Opinion on Modern Police State?

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaiWCS10C5s



I think it sucks. I bet I'm gonna get censored.

WTF!?!?! !! !!

When did this happen? What are news reports saying?

I can't see anything he did to deserve being arrested!! ! This scares the hell out of me that this can happen.

Well its probably going to be attributed to "disturbing the peace" even if he was granted the mic.

What did he do wrong? He was too aggressive.

I don't think they stopped him because of what he was saying but because of how he was saying it.

If he had simply asked the questions he wanted to ask instead of launching into a rather heated rant I doubt there would have been a problem.

Its not the first time Kerry has been asked questions like that most people do so in a civil manner though.

The cops would have done the same if the guy had been accusing Kerry of being a one eyed one horned giant purple people eater.

If it is on the news you'll only find it there because of networks trying to "create" a controversy to improve their ratings.

Not that I approve of what happened... but I don't think it was so much a matter of silencing free speech as stopping a heckler.

The person speaking was not an inquisitive questioner; he was a heckler. He was clearly not interested in what Kerry had to say -- when Kerry said that he'd read the book, the person plowed on regardless. The person also started throwing out questions without giving Kerry time to respond. He wasn't trying to get answers; he was going on a tirade. By the time he started asking about involvement in secret societies, I think cutting his mike was the right choice. This is supposed to be a forum where people can ask reasonable questions and get answers, not an opportunity for people to publically vent their anger and conspiracy theories. I think arresting him was more a matter of preserving the integrity of the discussion than silencing all disenters. If he had just gotten up and politely asked "Why did you concede the 2004 election so quickly?" without any of the ranting, he probably would have gotten an answer.

That said, I don't see why the police felt it necessary to taser him when they clearly had him subdued. He was obviously resisting arrest, but tasering someone you've got pinned to the ground seems a little unnecessary.

This makes me sick for a variety of reasons. I've been wrongfully attacked by cops as well without them stating what I did wrong, and it is just plain tyranny. What also gets me is those people clapping as if he was doing wrong, but he was just making sure he got all the information he could. Here is some more footage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NWukZhsiBw

And here are some responses to these videos that I like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RpHJBm_PYg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jkgv2E8NWs

They cut his mic and then cops aggressively forced him to leave just because of the nature of his questions. Of course he plowed on, you have one chance to ask a question and then you have to step down from the podium. It's not like he was going to stop asking his question after John Kerry said "I read it too". That wasn't a cue for, "now let me answer your question". I think the guy was a little worked up because he had some very important and controversial matters to address, he wasn't a heckler, and they shouldn't have tasered him. And further more, watching these videos, I've seen people post comments about how they think he's on speed, but I doubt it.

I suspect that he was more than just a heckler.

Back during the Vietnam war my father was involved in anti-war protests. He said that the protest organizers would deliberately, manipulatively set up situations to make it seem like the police were acting inappropriately. They would do things like put young teens at the front of the march, then start vandalism farther back, so that the police would have to get through the group of young people in order to get at the real perpetrators.

I've seen this happen with my own eyes at the NAFTA protests in Central America. I saw protestors attack police officers, entirely unprovoked and when the police officers finally retaliated after one of them was knocked unconscious with a gash to the head, the only part that the American media chose to show in the papers was that retaliation, in order to label the police as aggressive. Everybody gets all excited and wants to buy papers when corruption and abuse is spoken of, but police officers doing a good job just isn't a hot story.

There are people who have these kinds of manipulations down to a science and what's visible to the observer is often not the whole story. I know that some police officers do act unfairly, but this guy was clearly putting on a show. He got exactly what he angled for and even if the audience was surprised at the outcome, I'm sure he wasn't.

The video doesn't show the whole story. The police followed him because he pushed his way to the front while everyone else waited patiently in line to ask their questions. Kerry decided to be cool about it and let him ask his question anyways. He later got interrupted because he was only supposed to ask one question, not three. Kerry started to answer his first question but he just kept on talking.

It didn't have anything to do with free speech. Notice the police didn't arrest him until after he was done asking his questions. Basically he got arrested for forcefully cutting in line earlier (which could be considered disorderly conduct) and then he tried to make it look like he was having his free speech violated.

The only criticism I have is when the police used the taser to try and force him to be quiet. Seems abusive to use a taser in that context. It looked like he was already subdued and was not a threat to anyone. He was just yelling.

Huh, I didn't see the cutting in line part. But yeah, I stick by my word that the taser was BS. Do you have a link to a video of what happened beforehand?

Could be a agent provacatuer. Could just be some agitated student. Personally, I think it was excessive force, but the guy wasn't the most graceful. When the mike gets turned off and the police come to escort you out, swearing at them and resisting is grounds for pepper spray, tasers, or a choke-hold.

I've called up my gator posse, bros, and they will let me know what is to be known about the guy that got tased.

I don't know of any video showing him cutting in line. I read it from what a supposed eyewitness wrote. Sorry, I can't seem to find it now. I think it was one of the earliest comments on the original youtube video that described the situation. It was mainly the use of the taser that people were pissed about. He apparently deserved to be arrested.

Initial story - student one Andrew Meyers, senior in COMMUNICATIONS at UF, previously a columnist for the student paper. Older columns not available online.

The police all over the country are currently more aggressive than ever. This always happens in times of war. I have a good friend who has been a Los Angeles police officer for 10 years now and he tells me how much the culture has changed in the last 3-4 years. He says they are being trained to be more aggressive with people right now.

If you want things to change you must peacefully protest this type of police behavior, you must peacefully protest our new national policy of preemptive aggression. If good people do nothing things will certainly get worse.

Did you know the US government has built huge detention facilities in the US to house American citizens?
If the American citizens don't stand up for their constitutional rights our country could slide into a fascist state.

People willing to trade their freedom for temporary security deserve neither and will lose both. Beware.

Correction - some columns by Meyers are online.

Bush's Speech filled with Lies, Contraditctions

Decriminalize Marijuana (cached at Google)

Didn't Know What to Write About

Too Many Bikes on Campus!

Thinks Nader is a spoiler

Even True Conservatives that Hate Him Love Him!

But they didn't use the taser until that guy was already sitting on him. It looked like they were just using it to make him stop yelling and it obviosly didn't work. It was the same thing with the UCLA kid in the library that was arrested for refusing to show his ID. They had him handcuffed and on the ground and then proceeded to taser him. When cops do that crap it just makes them look like total asses. In that case it rightly pissed a lot of people off and caused a massive scene.

It would seem the cops are putting themselves in danger too. I could see things turning into a Rodney King type of incident and setting off a riot if this happened in a more hostile environment.

Yeah, I said "Personally, I think it was excessive force" They could have handled it better.

I won't get any more reports from Gainesville until late tonight or tommorrow. Tapped all available sources, messages pending with others.