Wow.  That was extremely disturbing.  The guy was disrupting the flow of the question answer session no doubt, but the taser seemed really over the top.  Nauseating.

So much for "free speech". Why didn't someone help this kid? I guess they didn't want to receive the same punishment.

Do the above posters realize that he was resisting the police and even broke away from them trying to escape?  I'm one for free speech, but not resisting authorities.

Being able to say what you want is fine and all, but his screaming and physical resisting of the police officers is why he got tasered.

They even warned him it was coming but he didn't back down. Was that guy on drugs or something?

What would you do as a police officer if you are trying to restrain someone and they are going buckwild ? Would you want to risk getting an elbow to the nose, or would you subdue him?

I would have left him alone is what I would have done.  He was exercising his right to free speech in an open forum that encouraged public participation.  Look - I'm a life long conservative and, frankly, I think the guy was being a douche.  But, the last time I checked, that's not illegal.  I am really, really getting sick and tired of taser happy cops frying folks left and right just because they can.  It's time someone said, "You know what - NO!  You can't do that just because someone was talking."  The only reason he was resisting is because the police openly started a confrontation that they had no right to involve themselves in.  At that point, everything the speaker did was self-defense.  He was attacked for exercising free speech.  In America.  I think it's time to start watering the tree of liberty again...

That guy literally begged to be tasered.  Also, every other tasering I've seen on video has the victim silenced by the jolt- how is he managing to scream 'ow ow ow ow' while it's supposedly going on?  I'm guessing they gave him a tiny jolt, and the majority of the screaming is theatrics after the fact.

Cops are way too trigger happy with the taze.  What if they whipped out their billy-clubs?  Would that be ok too?  What if he wasn't a white male?  

From everything I can see, they had no good reason for electrocuting him.  He was out of line but they were way over the line.

I don’t think this devise was intended to be used like a cattle prod and zap everyone into compliance.  Just because a cop unjustly warns you he is going to taser you does not make it your fault you got tasered.  Before tasers a cop couldn’t just shoot someone in the leg if that person wouldn’t put his hands behind his back.  I think tasers are a great alternative to using deadly force but it has to come with some sort of responsibility.  I’m sure they were trained in many different methods of subduing a “perp” without using a taser.   The kid had his hands above his head the entire time until he was slammed to the ground; I don’t think the possibility of catching a stray elbow is a threat of grave bodily harm that requires that kind of force.

Also, I do agree with Todd that it seemed to be a low voltage jolt.  I have seen a video of five cops linked arm and arm take a taser and it dropped them all.  All of the cops on the kid didn’t even seem to notice it.

Its times like this I wish I had a time machine to go back and see how the situation played out if the cops had not intervened and let him ask his questions.  Kerry seemed like he was game to play.

Gary-O, he was not "attacked for exercising free speech".  If you read the links Will provided from John Kerry's office or the Daily KOS (oops, I know, you're a "conservative" and you wouldn't be caught dead reading those sites), you would see that he had already rudely pushed himself to the front of the line (overriding someone else's exercise of free speech) and was resisting arrest for creating a public disturbance.  He was asked to leave several times but chose instead to manufacture a situation.  The confrontation was started by the student.  Given the circumstances, the police operated with a significant amount of restraint when they let him monopolize other people's time.  He was wrong.  He created the situation and he is responsible for what happened to him as a result.

I agree with Gary-O.  This guy was no threat and he was only resisting after the cops grabbed him.  Maybe he was a jerk but the cops had no right to restrain him. I can't beleive the number of people who beleive the cops were acting properly. Hello police state. What most people fail to realize is that when the police trample on his rights of free speech the police are trampling on yours too!

This is disgusting.  Yes, the guy was a loud-mouthed jerk.  His only "crime," however, was to not immediately follow the directions of a police officer, an action which is not illegal in any state.  No one was in any danger whatsoever (other than the concept of free speech).  For that infraction, he was tackled by five cops and tortured with electronic shocks that spasm every muscle in your body several times a second.  They hit him with it four times while holding him down.  How, exactly, do you expect someone to "relax and stop fighting" while using a device like that?

For those of you who don't think this is torture, let me pose a question to you.  Imagine your child or some other loved one was rude to a cop, say at a traffic stop, and got shocked like that to the point that they were screaming in pain.  Would you think they had it coming?  Likely not, and he didn't either.  Being rude to a cop is dumb, but not a crime.

I used to buy into the sales pitch of Tasers as a “less lethal” alternative to firearms.. But they aren't used that way – in fact, very rarely will a cop facing a lethal threat reach for the Taser over his gun. The Taser instead gets used as a “compliance tool”.

Taser International knows this, and has a “drive” mode (as in “drive the cattle before you”) where the prongs aren't launched – instead they are just used to inflict pain and force compliance. It was this mode that was used on the student at the Kerry forum. Would it have been appropriate to beat the kid with a baton? How about punching or kicking him? In fact, I think everyone would agree that both would have been inappropriate. Yet a Taser – which have killed dozens – is considered acceptable?

The Taser has somehow gained acceptance among law enforcement as a substitute for discussion. Before, when faced with verbal resistance, they would use reason to defuse the situation – because it's inappropriate to beat someone for verbally defending their rights. Now, if an officer has to repeat themselves more than a few times, they can say the person was “non-compliant” and use their cattle prod (oh, I'm sorry - Taser) to force compliance.

I still think the Taser has a place in police work, but its use should be seriously re-evaluated. In my opinion, it should be banned as a tool of compliance, and returned to it's original status as “less lethal” force. Considering the severe pain inflicted by Tasers, I think it's should be considered as equal in force to the baton. In other words,  if the officer feels a situation has gone so bad that they would feel justified in hitting the suspect in the head with a baton – then it's appropriate to use a Taser.

A rule is only as good as it's enforcement, so I also feel every Taser use needs to be reviewed. The officer should be able to explain why they felt so threatened that high force (potentially lethal) was justified. If such policies were in place when the above incident happened, the police would be in a bad situation now. However, as things currently stand, they weren't doing anything out of the ordinary- just using a standard tool to force compliance.

Didn't see my comment up here Will; did the bloodthirsty part hit a little too close to home?  :)

I've taught my children not to resist arrest and to comply with the instructions of police officers.  As a result, I don't expect them to be tased.  On the other hand, if they behave as the idiot in the video did, it wouldn't shock nor surprise me to see them tased.

From what I read, many of you seem to think he had an unfettered license to behave as he wished, irregardless of how it impacted those in attendance.  He failed to obey the ground rules of the Q and A.  Nevertheless, he was allowed quite a bit of lattitude.  You think he should have been allowed to misbehave for as long as he wanted?  What about 5 minutes? 10? an hour?  At some point, his little floor show had to be discontinued.  He escalated the event and got what he deserved.  If at any point, he had complied, he would not have been tased.

Ben, not too close for me personally but that style of comment ("...and anyone who doesn't agree is an x,y,z.") is a slippery slope to the kind of name calling I don't want here.  I know you weren't attacking anyone specifically but by implication you were.

If you want to re-submit your point without that bit I'll post it.

In some very very retarded countries when a girl “misbehaves”, sometimes she gets what is considered she deserves: she is raped. Then, there's always someone who says: she had it coming. And, guess what, according to the rules of that society, she really had it coming.

I didn't know that a guy can be tasered just because he breakes the rules of a Q and A forum. If the cops allowed him to speak, what were they trying to do soon after he had his mic turned of? Was he already arrested but as Senator Kerry asked for his questions the police postponed their action? Ok, you are arrested, not now, but in 5 minutes! You have the right to remain silent, but Senator Kerry wants to hear from you... So put your questions and then we are going to take a ride in our Crown Victoria...
If the arresting is illegal - and you must consider that possibility - then we cannot say the guy was being tasered because he was resisiting. Such resistance would be legal.
Maybe in the US getting tasered is compatible with the idea of “he had it coming”. In the Medieval society being jewish and burned alive was compatible with the idea of “he had it coming” too.
All problems are solved with violence. This is going nowhere. It's all so sad, my God...

Mike, "I'm for free speech, but not for resisting authorities?"
That statement says a lot about Americans' conception of the first amendment in these insane times.

Sorry to bother again.
I would like to point out that the main text in this page links to John Kerry's Online Communications Director, here

http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=6609

Astonishingly, when you read the text on this link, you can read this:

"First, the preamble to the video (much of this closely tracks to this diary) …"

Going to that diary

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/9/18/10649/5334

and then clicking "djdissent's diary", puts you on

http://djdissent.dailykos.com/

, and then you can read this:

"personal announcement
by djdissent
Tue May 22, 2007 at 11:04:15 AM PDT
I'm quitting drinking."

Maybe djdissent is AKA George W. Bush, who knows?

So, the number one source is an alcoholic, right?

Best regards from Lisbon, Portugal

While I agree that the kid in the video DID resist arrest, or detainment or was non compliant, however you want to put it, the fact is excessive force was used.  you have SIX officers detaining him on the ground including the one who carried him, physically off of the ground to the back of the auditorium, and they needed that little extra taze? I'm sure we have all seen COPS where one or two officers can successfully pin someone to the ground, cuff them and carry out the rest of the procedure? Perhaps as an answer to that question was not wanting to overly injure the man to not cause a scene (a knee to the back of the neck tends to grind ones face into the floor) so as an alternative to such bruise inflicting they decided to taze him. But in forgoing physical measures they successfully caused a bigger scene than was necessary.
So did the man, I agree he was obviously a liberal, use my freedoms college student(forgive my use of the words) and obviously almost wanted to incite the cops to whip out their batons like mentioned above. I.E. the screaming, resisting. Maybe he hoped his friend John Kerry would intervene and help him out of the clutches of the evil police. Who knows, but undoubtedly he was 'manufacturing' the scene.
He was also exercising his right to resist, free speech, ect. In a non violent protest, speech, the cops don't have a right to Touch you, at least in my perfect little world. And they did the first thing they did was grab his arm from behind, Wrong Move, at that point its self defence, the student had the right to spin around and protect himself, by any means he deems necessary, from the advancing unknown threat. At least if I was a lawyer thats one argument. Once the officers identify themselves as police, it is from this point forward that he has the duty to comply with an officer of the law, and i couldnt hear anything in the video that said, 'I am a police officer come with me' (granted I could be missing it) At this point is when he (the man) turned into a steriotypical college rebel, he did in fact resist, but then it begs the question how much force by the SIX detaining officers is necessary for one man.

On a note about the tazer. I believe its use should be fully followed up in investigations, Like how a police officer has to fill out forms, get interviewed/questioned, every time he even DRAWS his gun, The same thing should happen with tazers or any other pieces of police equipment. Anyone ever heard the saying 'With greater power comes greater responsibility'?

Resisting is the only we as citizens, or Humans have
if we don't use it we will use it, that includes saying No. If you ask me this looks like one of those powder keg types of events, are the 60's coming back full force with legitimate protests? Only time will tell. We can only hope.

Thank you for your time

One thing worth considering regarding the tase is how easily a person can be injured while their arms are being forcibly twisted behind their back. I believe he was "dry tased" which is through clothing without hooked electrodes penetrating skin, that convinced him to relax his arms so the Police didn't have to risk  straining muscles, tearing ligaments or possibly breaking a bone in the person being cuffed.
And for the record I think this clown gives student activism a bad name.

acutally from watching the video, it seems the the kid was attempting to rush the stage, not once but twice. While I'm not fully in the "taser" camp, i feel no pity for him either.

I don't care what he did, shocking people with electricity for "pain compliance" is torture.  

I live in a small town of about 7,000, in May of this year a young man in early 20's was tasered for running around a neighborhood (naked) about 1:00 a.m. Two police officers could not catch him and he was dancing crazy and so they tasered him.  He had no weapons, did not threatened the officers, they tasered him twice, some people say 3 times.  The young man stopped breathing and was rushed to the hospital and later died.....Our town was outraged and speculation on drug use was mentioned, the officers were put on administrative leave, but returned soon to their jobs.  This mother buried her son with not much explanations from the police. An autopsy was ordered from Topeka, a town 2 hours away from us.(they did not notify the mother,(because he was an adult til the following day around 10:00a.m. and was told he had died and was sent 2 hours away for an autopsy.) A report on the cause of death has still not been publicized to this day, Sept. 22, 2007.  Lot's of questions unanswered.  I have two teenage boys and pray our local police will not be so quick to use their tasers if my boys are being difficult. Everyone has different body chemistry's. No telling what tasers can do to people. I feel the police have other options in most situations when weapons are not a threat, and when the person in question is outnumbered by police and when police don't medical history or what the person is on.

this kid is a major loser.  i feel absolutely no compassion or pity for him.  methinks he wasn't interested at all in asking Kerry a question but rather in, as another poster described it, manufacturing an incident akin to his Harry Potter shenaningan.  the police warned him to comply or be tased.  he made his choice -- well in advance...

Well deserved jolt of reality.   Resisting authorities is not the solution.  He could have had his day in court for being falsely arrested - but resisting arrest is not an option.  Bottom-line is that he got fair treatment.

What is wrong with you people? Do you honestly think he got fair treatment? I'm from Iceland and we don't even have armed police! We deal with people like this by LISTENING to them! Not by shocking them with tasers! I just saw this video tonight and I was shocked, but what shocked me even more was how ANYONE could try to justify the behaviour of the police officers! So I ask again, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?

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