Only in America

[HondaF1]

+ YouTube Video

Police shoot student with stun gun

* Uni student asks John Kerry some hard questions
* Police arrest and taser him
* Video so far gets 66,000 views on YouTube

AN AMERICAN university student was held down and shot with a Taser stun gun by police in the middle of a question-and-answer session with former presidential candidate Democrat John Kerry.

Footage of yesterday’s incident at the University of Florida has appeared on YouTube and has already attracted more than 66,000 views.

In the clips, a young man asks Senator Kerry why he didn’t dispute the results of the 2004 election, while four uniformed officers stand behind him.

After he asked Senator Kerry if was a member of the same secret society as US President George W. Bush, who won the election, the officers tried to remove him.

He was then dragged towards the back of the lecture hall before being held to the ground and hit with the Taser.

According to the Associated Press, 21-year-old Andrew Meyer was charged with resisting police and disturbing the peace.

Source

Someone explain to me why he was arrested in the first place. Arent you allowed to ask questions to former politicians about why results weren't challenged or is this just America being America again?

[Ford Prefect]

the thread title says it all... only in America

[efoolution]

Originally Posted by Ford Prefect

the thread title says it all... only in America

oh by far not ... happens in Germany, happens everywhere. Let me just recall an Event last year in Niedersachen here (minsterpräsident) Christian Wulff held a Speech at a University and there were Protesters outside. At some Point Police decided it was "unsafe" (hard to tell if true, but even if you asume it was ...) and went berserk. And they didn´t only go after the Protesters (who were running away at that point), this was on Campus and they simply went after everybody. There were People coming out of their Courses, who got brutally thrown to the Ground or got Teargas used on them. The Hunt was on. Numerous People got injured, most of them had nothing to do with the Protest, they were just somewhere on Campus and didn´t fall to the ground the second Police (in uniform or not) yelled something at them.

@ Topic : What shockes me most of all, is that the whole room full of people did (mostly) nothing. How many People were there? 50? 100? How many do you hear cry out? 3? 5? I mean ... they don´t need to revolt (and they shouldn´t!), to raise your voice would probably be enough. If you just stand silently next to something like that, I think you are worse than Scum. Just raise your Voice, that´s what you have it for.
And what happend after that? What did Kerry do? Continue? Did the audience stay? This makes me all very angry ...

Don´t get me wrong, look at other (longer) videos on YT of that incident, and you´ll see that guy was agressive to start with and surely was disturbing the "event". No Question about that. But Police just went way too far, way too soon. Without a shadow of a doubt, this was unnessesary, it shouldn´t have come that far.

I´d really like to stay informed what happens in that Case. There will shurely be charges filed against the Policemen (were they Police or Campus-security by the way?). Please keep an eye on that, and report back.

NBC has a pretty good long video online http://video.nbc6.net/player/?id=157250

[Cobol74]

Tony Blair at the Labour Party conference 2004 or 5 (can't exactly remember) and an 80 year old Labour party member who booed Blair - said Labour Party member was arrested by the Police under the prevention of terrorism act. They let him go later. ...

Contrasts with Harold Wilson circa 1967 who was heckled from the floor of the confrence and when people tried to quieten the heckler HW shouted "Let him speak". ... Times change.

Generally speaking we do not Tazer people though - almost no matter how much they deserve it.

[Peter3hg]

I can appreciate the use of the Taser but it has to be asked if these police officers need better training if they feel they needed a Taser, despite there being at least 5 of them.
There also seemed to be absolutely no reason to remove him in the first place.

[Goose+]

Scary

[argatoga]

It is horrible what was done to the guy. The police had no right to step in and tazer him. Of course now more wakos like him will use this as proof of some grand conspiracy.

[nomix]

This is shameful.

But it's not only happening in America, as some has explained.

What happened there is simply not acceptable. Period.

[Momentum57]

Would have been funny to hear kerry say "ya we drank together at the same parties, did a little blow, and decided the fate of the world through a secret society."

[JohnnyRacer]

It's wrong on what happend, but, this by far, does not just happen in the US.

I can tell you the reason why it started. He starts talking about a "secret society", and if you start talking about that kind of conspiracy theory to a well known political figure in a public forum like that, you're gonna get labeled as a crazy person. It's just a fact.

Those cops handled it WAY wrong. There was no need to keep him in the building if they wanted him out. And then to taz him when he's down? C'mon.....

[epp_b]

Freedom of speech, my backside. I can't explain in words how disgusted and abhorred I am

[JohnnyRacer]

It's one example. Don't stereotype the who country.

After all, people like this....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westboro_Baptist_Church

....are still allowed to function here.

(bunch of knuckle dragging mutants.)

[chaos386]

I love how everyone likes to go on about how "oppressive" it is in the Middle East (Saudi Arabia especially), yet the UK is covered in security cameras, the strictest security theater is enacted in North America and Europe, and in the US a guy can get arrested and tasered just for asking questions.

Freedom my backside indeed.

[Vette Boss]

Not only in America anymore.. police brutality and excessive use of force seems to be on the rise in other countries, as well.

I thought they could have two or three officers take him outside for a bit, to calm down. But nothing remotely close to what they did, it was really unnecessary excess force.

[Lambos r4ever]

I thought they could have two or three officers take him outside for a bit, to calm down. But nothing remotely close to what they did, it was really unnecessary excess force.

They did try to escort him outside for asking a dumb question and wasting time, but he wanted to be a martyr and refused to be taken outside.

I love how everyone likes to go on about how "oppressive" it is in the Middle East (Saudi Arabia especially), yet the UK is covered in security cameras, the strictest security theater is enacted in North America and Europe, and in the US a guy can get arrested and tasered just for asking questions.

Security is definitely a necessity in today's world, and I don't understand how protecting a country from idiots (I do agree the Middle East is unfairly singled out) has anything to do with freedom. By the way he was being escorted outside for asking a dumb question, but arrested when he resisted.

[watisdis]

Originally Posted by chaos386

I love how everyone likes to go on about how "oppressive" it is in the Middle East (Saudi Arabia especially), yet the UK is covered in security cameras, the strictest security theater is enacted in North America and Europe, and in the US a guy can get arrested and tasered just for asking questions.

Freedom my backside indeed.

I've said it 100 times and I'll say it again: Freedom of speech is a Figure of speech.

Also, as many have already stated, the title to the thread should be changed as it's obviously not the case. What the hell were the security people thinking? I mean in a world of youtubes/wi-fi capable camera phones, etc, did they actually think it wouldn't spread like a forest fire?

[thedguy]

Originally Posted by HondaF1

Police shoot student with stun gun

Originally Posted by Ford Prefect

the thread title says it all... only in America

Nothing like this EVER happens anywhere else in the world

Originally Posted by Lambos r4ever

They did try to escort him outside for asking a dumb question and wasting time, but he wanted to be a martyr and refused to be taken outside.

He asked a very legitimate question at first. Kerry being the weasel he is could have just avoided the retarded second question. After he got his answer the security could have asked him to leave or sit down. If others thought it was a stupid question the crowd would have told him to sit down... I noticed no one stopped him, or helped him when he was detained.

edit: I just saw the longer video. No wonder they did that to him, he wouldn't shut the fuck up and A) let Kerry answer and B) let others come up. He spent 2 minutes up there just talking about a book and then said he still had more questions.

Kerry even says "Hey let me answer his question"

Gotta love how people edit these videos.

http://video.nbc6.net/player/?id=157250

[IVIaster]

Originally Posted by JohnnyRacer

It's wrong on what happend, but, this by far, does not just happen in the US.

I can tell you the reason why it started. He starts talking about a "secret society", and if you start talking about that kind of conspiracy theory to a well known political figure in a public forum like that, you're gonna get labeled as a crazy person. It's just a fact.

Those cops handled it WAY wrong. There was no need to keep him in the building if they wanted him out. And then to taz him when he's down? C'mon.....

Kerry could have passed it with a joke, except he seems to be quite bad in it.

[JohnnyRacer]

Kerry has proven time and time again that he has no sense of humor at all. And then this, eek.

[thedguy]

I just saw the longer video. No wonder they did that to him, he wouldn't shut the fuck up and A) let Kerry answer and B) let others come up. He spent 2 minutes up there just talking about a book and then said he still had more questions.

Kerry even says "Hey let me answer his question"

Gotta love how people edit these videos.

full length video http://video.nbc6.net/player/?id=157250