This is very disturbing. Can you give us context? Date? Place? Who was this? Clearly he was asking questions of John Kerry, but what was going on before this?

Just goes to show ya, people don't like you when you call them "bro"

When an officer asks you to move on and she has other officers standing beside her you just might want to take her advice. Something learned in the 60's. Course back then you would get your head split open with a night stick or worse yet shot. Thank goodness for modern technology.

Kerry could have stopped that... he was willing to answer the questions...

Kerry seemed ok in answering the "bro's" questions, but then later appeared to be mocking him. He'll get flogged for that. However, that kid, by resisting the police officers and acting completly nuts, deserved the treatment he got. I think someone told the police to get the guy out of there, and I think the kid's testosterone kicked in, keeping him from acting rationally. Freedom of speech is all fine and dandy until one starts to monopolize the discussion and be disruptive.

you can read a very complete discussion here.

some context is that the kid was already very agitated and being tailed by the cops when he entered the arena.

honestly, while i support his right to be angry and and asking some very important questions, he was monopolizing the microphone, which will get anyone escorted from a public gathering of any kind. (disrupting a public gathering is a misdemeanor.) and if he wanted the crowd's sympathy, it would have served him well to firmly and nonaggressively deal with the police. (i think it's very likely he was seeking a confrontation.)

however, police have begun to use tasers as a sort of way to shut people up and not have to de-escalate situations. this is not the declared purpose of non-lethal force, and they should all be fired.

Kerry has shown himself once again to be a weenie, and as a former protestor himself, he should be ashamed of his non-intervention.

“In 37 years of public appearances, through wars, protests and highly emotional events, I have never had a dialogue end this way. I believe I could have handled the situation without interruption, but I do not know what warnings or other exchanges transpired between the young man and the police prior to his barging to the front of the line and their intervention. I asked the police to allow me to answer the question and was in the process of responding when he was taken into custody. I was not aware that a taser was used until after I left the building. I hope that neither the student nor any of the police were injured. I regret enormously that a good healthy discussion was interrupted."

—John Kerry (09/18/2007)

click through to an eyewitness account at Daily Kos.

oh, and FoxNews gives taser-cops the thumbs up. i'm shocked!

The real issue here is that the student asked about the secret skull and bones society which president bush and john kerry are both alumni of. do the research and it will become apparent why the rush to silence this kid.

The real issue here is that the student asked about the secret skull and bones society which president bush and john kerry are both alumni of. do the research and it will become apparent why the rush to silence this kid.

Move along..

yeah, they have so much power that the information about Skull and Bones is *everywhere*. you might want to loosen the headband on your tinfoil hat a little.

if you actually read all the information on the taser incident, you might realize just how stupid you sound. (University of Florida rentacops really couldn't give a shit about some rich boy necrophiliac club.)

Was that guy supposed to be asking a question? Sounds like he was going ballistic and looked like a danger to all in the room. Even other students applauded when they escorted him to back of hall. Dude, don't blame Kerry or police, its your own fault for acting inappropriately. He's lucky all he got was tasered.

Stand up for Freedom of SPEECH!
These tshirts are really coolest....
"Don't Taze Me, Bro!" T SHIRTS
http://www.cafepress.com/dont_taze_me

Stand up for Freedom of SPEECH!
These tshirts are really coolest....
"Don't Taze Me, Bro!" T SHIRTS
http://www.cafepress.com/dont_taze_me

He should have had on his DTMB shirt - that would have helped!

Visit http://www.cafepress.com/dtmbro

and just as a final bit that supports this was a set-up by a media whore--from the NYT:

"...one of the widely circulated videos of the incident was filmed with his own camera. As he pushed his way toward the microphone to put his questions to Senator Kerry, he handed his camera to Clarissa Jessup, a student he didn’t know, and asked her to record him. [I surmise this is the female voice we hear so clearly objecting to his treatment.]

Then, just as his diatribe was heating up, he turned to Ms. Jessup and said, “Are you taping this? Do you have this? You ready?,” according to the police report."

the kid was a well-known prankster. while the police who tased him should lose their jobs for their behavior, his interest in participating in a dialogue is extremely doubtful. this was theatre, plain and simple. and those of us who buy the t-shirts etc are helping him get famous, which was his goal all along. (not that i care, but still.)

nd we can get merchandise:

http://www.cafepress.com/dontasemebro1
http://www.cafepress.com/dontasemebro2

They have even tile coasters.
I can't believe it!

Does anyone know where I can get a "Don't Tase Me, Bro" T-shirt? Nobody included it in their SPAM..eerrrrr...comment posts.

Are you all nuts? I can't believe what I'm reading. Caught on video: a blatant violation of someone's free speech rights, physical torture by police in public and a demonstration of John Kerry's true establishment colors all rolled into one, and people are nitpicking over whether the kid was agitated and hogging the microphone? What's the old saying... if you don't use your rights, you lose them? Guess we don't really care that much if the First Amendment gets tossed out the window after all (or the right not to be abused and tortured by cops, for that matter).

Are you resisting?

what "people" are doing, rediguana, is recognizing that a kid trying to get famous via YouTube is not the same as an activist behaving peacefully and getting arrested for trying to speak his/her mind.

this kid was deliberately instigating idiotic (and dangerous) police misbehavior and got his wish. the cops should be fired, as i've said. but "don't tase me bro" doesn't deserve my admiration or letters of support. context counts, and YouTube videos don't always include context. (duh.)

the next time some person knocks you aside to get to a microphone, since his question is so much more important than yours, i expect to see you saying "right on."