What do you think?

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Too many people spend money they haven't earned to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like. - Will Rogers

I saw the video on this and I've heard that he does this all the time and then posts the video. He was completely resisting the police and yelling and just making a HUGE scene. Then even after they got him out of the room, he was yelling that the police were going to try to kill him... So yes, I think he deserved it, they told him what would happen if he continued doing what he was doing. Now I heard on GMA that 2 of the police were placed on admin leave... I don't think that's right.

Yes, he was asking for it!

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Square dancing is friendship set to music!

No.
He was not starting a riot, he was using the right of Free Speech and to me it is a serious link in a chain of events that is slowly taking away our freedoms. I know a lot of you will not agree as the norm for anything nowdays if compliance. But there is no way I can change my stand on this.
It is getting to the point where NO one can question the answer.
I always question the answer.

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"Cast upon this globe without physical strength or innate ideas, incapable in himself of obeying fundamental laws of this nature which call him to the supreme place in the universe, it is only in the heart of society that man can attain the pre-eminent position which is his natural destiny. Without the aide of civilization he would be one of the feeblest and least intelligent of animals.."
Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard

Yes, his time was up,he would not leave,he asked for it

Absolutely not. Talk about police brutality. I don't care if the kid was trying to bait them, they shouldn't be that easily provoked. It's unprofessional.

Besides, if they taser people who don't quit speaking when their time is up, then every candidate in every political debate would be writhing on the floor screaming.

Kerry said he wanted to answer the question. They should have let the kid stay and let Kerry answer the question.

OK...the kid was not tasered because he wouldn't shut up. He was tasered because he was resisting arrest! It's not that hard people, really it's not!

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Mental that one, I'm telling you. ---Ron Weasley, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"

That begs the question - what was he being arrested for?

Could be any number of charges--I would suspect that failure to comply with a police request is one, disorderly conduct would be another, and obviously resisting arrest.

Had he simply complied with the officers request to leave the bldg, and not fought them when they attempted to escort him, then he wouldn't have been subject to being tased. If he wanted to protest he could have gone limp, or chose to sit down in the middle of the floor. It's the whole struggling w/ the officers that got him tased.

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Mental that one, I'm telling you. ---Ron Weasley, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"

IMO, it's a sad day in our country when the tasering of a student at a political debate "because he wouldn't shut up" is so easily accepted and justified. That being said, I think both the student and the campus police were in the wrong; although I place more blame on the police for waaaaay over-reacting (again IMO). As Jon Stewart said:

"Yes the entire situation is an unfortunate combination of police overreaction and what appears to be student douchbaggery. There are no winners."

If that was my son...he would be lucky he only got zapped once! His behavior was pathetic. He was told by a police officer to do something. He didn't do it. He payed the price. If he thought he was being treated unfairly it was his to take up later, not act like an idiot and NOT follow the directions of the officers. He got what he deserved. If he was my son I would say the same.

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Mom to Miss C & Mr. E
Former SAHM now working full time
feboll@neo.rr.com

I'm not sure if it was good he was tasered, but I for one am getting tired of this kind of behavior.

Why can this kid scream and carry on and interrupt and it be called free speech? What about every other person around him that that behavior was bothering/annoying? Don't THOSE people have any "rights"? It seems like in these situations, it's everyone ELSE that has the "right" to just take it.

People more and more act like fools because they can cry "<insert amendment here>" and that's supposed to be that.

Taser Guns.....

There are so many excellent points in that thread on how this guy could haven't handled the whole situation different and it boils completely down to ONE thing: If he hadn't been doing what he did, he never would have been tasered. I'm sorry, but that HAS to matter.

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You know what--if he would have left the microphone when asked to, if he would have left the bldg when asked, if he hadn't of resisted the police he wouldn't have been tasered! He could have continued his rhetoric the ENTIRE time, he could have said what he wanted to say as they escorted him out peacefully--but he RESISTED! This is NOT ABOUT FREE SPEECH!!!

I find it a sad day in this country when people abuse the rights that were secured for them by men and women who have died!

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Mental that one, I'm telling you. ---Ron Weasley, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"

I've said that both the officers and the student were wrong. I can't see where you can say the student was "abusing his rights". He was asking a question in an open forum. He may have been long winded in his questioning but his questions were legitimate. He made no verbal or physical threats toward the Senator.

In earlier posts you said you wouldn't watch the videos of the incident. If you had, you would have heard Senator Kerry accept the student's questions and say, as the officers were grabbing him, that he would answer the questions. The officers continued to muscle the student out of the room. An over reaction (IMO) on their part.

The audience members didn't appear to be uncomfortable or react badly to the student's questions nor were they chained to their seats. It was the last question of the forum, they could have left if they weren't interested in the exchange between the Senator and the student.

There was a good video link posted yesterday but I believe the following is better as it shows the student asking his questions

YouTube - UF student Tasered at Kerry forum (new, complete)

I have great respect for police officers but they are not omnipotent and in this case I believe that the situation could have been handled differently by all parties involved.

Our part of the bargain with those who have died to protect our rights is to respect and guard that for which they died. A citizen asking a senator an uncomfortable question isn't an abuse of of those rights. However, IMO, whoever gave the order to those officers to silence the student is bordering on abusing those rights.