Update at the bottom of the post
I’m sure everyone has already heard/read/seen the story about the UF student, Andrew Meyer, who was tasered in front of the crowd at a speech Senator Kerry was holding on campus. At first view, in fact at nearly every view, it seems that the police are using a bit of excessive force to subdue this student. Each video I found on YouTube tells the same story of how a passionate student is shut out and forcibly removed.
However, this is not the real story. From piecing together several different accounts of UF students who actually attended the speech, the cameras switch on at the moment Meyer takes the mic. . .for the second time. What the videos do not show is the actions that took place before Meyer was allowed to ask his question. This is from the digg.com post about the event:
“Let me expand a bit since I was there:
Everything was going pretty well until this asshole showed up.
So here’s how it went: Kerry gave a speech for roughly 40-45 mins first, then a moderator asked him some questions followed by a Q&A session. Obviously not everyone could get to ask a question. So after 6 or so questions, the moderator says that we won’t be taking any more questions. This guy gets really pissed since he was standing next in line, and starting shouting and making a ruckus. I was sitting just a few rows in front of the mic.
He started getting all angry and started saying “we have been listening to you for 2 hours, it’s our time to ask questions”, (it was more like an hour) to which Kerry said “if you didn’t want to hear me speak, why did you come?”. Then this guy started shouting again and then the police starting getting a hold of him. Then Kerry told the security to stop and told the guy to calm down and that he will take his question after he’s done with the current question.
Then the guy’s turn comes up and you can see in the videos how he’s being such an ass…he sounds mentally ill to me. But then security grabs him and starts pulling his shirt and his female friends got really worried and started shouting at the security…the guy keeps shouting and they take him to the back of the auditorium and for some fucking reason they taser him AFTER he’s been subdued and put down…one of his friends started crying.”
Here is a second account from another student who attended:
“I was at the Kerry speech today, sitting 2 rows away from all the action. I’ll let you know how it really went down.
The forum was going to be over at 2 pm, and Kerry spoke for so long that the Q and A portion had to be shortened. He only got through about 7 of the 50 people who were waiting to ask questions. While the final question was being read, some douchebag ran down the aisle, grabbed the mic from the other side of the room, interrupted the kid who was talking, and started yelling at Kerry, demanding that his questions be heard. He started ranting about how Kerry talks in circles or something, and everyone was getting annoyed. The cops are all over him in no time and try to escort him out, but he starts yelling and resisting. Kerry insists that they let him stay and even agrees to answer his question.
After the interrupted guy’s question was answered, Kerry keeps his promise and lets the angry guy talk. This is the point where people started taking their cameras and phones out. All the videos floating around youtube start around here. You can see in the videos that his questioning gets kind of inappropriate, so somebody cut his mic. Instead of shutting up, he starts yelling and making an even bigger scene. He struggled all the way up the aisle, and started violently trying to free himself. They threatened to taze him and he wouldnt stop fighting, so he got tazed. They only had to arrest him because he was causing a disruption and wouldn’t leave peacefully. He wasn’t being silenced for asking tough questions, trust me.
It’s a shame that they had to taze the guy, but he had a chance to calm down and didn’t take it. He probably didn’t pose a physical threat to anybody in the room, but someone can’t just hijack the floor of a forum like that and expect not to get kicked out. This wasn’t some poor guy who was brutalized for trying to ask some tough questions. He’s just an obnoxious guy who had a fit when there wasn’t time for his questions and refused to be calm even when he was given the chance to speak. He was looking for trouble, and everyone applauded when he was forced to leave.
Nothing pisses me off more than hearing stories about power tripping cops abusing their power, unnecessarily tazing or arresting people, etc. It’s a huge problem and I’m glad it’s being discussed. Just don’t mistake this for one of those cases”
The big similarities between these two articles are that Meyer interrupted a student, demanded to ask a question and then visibly attempted to break away from the University Police Department. He was given a chance to relax and leave peacefully. They were simply trying to get him out of the door. When he began refusing and breaking away from the UPD, it became resisting arrest, which is illegal. Take the arrest and fight it in court later if it was unconstitutional, but don’t try to run away from them.
It can also be said that the UPD thought Kerry himself might be in danger from this student. When he breaks away from them he begins heading towards the stage. This might be stretching it, but it is a valid observation.
It seems to me that Meyer is purposely disturbing the peace here. Here is one of the better YouTube videos:
This clearly shows the defiance of the student and his disrespect in asking the question. It also gives an idea as to the student’s agenda. He is not being calm or collected; he is clearly trying to create an uproar. To me he looks like a kid who is just wanting to cause a problem and get a settlement from it. Apparently he also has a blog; there is a picture that shows him on a streetcorner with a sign that tells the ending of the last Harry Potter book. There is no reason for that except to draw attention to yourself for being an ass and piss other people off.
Now the big question is: were the UPD officers excessive? The video I have seen show that they only tried arresting him after he broke free twice. There lies the resistance and that is where he broke a rule. When they have him on the ground, face down trying to cuff him, he continues to resist by moving his hands around. That is why they tase him. It isn’t excessive if your arrogance and defiance get you in that situation.
From my standing, a well deserved tasing. Now hang him.
Here is a new video showing exactly how smarmy this kid is.
There’s also an AP article that details some parts of his website, showing more of his attention-getting shennanigans. Per the article:
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.
I still hold my view that he’s a troublemaker and deserved his treatment, only now I can add that he was seeking it out for his own gain. All he really did was shift the focus of America for a day from things more important in the news. UF kids, in all their jean short glory and mullet-style dos, don’t surprise me.
