Student Tasered in Front of John Kerry

[Neal Jiutai]

Was that Neal Conner carrying the Gadsden flag?

Haha, what good eyesight you have!

[alohamonkey]

The female tazer-er is actually saying that she thinks they were set-up.

You don't believe the pigs, do you?  If you do anything other than defend this kid's "right to free speech" in a forum held in a university (despite the fact that he jumped to the front of the line, taunted the police, and instigated an inappropriate yet inevitable escalation of force that achieved his goal: making his name known worldwide), expect your karma to plummet 45 points today like mine has 

For the record, I don't agree with you on this issue but I'm not petty enough to start docking karma just because we don't agree.  I have only smited one or two people since I've been a member of this forum. 

[Sheep Fuzzy Wool]

Maybe the speaker should have said, "Order, please."

A gavel would have been much more polite than a taser.
http://www.greatbigstuff.com/gavel.html

This http://www.slamagavel.com/ should be mandatory for the police.

[mvpel]

There you go again, trying to pass off that he was tasered for being out of order at the microphone, rather than for struggling against police efforts to take him into custody.  If you keep missing the point, how is there going to be any change to the current state of affairs?

[Lloyd Danforth]

You're missing the fucking point, Mike.  That many cops should have been able to handle him without using a Torture device.

[Braddogg]

I totally agree with you, Lloyd, and I'm pretty sure Mike has said the same thing.  But people are talking about the tasering like it was a punishment for expressing free speech, which is VERY different than the point you're making.  I think THEY are the people that are "missing the fucking point."

[penguins4me]

The problem is that a Taser is used as a punishment at all.

It was marketed and sold as a device to (at first) induce less-lethal compliance in a non-compliant criminal (via pain, then via muscular disruption). Wanna bet on how well it would have gone over it had been marketed as a punitive device?

The phrase "like a lead balloon" comes to mind...

[Braddogg]

But it wasn't used punitively . . . .  It was used hastily, yes, but not as a punishment . . . .

[Lloyd Danforth]

But it wasn't used punitively . . . .  It was used hastily, yes, but not as a punishment . . . .

That would depend on what was going on in the minds of the cops, wouldn't it?

and..........


I'm guessing he end result was punishment!

[Sheep Fuzzy Wool]

The police were interupting the student, while an engagement of conversation was being delivered and received from the questioner and forum guest speaker. 

  A rabbit in your backyard carrying out his (or her) business may be startled by the opening of your back door and will probably run in fear. Obviously the rabbit is wrong and must be hiding something and certainly deserves to be tasered for his insubordination.  Some rabbits have been conditioned by feeding from humans and will come right up to you and eat out of your hand, but if you grabbed it, it would probably still resist and you should taser that rabbit too.  It is only natural that the student, a younger person,  in an unfamiliar setting would react similiarly to the rabbit.
  The student hasn't had enough time to realize that these police are his rightful owners/slave masters.

 



The issue is not the student's freedom of speech, it is clearly only because he was white, that they arrested him.

[alohamonkey]

You're missing the fucking point, Mike.  That many cops should have been able to handle him without using a Torture device.

That many cops DID handle him.  They had five police on top of him and he wasn't going anywhere!  He was completely subdued except for a mildly flailing left arm for the last minute of the struggle.  The taser was completely unnecessary and . . . possibly it was used as punishment for "daring to challenge the authority of the enFORCErs!!"

[lildog]

But it wasn't used punitively . . . .  It was used hastily, yes, but not as a punishment . . . .

That would depend on what was going on in the minds of the cops, wouldn't it?

and..........


I'm guessing he end result was punishment!

If that's the case then it's a direct violation of the 5th Amendment.

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.


You cannot be punished without due process of the law.

[alohamonkey]

There you go again, trying to pass off that he was tasered for being out of order at the microphone, rather than for struggling against police efforts to take him into custody.  If you keep missing the point, how is there going to be any change to the current state of affairs?

You and Braddogg have a point.  He wasn't tasered for being out of order at the microphone.  But, the actions that led to him being tasered were a direct result of him asking a question.  That's it!  If he had not asked a question (exercised his right to freedom of speech), the police wouldn't have decided to forcibly remove him and he would not have been tasered.  I don't understand how you can defend the cops in this instance.  Yes, he was obnoxious and spoke out of turn.  Yes, he resisted being restrained.  Why did they try to restrain him?  Because he asked a question.  Why did he try to resist restraint?  Because he felt his right to freedom of speech was being squashed.  Why is this ok with you? 

[kola]

taze a 12 yr old girl? 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6468373/

[kola]

A person gets multiple spinal compression fractures after he was tazed.

oh..and noticed the "victim"...a cop.

http://www.southbendtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070905/Lives/709050460/1047/Lives