[Vision2020] Kerry speech/student tasered

[J Ford]

Are you sitting down, Mr. R?  Good.

I agree 100% with what you say here.  I have watched the video (ALL angles), I listened to the College President, I know the two major cop actors have been put on admin leave (WITH pay) and the College has asked for outside investigations.  So I am fairly confident that the minor charge the kid was charged with with probably go away and corrective actions will be put in place in case this type of thing happens again - there, at least.  However, it is my hope that the kid learned there are better ways and protocol for a journalist (his major) to ask a question and get a point across.

Good points made and thanks for doing so.

J  :]


> Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2007 19:28:24 -0700
> From: godshatter at yahoo.com
> To: sunilramalingam at hotmail.com
> CC: vision2020 at moscow.com
> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Kerry speech/student tasered
> 
> I don't know what to think about this.  I'm usually one to jump on the 
> authorities in cases like this, but now after watching the video on 
> youtube (for some reason the video link in the story didn't work for 
> me), I'm unsure.
> 
> I think the police, which I assume were campus security, were a little 
> quick to try to remove him from the microphone and from the room.  I 
> think that much of what he did at the end was theatrics.  I'm sorry, but 
> when the police are moving you physically from the room (rightly or 
> wrongly), you don't resist, you don't keep acting less and less calm, 
> and you don't stupidly keep telling them "not to tazer me, man".  You 
> comply, and you fight it in court.  When they have you on the ground and 
> you won't give them an arm for the handcuffs they have only a limited 
> number of options.  Physical force which can result in a dislocated 
> shoulder, bruises, etc, or the tazer.
> 
> Kerry did say that he would answer the question, and that they needn't 
> do what they were doing.  He mumbles, yes, but I did hear him say that.  
> It's not like he answered the question by waving at the cops to take him 
> away.
> 
> I've also read elsewhere that the person involved (I forget his name) 
> was well-known for these kinds of things.  He likes to show up in public 
> places and disrupt things.  I suppose the campus cops would think of him 
> as an "agitator".  Many of the other students apparently think of him as 
> a kook.
> 
> I am convinced that if he simply allowed them to remove him he wouldn't 
> have been tazered.  They waited until he was on the ground and still 
> thrashing around and acting up and warned him that they would use the 
> tazer several times.  I think the police should review their rules for 
> removing people from microphones at public events, but after they made 
> the decision to remove him they didn't appear to me to use force until 
> they had to.
> 
> That's not to say that the "tazer problem" (i.e. using it in situations 
> when it shouldn't be used because it is non-lethal) isn't a real 
> problem.  I just don't feel much sympathy for this guy.  He got his 
> point out there.  Call it a win and sit back down, or let the cops lead 
> you out of the room with something of your dignity left intact.
> 
> Paul
> 
> Sunil Ramalingam wrote:
> > http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts09192007.html
> >
> > Above is the address of an article about a speech yesterday by John Kerry.  
> > A student gets up and asks a question (quoting from a book I've mentioned 
> > here) and ends up getting grabbed by police officers and tasered in front of 
> > the crowd while Kerry drones on.  It's truly bizarre; the video link at the 
> > end of the article shows it all happening.
> >
> > Sunil
> >
> >
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