The Zap

September 19th, 2007

In a situation which the President of Florida University declared “regretful,” a young [and extraordinarily emotional] man was taken done with a stun gun, following his grilling of John Kerry. Regretful, huh? Gosh — ya think so?? And I’ve got to wonder how he might have assessed it if the incident hadn’t gotten immediate attention worldwide.

It’s another example of authoritarian overkill — we’ve gotten reports in these last years about tasers being used on little kids and old folks; this has gotten out of hand. And I’m not ABOUT to forget the security guard that took out the guy in the hospital carrying [dropping and injuring] his infant child. We’ve got a homegrown version of “collateral damage” going on in this nation … a witless disregard for individuals, their safety and their rights … that needs to be dealt with!

Kerry attempted to both answer the kid, and bring the attention back to the discussion [despite what Greg Palast says -- John didn't insist, although the clips show that he did try] but it had already gone wrong. The reads below give you the full picture, including comment by Palast and news of a student protest today; various of these reads have video snips, but I can’t vet them for you. Christine sent me a snip early yesterday, and by afternoon it had been “redone” [read that: censored.] I’d trust the one from BuzzFlash/Palast.

It’s Constitution Week* — whatever happened to the right to free speech?

* The Habeas vote went down in flames, three votes from passing — one of those votes we needed but didn’t get was Joe Lieberman’s … Clueless Joe, the guy that caucuses with the Blue but votes with the Red, and urges an attack on Iran. Joe ran on a “get out of Iraq” referendum — his name needs to be placed in Webster’s as a clear example of “betrayal.” CT bought a familiar-but-gone-rabid pig in a poke; and they’ve given us this distructive oinker for another six years.

To see how your Senator voted, go here.

So [she said, with a long and weary sigh] we’ll table this topic for the moment, but I’ll leave you with the words of Chris Dodd:

“America’s moral standing, and with it the security of the United States, suffered another setback today, atop a pile of setbacks that has accumulated over the past six years. The outcome of this vote is both symbolic and tragic. Each of us in the Senate faced a decision either to cast a vote in favor of helping to restore America’s reputation in the world, or to help dig deeper the hole of utter disrespect for the rule of law that the Bush Administration has created. Unfortunately, too many of my colleagues chose the latter, and my disappointment runs deep. But I will not rest my case with this vote. Instead, this defeat will only deepen my resolve to restore the rule of law and with it American security, for far too much is at stake - for every American - to simply give up the fight.”

Jude

Student Arrested, Tasered at Kerry Event
TRAVIS REED, AP via HuffWires
September 18, 2007 05:09 PM

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A university student with a history of taping his own practical jokes was Tasered by campus police and arrested after loudly and repeatedly trying to ask U.S . Sen. John Kerry questions during a campus forum.

Andrew Meyer, 21, spent a night in jail before his release from jail Tuesday morning on his own recognizance. He had no comment when he left. His attorney, Robert Griscti, did not return messages seeking comment.

Videos of the Monday night incident, posted on several Web sites and played repeatedly on television news, show University of Florida police officers pulling Meyer away from the microphone after he asks Kerry about impeaching President Bush and whether he and Bush were both members of the secret society Skull and Bones at Yale University.

University spokesman Steve Orlando said Meyer was asked to leave the microphone after his allotted time was up. Meyer can be seen refusing to walk away and getting upset that the microphone was cut off.

As two officers take Meyer by the arms, Kerry, D-Mass., can be heard saying, “That’s all right, let me answer his question.”

Audience members applaud, and Meyer struggles for several seconds as up to four officers try to remove him from the room. Meyer screams for help and tries to break away from officers with his arms flailing at them, then is forced to the ground and officers order him to stop resisting.

As Kerry tells the audience he will answer the student’s “very important question,” Meyer yells at the officers to release him, crying out, “Don’t Tase me, bro,” just before he is shocked by the Taser. He is then led from the room, screaming, “What did I do?”

Meyer was arrested on charges of resisting an officer and disturbing the peace, according to Alachua County jail records, but the State Attorney’s Office had yet to make the formal charging decision. Police recommended charges of resisting arrest with violence, a felony, and disturbing the peace and interfering with school administrative functions, a misdemeanor.

University President J. Bernard Machen issued a statement Tuesday saying he requested the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate the arrest. Officials said it would determine whether the officers used an appropriate level of force.

Machen called the situation “regretful” in an afternoon news conference and said two officers involved in the incident were placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the probe.

“We’re absolutely committed to having a safe environment for our faculty and our students so that a free exchange of ideas can occur,” Machen said.

Kerry said Tuesday he regretted that a healthy discussion was interrupted and that he never had a dialogue end that way in 37 years of public appearances. He also said he hoped neither the student nor police were injured.

“Whatever happened, the police had a reason, had made their decision that there was something they needed to do. Then it’s a law enforcement issue, not mine,” he told The Associated Press in Washington.

Meyer has his own Web site and it contains several “comedy” videos that he appears in. In one, he stands in a street with a sign that says “Harry Dies” after the latest Harry Potter book was released. In another, he acts like a drunk while trying to pick up a woman in a bar.

The site also has what is called a “disorganized diatribe” attributed to Meyer that criticizes the Iraq war, the news media for not covering the conflict enough and the American public for paying too much attention to celebrity news. ++

Associated Press writer Andrew Miga in Washington contributed to this report.

Kerry Statement on Florida Campus Incident
John Kerry’s blog
09/18/2007

WASHINGTON D.C. – Sen. John Kerry issued the following statement today, in response to the arrest of a student at the University of Florida.

“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.”

++

Fox anchor: ‘officers should be commended’ for tasering student
David Edwards and Jason Rhyne, Raw Story
Tuesday September 18, 2007

Weighing in with his legal opinion regarding police officers’ tasering of a University of Florida student, attorney and Fox News anchor Gregg Jarrett said no excessive force was used during the incident.

“He is resisting. And the videotape really doesn’t lie–it speaks volumes about what’s going on,” said Jarrett, referring to video of the event that is circulating around the internet.

“The law doesn’t allow you to resist police officers when they ask you to do something,” he added.

The tasered student, Andrew Meyer, was wrestled to the ground by officers after asking Sen. John Kerry a question during a school forum.

“Now you may have a beef with them being there in the first place and trying to escort you out–you can argue that later–but when they ask you to do something, you have to do it. That’s the law,” Jarrett said.

Reviewing the videotape of the arrest, which played throughout the interview, Jarrett pointed to moments that he says show Meyer is clearly resisting arrest.

“There he is raising his arms,” he said as he watched. “Yeah he may be saying ‘I’m not doing anything,’ but he is…he is repeatedly resisting.”

Asked about an eyewitness report of the incident reported earlier in the segment, which indicated Meyer may have told officers he would cooperate if they let him stand up,

Jarrett was incredulous.

“Why should they believe him?” the anchor asked. “He has already demonstrated in the previous minute that he is not going to do what he says he’s going to do.”

The tasering, according to Jarrett, was good police protocol.”The taser device actually is a method by which you decrease the level of force by subduing somebody, not increasing the level of force…these police officers out to be commended for what it is they did.”

Regarding the possibility of future lawsuit from Meyer, Jarrett said the student didn’t have a case, adding that no jury would sympathize with him as he was being “utterly obnoxious.”

Earlier in the program, witness Matthew Howland, who was on the scene during the scuffle, said at one point Meyer told officers he’d cooperate.

“Andrew said ‘I’m not resisting. If you let me up, I’ll walk out of here with you right now,” Howland told Fox. ” But they kept him on the ground and about 20 seconds later they tased him.”

Howland later said that after the tasing, Meyer was taken to the lobby of the auditorium, where police asked for his name and other information–requests the student refused.

“He doesn’t give up his information like his name because he says he’s scared–he doesn’t want to give them any more information.”

This video is from Fox’s Fox News Live, broadcast September 18. [open link] ++

Student Tasered for Armed Madhouse Question to Kerry
Greg Palast, BuzzFlash
Tue, 09/18/2007

“[Palast] said you won the 2004 election - isn’t that amazing? There were multiple reports of disenfranchising of Black voters on the day of the election in 2004 in Florida and Ohio. … How could you concede the election on the day?”

Watch the Youtube Video

We warned you: ‘Armed Madhouse’ is a dangerous book. Yesterday, Andrew Meyers, a University of Florida student was attacked by five cops, zapped with tasers and arrested after demanding that Senator John Kerry answer the question.

Meyers, just released from jail and now facing five years in prison for resisting arrest, held up a copy of the book and began:

Student to John Kerry: “I want to recommend a book to you. It’s called ‘Armed Madhouse by Greg Palast.’ He’s the top investigative journalist in America.”

Kerry: “I have the book. I’ve already read it.”

Student: “… In this book, it says there were 5 million votes and you won the election. … How could you concede the election on the day?”

Meyers, a telecommunications student at the Gainesville campus, asked related questions including a query as to why Kerry refused to vote for impeachment. When he passed his alloted one minute mic time, five cops jumped him, threw him to the ground, shot him with taser shockers.

Kerry, true to character, stood immobile.

Now, I’ve given many talks. And some questioners have taken too long at the mic. But I’ve never done the Stalin thing of cops and electronic beating to limit the discussion. (Yes, it’s true that Randi Rhodes recently threatened me with a taser when I’ve monopolized the mic in her studio.)

The Washington Post reported only that Meyers was holding a “mysterious yellow book.” VERY mysterious.

I would note that enchained student was busted in Alachua County, Florida, where, six years ago, I uncovered massive, systematic and utterly illegal disenfranchisement of Black voters - ordered by Gov. Jeb Bush’s office just before the 2000 election. (”Florida’s Disappeared Voters,” February 2001, The Nation.) Alachua remains under federal scrutiny for its long history of racial bias against Black voters.

I must admit I feel some appreciation for Meyers, especially because, even while he was being shot with untold amps of electricity, until he was handcuffed, he would not let go of his mysterious yellow book, “Armed Madhouse.” ++

Angry UF students march on campus
News 10, Tampa Bay

Gainesville, Florida - Nearly 200 angry students marched on the campus of the University of Florida tonight, demanding justice for a student who was tasered and arrested by campus police.

The student, 21-year old Andrew Meyer was arrested after loudly and repeatedly trying to ask U.S. Sen. John Kerry questions during a campus forum.

Meyer spent Monday night in jail before his release.

Tuesday, UF students voiced their concerns regarding the incident which has been played on several Web sites.

The video shows officers pulling Meyer away from the microphone after he asks Kerry about impeaching President Bush and whether he and Bush were both members of the secret society Skull and Bones at Yale University.

University President J. Bernard Machen says he is requesting the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate the arrest. Officials said it would determine whether the officers used an appropriate level of force.

Machen went on to call the situation “regretful”. ++

“So keep fightin’ for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don’t you forget to have fun doin’ it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin’ ass and celebratin’ the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was.”
~ Molly Ivins, 1944 - 2007

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Entry Filed under: Political Waves