(Warning: this video is very disturbing at the end.)
WTF is going on at the University of Florida? Yesterday, John Kerry was speaking (I don’t know why) and taking questions from the audience at some forum. A student got up to ask a question at the microphone. Admittedly, he was kind of loud and rambling, but I’m guessing he was pretty nervous and also he obviously has passion for his topic (the fact that there was enormous fraud in the 2004 election, especially in Florida).
I suppose if I had wanted to ask Senator Kerry the question, I would given him a chance to answer, but being rude or slightly obnoxious is not grounds for arrest, the last time I checked. It certainly isn’t grounds for what happened next. The student, Andrew Meyer, was forced to the ground by no less than five University police officers. And then, most shockingly (no pun intended), while he was already subdued but still shouting to demand an explanation, he was violently tasered in the chest for at least five seconds. It is, quite simply, the most shocking, terrifying, sickening thing I have seen in a long time. The innate violence of it, and the obvious pain and terror in the young man’s cries are bad enough, but even worse is the realization that this is happening the U.S., “land of the free.” What about free speech? What about civil rights? Note that the officers never inform him he is being arrested, they never attempt to read him his rights. They tackle him, and taser him, and haul him away.
What. The. Fuck.
