... The End Not that this is how the dialogue went, but just for the sake of argument..... a taser is extremely painful, but only for 5 seconds..... the alternative would be to wrench the kid's arms behind his back and possibly cause more permanent damage..... in addition to that, as a police officer, if I have to put my hands on someone to compel them to do what I need them to do, that person doesn't get to go straight home..... there is no option to ignore what you're lawfully being told to do and then not deal with the consequences..... the police have the authority to remove someone who is causing a disruption on any property other than that person's own (with some exceptions of course), and the kid earned what he got..... Now this debate can go back and forth till the end of time, just like anything else dealing with police action, civil rights, or Constitutional issues..... were I a political person I would continue to argue my point, but this is not a battle I care about fighting.....
It may have been "just a Q and A session", but when you refuse to obey commands from an officer, it doesn't matter where you are, your the main focus now until your under control. What do you think they should've done? Just ask him nicely to sit down? He'd say "no", and continue talking. Then what? Just say "oh ok, nevermind, just stay up there and waste everyone's time until your finished, thank you."
They should have hauled his ass outside. He wasn't a football player or anything. The plethora of cops/security should have been able to escort him out without the use of a taser. Hell, for a random fraternity thing back in the day, we had to man handle an athletic 250 pound guy into the back of a van who was putting up a lot more of a fight than that, we didn't do anything to hurt him. I'm just saying they should of been able to handle it without the taser. But yeah, I'm debating about something I'm not even that passionate about...I'll stop now. Like Blueline said, no one is going to win this...
I think you have to really look at the setting in which this happened. If this happened, say, outside a government building and he seemed like a threat... ya arrest the fucker, taser him, whatever. But this was a political Q&A session at the student's university. not Kerry's office. a UNIVERSITY. He had every right to talk. even if it was bull shit. I truly don't understand why cops arrested him when, the "victim"/kerry said it was OK? He even said it was an important question. I think what should've been done was that he should've been ignored if his question seemed stupid and mic turned off. Nothing else should've been done. NOTHING. Of course, if he tried to tackle kerry or something then..taser the fucker. But he didn't.
"You have the right to remain silent".... should be changed "You have the right to remain silent or be tased"... If cops try to arrest me for making fun of a politician...then I'll be agitated too.
What a great movie! "I don't want a large Farva, I want a godd***ed liter of cola!" Classic :bigthumb: Superbad was a great movie as well, while we're on the subject.....
He was hardly out of control, he was a loud mouthed student. He wasn't going to physically assault anyone. They did not need to taser him. This was a university, people spend hours talking about complete BS, if we set about tasering or arresting everyone in universities who talked shit then we'ld be out of duracell batteries and the prisons full. The police involvement was ridiculous, you should not be arresting someone for being a dick head at university Q & A regardless! Just gonna let it go like others have said, really not worth wasting time arguing!
people seem to forget. The right to free speech doesn't equal being able to go anywhere of your own volition and say anything you want at any time. This was a secured event on a private campus property. Many times, universities let out their facilities for a fee to other institutions and even commercial companies, so just being a 'university' doesn't give anyone cart blanch to do whatever the heck they want. He did NOT have a 'right' to be disruptive to this event in a secured area schedules ahead of time my Kerry's PR engine. .... People seem to have a very broken perception of the tazer and how it functions. a tazer is considerably less dangerous for both the cop and the suspect compared to the cop trying to physically dominate the suspect without permanently injuring them. Anyone who thinks otherwise has never actually been in a fight or tried to restrain someone remotely close to their own size and lacks the life experience necessary to be legitimately critical of the police. A cop is more likely to hurt themselves and the suspect trying to just overpower them, esp when this tazer has the ability to incapacitate the person with almost no comparative chance of any longterm injury being inflicted. The kid was joking with the cops and enjoying a smoke by the time they got to the squad car, some stories say. Does everyone on here who is so upset at the temerity of the police daring to use their non-lethal tool to subdue someone really feel that its the job of the cop to needlessly put themselves and the suspect at risk of serious injury instead? Would you have felt better if they just dog piled him? Used their batons or maglites? Shot him? I don't see anyone giving realistic alternatives.
I just see the need for a police escort as over the top. He's a dick head, he's not a criminal. The cops should be out dealing with real crimes rather than petty shit like this.
and i just called your anecdote unrealistic. Seriously, I did. :/ I dunno what your circumstance is in 'handling' this 250 pound man, but wiry flailing people are just as dangerous as bulks and more to the point is that its more about relative size. This business is right up there with the people who think the cops who shot that old lady should have shot her in the hand or arm or something because she was an old lady, even though she was emptying a gun back at them. Thats just unrealistic expectation of the cop to place themselves at such risk.
Damnit, I just realized I was arguing about this again after I said I was going to stop...seriously I'm done now.
the Q is why was the police trying to escort him out in the first place????? people protest, disruptively, all the time at political events.
You make it sound like a rally or a picket line... It was a controlled Q&A session with a predetermined number of questions asked. That predetermined number had been reached and the douche bag forced his way to the microphone and proceeded to be rude, loud, and foul-mouthed. The more they asked him to stop/leave, the more aggressive he got... hence the escalation to being tasered. Oh yeah, did I mention he's a douche bag? Can I get a "Don't tase me, bro!"
He is a douche bag. I agree. But since when being rude, loud and foul-mouthed resulted in arrest? What law allows you to arrest a person for that? the cop told the student to do something that he was NOT required to do. he told them to fuck off and they tasered him and arrested him. I don't get it. Sounds illegal to me. If a cop comes up to me and tells me to eat shit and I don't comply, would I get tasered?
you see thats where youre wrong, and your absurdest argument doesn't met. You ARE socially expected to obey the instructions of a police officer by default, just as police officers enjoy that protection of law by the expectation that they will not instruct someone to do something unreasonable. If either party crosses that line, they are liable in court. A police officer (repeatedly)asking you to do something innocuous like leaving the premises which does not belong to you is not unreasonable, nor did the kid have any inherent right to be there. but you seem to be missing a key part. This event was closed. It was for all intents and purposes a private property during this session, meaning the organisers of the event had every right to reject or eject anyone they wanted and the police will assist them. This could have been held at a hotel convention center and I bet people wouldn't be up in arms; but just because its at a University, people all of a sudden think that gives them free reign to obstruct others. Thats just not the case.
You do realize that the student is paying thousands if not tens of thousands in tuition right? How can you say that the student has no inherent right to attend an event held in a university. This is not an event at a convention center aimed at professionals as such. This was a university event, targeting university students who paid tuition to be in a university indirectly paying Kerry to speak there. You can't host a party at someone else's house and try to kick him out saying hes not invited. If students are NOT allowed to protest, then the university had NO RIGHT TO INVITE KERRY.
So by your logic, you have a gay home owner, then because they pay property taxes, they have every right to goto a public elementary school and shout at teachers and students(or kids if you prefer) at how they should get into being gay as young as possible during PTA meetings? Because if the gay fellow isn't allowed to weild his free speech rights, then by God, there sure as hell doesn't need to even be a school there, let alone a PTA. This guy was told by staff that he had his turn, and his time was up. And despite what people think, if they read up, they'd know that his mike WAS cut off. Then the police moved in also TOLD him first. Forced was then used. The arresting charges were 'resisting an officer' and 'disturbing the peace,' with the cops recommending resisting with violence as a felony. The people in the auditorium cheered when the police brought him down, acknowledging the obvious selfish disruption he was. This has nothing to do with free speech rights. Period. Anyone who tries to say it is has a category error on their hands. Even if this guy tries to make it about free speech, then he'd have to prove in court that police were detaining/oppressing him because of what he was saying instead of what he was doing, and also maintain that his behavior wasn't violating rights of everyone else there. People are really trying to mash up this mess into one issue so they can demonise the police when in fact this is at least 3 issues at play. You want a video of a bad cop? Look up some of the crap from that Missouri cop on film for badmouthing that guy in the parking lot and trying to start a fight with the civillian. this? nothing to see here.
cheap, totally not relevant and so lame. how is yelling at a political event protesting about political stuff same as a gay guy yelling at kids to be gay? property tax/PTA is not the same analogy as tuition/university...WTF. I'd say if the gay guy was a student at a school, then he has every right to yell at teachers about how they are not doing their job. You are right. this is not just about free speech. It's about balance of power as well. I'm very passionate about this topic because I can sooo see Tech doing something like this and i could end up in the same situation, if I decide to say something they don't like... which is possible knowing my short temperedness. That's what triggered it right? Him saying BS. You can deny that the arrest wasn't bc what he said but cuz of what he did, but everything started because of what he was saying. I pay tuition to go to Tech. Let's say Tech used my money to invites Kim JongIl to talk. Now I'm associated with Kim Jon Il. Indirectly I even paid this guy to be there. That fuckin sux. How is it not your right to protest and disassociate from him?
My anaolgy makes perfect sense because you tried to reduce this to a matter of money-by-association. But more to your other point: Where did I say you didn't have a right to protest? This kid had every ability to protest...and absolutely no right to disrupt or to disobey an officer. His 'protest' as you try to call it was nothing more than a tantrum which obstructed the rights of others. Should the NK idiot come to GT, the same would apply to you. If the body set aside one auditorium to hold an organised event, you don't have any inherant right to crash it, yelling at the top of your lungs the whole time, regardless of who's speaking. Protestors for events must organise in public venues just like the events do, and the police are there to make sure the twain not meet, or encite eachother to violence. I'm just as passionate about dealing with people who are too easy to assume that all cops are oppressive asses when the fact is most will take a bullet for you even after giving you a speeding ticket. Of course we should scrutinize authority figures, but they should be given just as much benefit of the doubt because they put their personal safety at risk for a civil service job. (phew, haven't had a good go-around like this in a while.)
I watched the videos last night. It seems pretty obvious that this whole incident was set up, with the student protester getting the publicity he wanted. I find no fault with the police. Could one of the stronger officers have physically subdued the student? As many here know, the police are trained to force someone to submit, but the methods don't look very nice on camera, and IMO a taser looks much better than a big police officer using a joint lock to force someone on the ground. (I was on a high school field trip to an old prison and I asked how police subdued people in order to cuff them, so he demonstrated on me, so now I know) I find fault with the event planner. Who plans an event at a university with a controversial figure and doesn't have some sort of verbal mediator? Like at the debates, there is always a mediator to remind the candidates of their time limit and to keep things on track. That and why did they allow cameras in there? It seems whoever was in charge wanted publicity just as much as the student did. Furthermore, they should have let Kerry answer the question! If he got to answer he might have said something dumb, and you know how we love to make fun of politicians when they say stupid crap! Then this whole thing would just end up a joke instead of a fiasco. OT: I just realized I'm a "member" now, not just a "junior member"! My opinions have more gravity now! j/k
You keep forgetting, it's not WHAT he was saying. It started for two reasons, the WAY he was saying it (loud, aggressive, and rude) and the fact that the questions session WAS OVER. There were to be no more questions asked and he forced his way to the microphone anyways! Of course things escalated from there...