Student tasered at John Kerry event

"Don't tase me, bro!" That's awesome. Fuckin' Gators...

I love how everyone doesn't do anything while it's happening. Then, you get that one Poli Sci major in the background that comes up with that tried and true douche chant "Rodney King".

But, it would've been better had the cameraman kept the shaky-cam effect from happening.

"Leave Britney alone!" is done. Today's phrase is "Don't tase me, bro!"

The guy sounded like Dane Cook. "Sangwich, Sangwich.".

I love how he's pitching his little fit, then he whips out the "Skull and Bones" question like he thinks that he's the first person to ask such a question.

I wish they had bypassed the taser and gone straight to the nightstick.

You sound like a Tennessee fan, Joe.

Hahaha, no, a Georgia fan! Although, I think I speak for all people of goodwill when I say: "Fuckin' Gators..."

It's still no "I move away from the mike to breathe".

I'm shocked, shocked! that he wasn't wearing jean shorts while asking the question.

I like Georgia fans! I've been to several World's Biggest Cocktail parties in Jacksonville, and they've all been fun. Alabama fans are pretty classy, and South Carolina fans are also ok. It's the Tennessee fans that annoy the living shit out of me. I got hit in the head with an orange in '98 at the ol' rockytop. I'm a UF alumnus, in case that wasn't already obvious.

We can laugh all we want about this guy (and I did) but the fact remains that they tasered a subdued man, and that John Kerry just stood there passively and allowed it to happen. What an asshole.

WTF? Kerry is supposed to supercede campus security, who were called by the STUDENTS? What, was he supposed to rip off his shirt and go wading into the fray, tossing security guards willy-nilly?

The guy wasn't even supposed to get a question, it was stated the guy in front of him in line would be the last for the day. The guy started whining, Kerry politely acquiesced, saying the kid could ask ONE question, and the guy refused to stop talking or leave.

Blaming Kerry for this is simply stupid (and if you're just being sarcastic, forgive this rant).

No, it's really not. I don't know about you, but if I'm witnessing four cops holding a guy down and tasering him while he's pleading them not to, I think at least a "Hey, man!" would be appropriate.

Is it okay that we taser annoying people now? I didn't get that executive order.

I think cops go overboard with tasering all the time, but I doubt that one of their guidelines is to stop doing it if the suspect asks you to.

At any rate, it's not Kerry's responsibility to interfere with campus security.

If they rushed Kerry out of the room because of some possible danger then I can understand. But if he's just standing there while this guy's getting electrocuted, saying nothing, then he's a douche. It's obvious these officers overreacted. I'm not even sure this guy broke any laws (other than resisting arrest, which really wasn't that apparent in the video).

You're right, it's not his responsibility. But wouldn't it have been kind of nice (for lack of a better word) of him to toss out a token "hey, don't do that"?

When wackos start acting up in political environs, I think the general tendency is to err on the side of caution. Kerry doesn't know a thing about that kid, doesn't know if he's a threat or armed or on medication or anything. If he wants to make some gesture post-incident, like talking to the kid or granting him an interview, fine. To say it makes him a "douche" not to have interefered as it happened seems really bizarre to me.

I'm not saying he needed to jump right in front of the guy. But a "That's not necessary, officers" would have been absolutely called for, especially since it was obvious by that point in the takedown that he was no danger.

The video suggests the cops took him from the main auditorium before he was tazed. Kerry was probably nowhere near them.

You know, maybe the cops were excessive. But I'm not going to get my dander up because some loudmouthed douche got tazed.

Now, if they'd just taze Tim Tebow...

(Sorry, Minsky. And, you're right, UT fans are the worst.)

I think we've all learned a valuable lesson today.

When five cops/security guards are piled on top of you telling you to roll over with a taser at the ready, "Don't tase me, bro" is not the response that will keep you tase-free.

When an officer gets a chance to taser a frat boy, it must be like Christmas Morning for him. I'm not saying he should have done it, but I can understand.

In addition, calling a stranger "bro" should be a taserable offense, as should screaming "WOOOOOOOO!!!!!" at an outdoor event.

ETA: Unless you're at a rally and you see John Woo there. Then, "WOOOOO!" might be acceptable, but only if it is a taunt.

They should have tasered that chick pleading in the background.

If this is what happened, then I understand why he got arrested. Still didn't have to taser him, though.

"I was at the Kerry speech today, sitting 2 rows away from all the action. I'll let you know how it really went down.

The forum was going to be over at 2 pm, and Kerry spoke for so long that the Q and A portion had to be shortened. He only got through about 7 of the 50 people who were waiting to ask questions. While the final question was being read, some douchebag ran down the aisle, grabbed the mic from the other side of the room, interrupted the kid who was talking, and started yelling at Kerry, demanding that his questions be heard. He started ranting about how Kerry talks in circles or something, and everyone was getting annoyed. The cops are all over him in no time and try to escort him out, but he starts yelling and resisting. Kerry insists that they let him stay and even agrees to answer his question.

After the interrupted guy's question was answered, Kerry keeps his promise and lets the angry guy talk. This is the point where people started taking their cameras and phones out. All the videos floating around youtube start around here. You can see in the videos that his questioning gets kind of inappropriate, so somebody cut his mic. Instead of shutting up, he starts yelling and making an even bigger scene. He struggled all the way up the aisle, and started violently trying to free himself. They threatened to taze him and he wouldnt stop fighting, so he got tazed. They only had to arrest him because he was causing a disruption and wouldn't leave peacefully. He wasn't being silenced for asking tough questions, trust me.

It's a shame that they had to taze the guy, but he had a chance to calm down and didn't take it. He probably didn't pose a physical threat to anybody in the room, but someone can't just hijack the floor of a forum like that and expect not to get kicked out. This wasn't some poor guy who was brutalized for trying to ask some tough questions. He's just an obnoxious guy who had a fit when there wasn't time for his questions and refused to be calm even when he was given the chance to speak. He was looking for trouble, and everyone applauded when he was forced to leave.

Nothing pisses me off more than hearing stories about power tripping cops abusing their power, unnecessarily tazing or arresting people, etc. It's a huge problem and I'm glad it's being discussed. Just don't mistake this for one of those cases"

I wish I had popcorn while reading your first-hand account.

Now someone just needs to create the edit with Beavis standing on the sidelines yelling "GIVE HIM THE TASER! THE TASER!!!"

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=657_1190085332

Kerry was still talking on the mike the whole time this was going on. I couldn't quite make out what he was saying, though.

This is exactly the type of case that should be examined. A political protester, who is being sat on by six cops (one, I think, is even smiling at the whole thing), gets tasered and that's one of the "acceptable" cases?

But, he wasn't protesting. It's not like he's a Burmese Political Prisoner getting his ass stomped by political guards. He had his time, it was over. He didn't want to leave and he caused a public disturbance.

Then, he resisted the officers which is the only cause that they need to pepper spray or taser a subject. It might not look good, but it's within the officers' rights as a tool to detain an individual that is resisting an officer's command and is being belligerent.

He was yelling at a Senator regarding politics, he's a poltical protester.

There were six people sitting on him, there was zero risk to any of the officers. It may qualify for "justified" used, but it's still reprehensible.

Standing in front of a tank in Tiananmen Square is a political protest. Hijacking a mic at a student rally to ask ridiculous questions in an idiotic manner is just plain retarded.
Did he deserve to get the taser? Probably not. Did he deserve to be yanked out of the room like the douche he portrayed himself as? Yes. Sadly, I'm sure there will be a lawsuit filed and we'll see this d-bag's mug all over the place.

So I guess you don't think the people standing at Bush rally with an anti-war sign or t-shirt with an "X" over the President's face are poltical protesters because the stakes aren't high enough.

I think the difference is in the form of intellect and purpose. I get the feeling this guy was either a) doing this on a bet or b) thought it "would be cool." It's not so much what's at stake (so I guess the Tiananmen Square example was a little too extreme) as it's the point of protest itself. This guy's questions had previously been addressed or, in the case of the Skull & Bones thing, were irrelevant.

I would consider the people in your examples to be political protesters. However, if I were to attend a Bush rally and just start chanting "Bush is an idiot" over and over I wouldn't consider myself a protester. I'd consider myself an idiot in need of removal.

Again, I don't agree with his being tased. But I wouldn't call him a political protester either.

I understand, I wasn't arguing that he shouldn't be removed, just that it makes the tasing that much more egregious when the underlying offense is related to a protest.

See, I think he wouldn't have been tasered, or even arrested, if he'd left peacefully. The cops had every right to ask him to leave after his douchey behavior became unbearable and disruptive. He could have just walked out. But when he got bellgerent and angry, he was asking for trouble.

Like I said, the tazing may have been excessive. But I blame that idiot just as much as I blame the cops.

I'm pickin' up what you're puttin' down.

I saw plenty of people get tased working our Halloween events at Universal, and you pretty much had to ignore numerous warnings from the cops before they hit you with one. However, in most of these cases, it was one or two cops against one very large, very drunk individual who was ignoring the order to stand still and was advancing on the officers. It wasn't four-on-one.

Dickson, this is way off topic, but I have to know since you mentioned Halloween- are you in any way affiliated with The Thing house? If so, how is it coming, and what's the deal with it?

I'm not part of the operation of any of the houses, but here's the link to the house's webpage on our official site. Click on the "Fear Has No Shape" ticket for some cool interactive stuff.

That kids attitude was lame and he was really annoying, but I don't understand why the cops felt the need to physically remove him the way they did. It was pretty stupid for him to resist once they did start escorting him out physically, but then they fucked up and tased him. It's a big retardganza.

I'm kinda surprised to see a place like this not want to take the kid's side more. I find it rather odd to see a site like this jumping all over a guy for saying the things that a lot of us have been frustrated about others not saying.

I know his tact wasn't the best, but I understand and feel his frustration. It's just unfortunate that the media, and this site, is going to look at him and call him a wacko instead of look at what he said. I know the kid's to blame for that, but I'll never side with people stomping out a voice with violence where he wasn't a threat.

And I'd have also have loved to see Kerry taken a higher ground there and given the guy his time. Shit... I've taken night classes where I've had to listen to older men and women students rant about nonsense for a full class.

Just sayin'.

How is it possible Kerry didn't know he was tasered? He was right there. You can still hear him talking on stage seconds beforehand.

Remember when we used to get taser stories almost every week? Cops would taser a pregnant woman, 6 year old kids and grandmothers. It's absurd.

They really need to take all the taser guns away from the police. Having such a non-lethal weapon seems to make these guys too trigger happy, and too many times they use it in the wrong situations.

So, it's not that Kerry ignored what was going on, it's that he tried to stop it and nobody listened. Hmmm...

It seems pretty simple to me. It's impossible to get any point across if you're acting like an idiot. He wasn't totally to blame though - like I said earlier, both sides were at faults.

As much as I'm not a fan of law enforcement, that guy is a douchebag. Whatever point he was trying to make was lost in his spastic theatrics that gave off the impression he was trying to get publicity more than he was trying to make a point.

Someone should have tasered him long before this. And taser him tomorrow if at all possible.