I just want to put this out there:

 

The kid I guess has an 'acting out' history. For an event like this, you get a background check done before admission. I'd assume, also, that he was identified as a person 'at risk' for the event. It seems to me as if it'd be reasonable to at least suppose that the campus police (or event security) were alerted about him previous. When he started to resist (because, let's be honest, he did) at what point did the police exceed their right to maintain order. Were there specific security instructions given regarding this event and this person in particular? Remember, Kerry is still a "person of interest" in the national landscape, and imagine the egg on the face of UF if this kid was given more latitude and did something stupid.

 

Thoughts on that? Rather than just the predictable "down with the police" diatribe.

Who has given a 'down with police' diatribe in here?

 

What you talk about goes hand in hand with my whole point. If this was truely an open forum, let him have his '15 minutes', if it's not make it that way from the start and this never happens. Although I do find the idea of 'background checks' for a college class' speaker to be absolutely absurd. Are colleges suppossed to maintain an active database of it's student's individual personalities and quirks? Come on.

 

The campus 'police' never had order here until they had to ridiculously use a taser. A simple forceful takedown and all this averted. The 'police' never had order once. The fact that it didn't take one but when you see things like that fat white 'cop' tugging at his hand is a joke. Those people should be fired, if they can't handle this one guy, in a closed environment, what use are they anywhere else?

People just need to understand things. What does it accomplish to kick him out and use excessive force? You get yourself on national tv and on You Tube. What happens if you just let him talk and sit down? The crowd boos him, Kerry handles it like the politician he is, and the kid fades into oblivion.

 

The cops, in crossing the line, gave him exactly what he wanted.

Who has given a 'down with police' diatribe in here?

 

What you talk about goes hand in hand with my whole point. If this was truely an open forum, let him have his '15 minutes', if it's not make it that way from the start and this never happens. Although I do find the idea of 'background checks' for a college class' speaker to be absolutely absurd. Are colleges suppossed to maintain an active database of it's student's individual personalities and quirks? Come on.

 

The campus 'police' never had order here until they had to ridiculously use a taser. A simple forceful takedown and all this averted. The 'police' never had order once. The fact that it didn't take one but when you see things like that fat white 'cop' tugging at his hand is a joke. Those people should be fired, if they can't handle this one guy, in a closed environment, what use are they anywhere else?

 

So then, by that standard, wasn't the taser the only option?

 

If Kerry is a high-profile person whose security is paramount to the University of Florida, and the campus police never had order once (by your standard) until the taser was used, would it not stand to reason that using the taser was the only option in the name of preservation of order? Warnings did not work, attempts at physical restraint did not work, therefore force is the only remaining option.

 

I don't think my stance has anything to do with an assertion regarding who should or shouldn't keep their job(s), but whether or not order was maintained before the taser, and if order was maintained afterward. Furthermore, whether or not order was necessary for the event.

They in no way violated his 'freedom of speech'. This was an event in a university with rules. Once the event organizers said to stop and he continued they had every right to escort him out. When he resisted leaving and cops were involved, especially with a Senator in the room the dude is going to get tasered, plain and simple. When cops say leave and you dont youre gonna get forced out.

 

Like BB said in a post before the kid is an attention whore Im glad he got a dose of reality yesterday. Maybe next time he wont be such a pompous, arrogant little sh*t head.

 

 

 

Well said Frenzy.

 

 

Just to touch on a few comments in this thread:

 

1) Miranda Rights only have to be read PRIOR to questioning. He was being questioned. He was asked nicely to leave once by a female officer. After he continued on his rant, the officer attempted to escort him out of the auditorium at which time he PULLED AWAY. At that point he is a non-compliant subject and by Florida law he can be tasered (or hit with an asp for that matter.) Im not saying they had to use a taser, but under most department policies, a taser can be deployed on someone who is ACTIVELY resisting. Once he pulled away he was doing just that.

 

2) As he was being led away he stated, "why are you arresting me?". Problem is, he wasnt being arrested AT THAT TIME. He was being escorted out for being a drama queen. Once he pulled away and resisted (something he didnt have to do) THEN he was placed under arrest.

Who has given a 'down with police' diatribe in here?

 

What you talk about goes hand in hand with my whole point. If this was truely an open forum, let him have his '15 minutes', if it's not make it that way from the start and this never happens. Although I do find the idea of 'background checks' for a college class' speaker to be absolutely absurd. Are colleges suppossed to maintain an active database of it's student's individual personalities and quirks? Come on.

 

The campus 'police' never had order here until they had to ridiculously use a taser. A simple forceful takedown and all this averted. The 'police' never had order once. The fact that it didn't take one but when you see things like that fat white 'cop' tugging at his hand is a joke. Those people should be fired, if they can't handle this one guy, in a closed environment, what use are they anywhere else?

 

So then, by that standard, wasn't the taser the only option?

 

If Kerry is a high-profile person whose security is paramount to the University of Florida, and the campus police never had order once (by your standard) until the taser was used, would it not stand to reason that using the taser was the only option in the name of preservation of order? Warnings did not work, attempts at physical restraint did not work, therefore force is the only remaining option.

 

I don't think my stance has anything to do with an assertion regarding who should or shouldn't keep their job(s), but whether or not order was maintained before the taser, and if order was maintained afterward. Furthermore, whether or not order was necessary for the event.

I'd venture to say that they did have order, when he was on the ground with 5 or 6 'cops' and that the taser should not have been used.

 

I wonder if the campus 'police' actually are trained or have a concept of how bad a taser actually hurts. I (stupidly) have been tased before, and it's not something that needs to be used on someone who is pinned to the ground by 5 or 6 people. Serves no purpose in that situation. It's excessive at that point without a doubt in my mind.

 

If a single cop, let alone 5 or 6 can not do a single grapple or somesort of submission move on that kid then they are utterly useless in every aspect of their job description. Florida should strive to get competent cops with a body fat % under 30 in the future.

Oh and at some of the broad generalizations being made about at an entire profession in this thread.

Who has given a 'down with police' diatribe in here?

 

What you talk about goes hand in hand with my whole point. If this was truely an open forum, let him have his '15 minutes', if it's not make it that way from the start and this never happens. Although I do find the idea of 'background checks' for a college class' speaker to be absolutely absurd. Are colleges suppossed to maintain an active database of it's student's individual personalities and quirks? Come on.

 

The campus 'police' never had order here until they had to ridiculously use a taser. A simple forceful takedown and all this averted. The 'police' never had order once. The fact that it didn't take one but when you see things like that fat white 'cop' tugging at his hand is a joke. Those people should be fired, if they can't handle this one guy, in a closed environment, what use are they anywhere else?

 

So then, by that standard, wasn't the taser the only option?

 

If Kerry is a high-profile person whose security is paramount to the University of Florida, and the campus police never had order once (by your standard) until the taser was used, would it not stand to reason that using the taser was the only option in the name of preservation of order? Warnings did not work, attempts at physical restraint did not work, therefore force is the only remaining option.

 

I don't think my stance has anything to do with an assertion regarding who should or shouldn't keep their job(s), but whether or not order was maintained before the taser, and if order was maintained afterward. Furthermore, whether or not order was necessary for the event.

I'd venture to say that they did have order, when he was on the ground with 5 or 6 'cops' and that the taser should not have been used.

 

I wonder if the campus 'police' actually are trained or have a concept of how bad a taser actually hurts. I (stupidly) have been tased before, and it's not something that needs to be used on someone who is pinned to the ground by 5 or 6 people. Serves no purpose in that situation. It's excessive at that point without a doubt in my mind.

 

If a single cop, let alone 5 or 6 can not do a single grapple or somesort of submission move on that kid then they are utterly useless in every aspect of their job description. Florida should strive to get competent cops with a body fat % under 30 in the future.

 

But that's still not addressing the primary issue.

 

Do you or do you not think that John Kerry is a special case that warrants "heightened" security? Excessive may be, it is slightly warranted by the times in which we live. Much like having to put thong sandals through an airport security screener.

Oh and at some of the broad generalizations being made about at an entire profession in this thread.

 

Yes the entire profession of campus police. I'll gladly make those generalizations, call me whatever or feel however you want about me for doing that. Absolutely one of the most worthless and incompetent organizations I've been around not only at A&M, but other places I've been to along with 2 brothers who went/go to college in 2 very different areas. This video is just further proof and I'd expect more out of a bigger school.

I'd venture to say that they did have order, when he was on the ground with 5 or 6 'cops' and that the taser should not have been used.

 

I wonder if the campus 'police' actually are trained or have a concept of how bad a taser actually hurts. I (stupidly) have been tased before, and it's not something that needs to be used on someone who is pinned to the ground by 5 or 6 people. Serves no purpose in that situation. It's excessive at that point without a doubt in my mind.

 

If a single cop, let alone 5 or 6 can not do a single grapple or somesort of submission move on that kid then they are utterly useless in every aspect of their job description. Florida should strive to get competent cops with a body fat % under 30 in the future.

 

But that's still not addressing the primary issue.

 

Do you or do you not think that John Kerry is a special case that warrants "heightened" security? Excessive may be, it is slightly warranted by the times in which we live. Much like having to put thong sandals through an airport security screener.

Where did I ever say there shouldn't be heightened security?

 

Numbers obviously didn't mean sh*t in this situation though since it took 5 or 6 people to take that kid down. I'm never going to be able to get over that. I didn't know it was campus police policy to do the 'hand tug' when wanting to subdue a subject.

I'd venture to say that they did have order, when he was on the ground with 5 or 6 'cops' and that the taser should not have been used.

 

I wonder if the campus 'police' actually are trained or have a concept of how bad a taser actually hurts. I (stupidly) have been tased before, and it's not something that needs to be used on someone who is pinned to the ground by 5 or 6 people. Serves no purpose in that situation. It's excessive at that point without a doubt in my mind.

 

If a single cop, let alone 5 or 6 can not do a single grapple or somesort of submission move on that kid then they are utterly useless in every aspect of their job description. Florida should strive to get competent cops with a body fat % under 30 in the future.

 

But that's still not addressing the primary issue.

 

Do you or do you not think that John Kerry is a special case that warrants "heightened" security? Excessive may be, it is slightly warranted by the times in which we live. Much like having to put thong sandals through an airport security screener.

Where did I ever say there shouldn't be heightened security?

 

Numbers obviously didn't mean sh*t in this situation though since it took 5 or 6 people to take that kid down. I'm never going to be able to get over that. I didn't know it was campus police policy to do the 'hand tug' when wanting to subdue a subject.

 

Well, if heightened security is justified, and by your own admission campus police are inept...isn't a taser the only reasonable last resort option?

 

I don't want another deflection going back to the root of the problem. Quite frankly, I don't think it's tremendously relevant. You have lemons, you make lemonade. You have 6 guys that can't cut it as cops, you make them campus security and you give them a taser. To come out and say this is ridiculously unnecessary, I think, overlooks the context of the situation.

Again, the 'situation' was over when he was pinned on the ground with 6 people. Why was the use of the taser needed?

 

It seems to me from the video, that it was more or less to get him to STFU then aid in the apprehension.

Oh and at some of the broad generalizations being made about at an entire profession in this thread.

 

Yes the entire profession of campus police. I'll gladly make those generalizations, call me whatever or feel however you want about me for doing that. Absolutely one of the most worthless and incompetent organizations I've been around not only at A&M, but other places I've been to along with 2 brothers who went/go to college in 2 very different areas. This video is just further proof and I'd expect more out of a bigger school.

 

 

 

I'll meet you half way on this. I can only speak in terms of the State of Florida, but from what I have seen and heard, the hiring standards for campus police ARE lower than for municipalities/county/state police.

 

And don't get me wrong, I don't love the way they handled the call. But walk in their shoes for just a moment. They asked him to leave verbally (and did so in a relatively "nice" way). Then he simply turns away, completely ignoring a uniformed officer. They let him continue talking some more and then attempt to "escort" him out. What does he do? He starts flailing his arms and crying "police brutality".

 

Police brutality? He CLEARLY does every thing he can to make the situation escalate. I have a strong feeling that those officers would have liked nothing more than for him to have just walked out of that auditorium without causing a huge scene. They were pretty much in a no win situation.

At no point did he make any comment that would be deemed threatening to John Kerry.

 

They should have let him ask his question, which Kerry was willing to answer, and then let him sit down.

 

Certainly there was no reason to taser him at all. He was clearly subdued by the 5-6 police officers, and he said that he would leave without a problem before they used the taser.

Since you do know what you are talking about since you are a cop, shouldn't anyone in law enforcement be able to put some sort of grapple or whatever on someone to restrain them?

 

I couldn't believe at least one guy couldn't do some sort of move to get this guy on the ground. Any metro police officer you see would have had that kid's ass on the ground in no time.

 

I would have zero problem if the kid just got thrown down (hard as it needed to be) and cuffed. The taser is where it went over the line. It's inconcievable to me that 5 or 6 people when having someone pinned, need a taser in that situation. If there is something I missing here seriously let me know since there may be procedure or what not that I don't know about but I just don't see it.

What happened Fox? Did some campus police officer do something horribly wrong to you when you were in school? Let us know how you really feel.

What happened Fox? Did some campus police officer do something horribly wrong to you when you were in school? Let us know how you really feel.

Um, no; they are just by and large pointless and when there is an actual responsibility they flub it up or aren't equiped to handle it.

 

I don't know where you guys went to school, but I went to one of the biggest schools in the country and they were a joke. My stance on this issue has absolutely nothing to do with my personal feelings on the subject. Think what you want, but I can easily seperate the two when I have a discussion.

Hahaha this kid's story gets better and better as each hour passes. I bet he made alot of friends with this article...

 

 

Article he wrote on the lack of intelligence at UF:

 

Campus Lacks Intelligence

 

 

 

This is the featured column from The Alligator that caused so much trouble, stirred such a ruckus, started all the brewhaha (http://www.alligator.org/edit/opinion/issues/stories/040720column.html).

 

By ANDREW MEYER

 

Perhaps I?m the only one, but I expected to find a little more intelligence on a college campus. Coming from high school, a place almost entirely devoid of intelligent thought, I reasoned that the University of Florida could be nothing but a step or five up on the evolutionary ladder. So far, not so good.

 

The main culprit in my indictment of the low intelligence level I have found to this point at UF would have to be the students in my Myths of the Greeks and Romans class. My first period of the day features more primates than a barrel of monkeys. Actual questions from class:

 

?Do we have to learn Greek for this class??

 

?What year did Zeus give Pandora to man??

 

?Isn?t there evidence of worship of Athena that predates known Zeus temples, thus proving that the mythological pantheon was altered by the Mycaeneans??

 

Just kidding on that last one. If someone had actually asked anything remotely resembling a reasonable question, I wouldn?t be writing this column. The class endures queries daily from one or both of two characters: the rocks-for-brains simpleton who struggles to understand concepts like the possibility that some of these are made up stories, and the arrogant prick in the back who conjures questions similar to the third one above, with the stipulation that his inquiries have to be an asinine attempt to prove the professor wrong or show off his meager knowledge of the subject. There are audible groans from around the auditorium when a hand shoots up in the middle of a lecture; everyone there knows that an idiotic, pointless stream of words is to follow.

 

Unfortunately, these mindless questions are far from the only instance of stupidity I?ve witnessed at UF that has literally rendered me speechless. My friend Danny stumbled in to my room the other day, clutching a paper, apparently shocked beyond belief. Asked the source of his bewilderment, he told me to take a look at the essay he had just proofread for someone in his class. If I didn?t know any better, I would have guessed it was written by a remedial high school English student. Silly me, I thought there was an essay requirement for admission! Where are the ?tough standards? I was told of? Like a line-up of parrots, all my guidance counselors had repeated to me again and again, UF is very hard to get in to!

 

And yet, my own roommate has moments where he is indistinguishable from the Cro-Magnon man. As I was writing this very passage, he walked in and asked dully, ?Why are you writing??

 

?Because I like to,? I responded.

 

He stopped for a moment, as if to consider this new prospect, the enjoyment of putting creative thought to paper.

 

?That?s gay.?

 

Moments like these are what really make me wonder about the people around me. Am I alone in the desire for an educated student body? It?s not as if I?m an intellectual elitist, wanting to banish the plebeians with SAT scores lower than mine. I?m not in the honors college, some antisocial student in Hume typing this up while holed away in his dorm. I?m just asking for some common sense and understanding, which is apparently lacking. I don?t know, maybe this dearth of intelligence is just imagined, and that college students really do know more than how to tap a keg. I certainly hope so.

I actually agree with him. Some of the people that get in to big state universities is scary. Lame to write that in to the school newspaper but whatever floats your boat.

 

That has pretty much zero to do with the matter at hand though.

What happened Fox? Did some campus police officer do something horribly wrong to you when you were in school? Let us know how you really feel.

Um, no; they are just by and large pointless and when there is an actual responsibility they flub it up or aren't equiped to handle it.

 

I don't know where you guys went to school, but I went to one of the biggest schools in the country and they were a joke. My stance on this issue has absolutely nothing to do with my personal feelings on the subject. Think what you want, but I can easily seperate the two when I have a discussion.

To be honest, my school's campus security was a joke too. We used to constantly laugh at the lack of effort the school took towards keeping the campus safe.

 

I'm not saying by any means what they did to the kid was right, but at the same time, the kid has to know when to shut his mouth and listen to what he is being told. When a cop tells you to do someting, you do it. Plain and simple.

I don't like the use of tasers in situations like this. I agree with Fox that security personnel need to be able to restrain & control someone without resorting to that.

 

That being said, once someone resists an officer I have very little sympathy for what happens to them. If you cooperate with police you can expect to be treated decently. If you screw around with them, best of luck to you.

Poor kid, thats an absurd abuse of power from those officers. Politics in the US really likes emotion and vigor, and when some youth shows sign of wither they get treated like that...

Why would you expect the crowd of 30,000+ mostly paying in-state tuition to be the cream of the crop? Now I have no problem with people who attend state schools, but I never considered the said schools to be very selective with their admissions.

 

The standards arent terribly low at UF, but the kid is right, you see an enormous amount of idiots there, as you would anywhere.

 

Incoming Freshmen:

Middle 50% of the Class

• High School GPA of 4.0 - 4.4
  
• SAT of 1210 - 1400
  

 

From my email:

 

To students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends:

 

I have received a great deal of communication and input last night and this morning regarding the incident that occurred Monday at the conclusion of a town hall forum being held by Sen. John Kerry. The incident resulted in a student being tasered.

 

We are interested in learning what happened and are taking the following immediate steps to ensure the university utilizes best practice protocols:

University of Florida Police Chief Linda Stump has requested the Florida Department of Law Enforcement conduct a formal investigation into the arrest of UF student Andrew Meyer. An independent review such as this will make sure the results are objective and impartial. Chief StumpÂ’s priority is to ensure that the public remains confident in the departmentÂ’s ability to keep the campus safe.

Two officers involved in the incident have been placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.

We plan to assemble a panel of faculty and students to review our police protocols, our management practices and the FDLE report to come up with a series of recommendations for the university.

Administrators and police officials plan to analyze the incident and conduct an internal review and will consider changing protocols in response to this incident, if necessary.

Finally, as is standard procedure, the State AttorneyÂ’s Office will review the charges brought against Mr. Meyer. We have communicated with the State Attorney and understand he plans to expedite his review.

I will talk about the incident and answer questions at a news conference scheduled for 2 p.m. in Emerson Alumni Hall.

J. Bernard Machen

I think it is pretty clear that he was making every effort to make a scene and wasn't going to go easy. But yeah, campus police and some cops(avoiding generalizations) overuse tasers. I've had a couple of friends tasered their stories are usually involving the cops wanting to taser them the first chance they get. It's a great way to use one's power over someone else without killing them.

 

 

 

And yeah, the cops were stupid for tasering with cameras rolling. They could have handled the situation much much better.