I was wondering when this would show up. The police at my school are notoriously Nazi-like, so it's not surprising that this kind of thing would happen here. :|
Okay, first of all, here's what happened: people were asking questions to Kerry after his speech. Right at the end of the Q&A session, he pushed to the front, because apparently he had a lot to say. He started asking a long string of questions without pausing, mostly super liberal stuff that nobody would take seriously - for example, he talked about a book that claimed Kerry had actually won the 2004 election, and why didn't he press for a recount of the votes to account for faulty electronic voting machines and disenfranchised black voters? That kind of crap.
Now, at some point they turned off his mike, because he was using profanity, ranting and raving, and it was the end of the Q&A session. I think the main reason they turned his mic off was when he started swearing. After this it all went downhill. He got pissed that they'd cut his mic, and police started trying to escort him out of the building. When he resisted more and more officers came to get him out. Eventually the struggle got worse and they had him on the ground, trying to handcuff him. When they still couldn't, they tasered him, cuffed him and brought him out that way.
What's fascinating about all this is how people can take an event like the one above, and use it for whatever they want. This has absolutely nothing to do with Freedom of Speech - he was at a university event, not acting with respect towards a Senator, ignoring what the event faculty around him was saying, etc. So he deserved to be removed, and his First Amendment rights weren't even remotely violated. He wasn't taken out because of what he was saying, but because he was being such a douche bag.
As a side note, I wonder if he really HAD to be removed had they just let Kerry answer his questions. At the beginning of the struggle, Kerry was saying, "No, it's okay, let me answer his question," etc. So even though he deserved to be ejected, Kerry didn't seem to bat an eye about his questions or his tone. He's a politician who ran for President, I'm sure he's handled worse people way before.
Anyway, this also isn't about whether or not he should've been arrested. I kinda already went over it, but this guy was being a moron and not cooperating with police. Honestly, even in a situation where the police are being unfair to you, it's probably a good idea to go along with it and fight back in court afterwards. Police are unfortunately given a lot of power and they're human beings too - without thinking it over, what implications it had, what kind of shitstorm would go down if they did it, they tasered the kid for no particular reason than, it appears, to make their job easier. Not doable, but easier.
Six fully-trained police officers couldn't keep under control a person without a weapon, not trying to hurt anyone around him, who was already on the ground?
Tasers are for people with guns. Knives. People posing an immediate threat to those around them. People trying to hurt others. Urgent, serious situations. This wasn't even remotely that kind of thing. It was a raving 21 year old Journalism student, the kind you'd find doing the same thing on campus daily, who didn't want to get ejected and was too stupid to act appropriately for what was going on. He wasn't someone trying to hurt anybody, and even yelled "if you get off me, I'll leave on my own", or something similar to that. Of course, it was too late, as he had already been a dumbass and was getting arrested either way. But I think it was pretty clear he wasn't the kind of person the police were handling that deserved a taser in order to be taken care of.
Of course, people are retarded though, and marched in protest yesterday and will march later today. Holding stupid signs about Freedom of Speech, and why didn't Kerry do more to stop what was going on, etc. But none of those things are what this is actually about.
