The New Taser Incident

So the latest big story is the fact that an attention whore has received his attention by getting himself tased:

At about 1 p.m., Kerry was nearing the end of a forum at University Auditorium, a large facility beside UF’s trademark Century Tower. At that point, audience members were allowed to ask questions at a microphone, university spokesman Steve Orlando said.

The person in front of Meyer was told he would be the last person to speak, Orlando said. Meyer said he was upset with that, so Kerry gave him the OK.

When he took the microphone, Meyer asked Kerry several questions. On amateur video linked from Meyer’s website, his questions included why Kerry conceded in the 2004 presidential election, why not impeach President Bush now, and whether Kerry was a member of the Skull and Bones secret society at Yale University.

When reminded that he was only supposed to ask one question, Meyer responded in the video “He’s talked for two hours. I think I can have two minutes.”

”He had used his allotted time. His microphone was cut off then he became upset,” Orlando said.

At which point the police were ordered to remove him from the auditorium, he resisted, and got himself tased:

So I went to the John Kerry town hall forum this morning trying to get students registered to vote. I run a student government organization called Chomp the Vote. Anyway I went inside to watch the event. Senator Kerry took the podium and began delivering a speech about the Middle East, Iraq, dimplomacy, etc. Anyway, after he was done, a university ambassador asked Kerry a few premade questions. Once that was over, Senator Kerry announced he would take questions from the students. There were two microphones placed on each side of the aisle. One on my side and the other on Andrew Meyer’s side. Senator Kerry began answering the student’s questions from each aisle. Eventually it was announced that there would only be a few more questions answered. Since Meyer and I were both in the back of each line, it did not seem likely that our questions would be answered.

However, while Senator Kerry was responding to a student’s question, all of a sudden Meyer rushed to the microphone with cops in pursuit. At that point no one knew what was going on. Could he have a gun, a bomb? Immediately, Meyer began yelling into the microphone that he had been waiting in line forever and that Senator Kerry should “spend time to answer everyone’s questions!” Senator Kerry tried to calm the student down by telling him that he would “stay here as long as it takes to get the questions answered.” The police approached Meyer who began taunting them by saying “what! are you going to taser me? are you going to arrest me?!” The police grabbed Meyer, but Senator Kerry asked the police to let him go and that he would answer his question. Senator Kerry finished answering the other student’s question and then proceeded with Meyer. (*This entire scene is not in any video I can find so far. This is why 2 cops are seen right behind Meyer at the start of some videos*).

Meyer approached the microphone and began to talk about a book he had which stated that Kerry won the 2004 election because of disenfranchisement of black voters and faulty voter machines that produced “Bush” as the winner. He then posed another question about why President Bush had not been impeached. “President Clinton was impeached because of a blowjob, why not Bush?”. The third and strangest question he posed to Senator Kerry was asking him if he was part of the skull and bones society with Bush at Yale. Meyer’s mic cut off after that, probably because he had mentioned the word “blowjob”. The cops grabbed him, but Meyer was able to get away several times. Eventually more cops were brought in to help subdue Meyer. Meyer continued to resist arrest, scream, curse; however he was enventually subdued by about six cops up around the entrance. As he is on the ground, he is told several times to put his hands around his back. He is also warned that he will be tasered if he does not comply. Eventually he is tasered twice. The video does not show whether he complied or not.

Senator Kerry was trying to answer his question to the audience, mostly the one about faulty voter machines. I am a die hard conservative Republican but I do respect Senator Kerry for trying to soothe the situation as best he could and trying not to escalate the situation. He DID intervene by letting the student at least present his question. I never received an opportunity to ask my question, but when Senator Kerry ended the show after the Meyer incident, he did come off stage to shake hands and give autographs. At that point, I was able to ask him my question, shake his hand, and get a autograph at the same time. Now why couldn’t Andrew Meyer do that?

I don’t know if this is relevant or not, but Andrew Meyer is a former sports writer for the school newspaper The Alligator. In his columns, he has been known to make ridiculous statements in order to gain attention for himself. Was today a publicity stunt?

Now take it from one who has used tasers to subdue combative suspects, this guy could very well have had some long term damage done to him if the police HAD NOT used the taser.  That’s what the tool is for.  They receive some zaps and ta da!  They comply.  If they didn’t have that tool then they have their fists, their batons, their flashlights.  It’s called pain compliance.

If they guy didn’t think he should of been arrested the time to fight it is NOT during the arrest.  It’s after the arrest in a court of law.  Once we have come to the conclusion that a person needs to be arrested you must comply.  No if’s, and’s or but’s about it.   There is plenty of legal recourse to fight it later but physically fighting the police is not the way to go about it.

Given all that, this whole story appears to be a set-up from the beginning.  He wanted his two minutes of fame and is now getting it.  Quickly to be forgotten in a week.

UPDATE

Another good take on the situation:

U.S. Sen. John Kerry’s speech at the University of Florida came to a dramatic close Monday, shortly after a vocal audience member was hauled off by police and shot with a Taser gun.

The audience member was preliminarily identified by UF officials as Andrew Meyer, a UF student in the College of Journalism and Communications.

Toward the conclusion of Kerry’s UF forum, Meyer approached an open microphone at the University Auditorium and demanded Kerry answer his questions. The student claimed that University Police Department officers had already threatened to arrest him, and then proceeded to question Kerry about why he didn’t contest the 2004 presidential election and why there had been no moves to impeach President Bush.

A minute or so into what became a combative diatribe, Meyer’s microphone was turned off and officers began trying to physically remove him from the auditorium. Meyer flailed his arms, yelling as police tried to restrain him.

He was then pushed to the ground by six officers, at which point Meyer yelled, “What have I done? What I have I done? Get away from me. Get off of me! What did I do? … Help me! Help.”

Police threatened to user a Taser on Meyer if he did not “comply,” but he continued to resist being handcuffed. He was then Tased, which prompted him to scream and writhe in pain on the floor of the auditorium.

And John Kerry’s shock and indignation:

“In 37 years of public appearances, through wars, protests and highly emotional events, I have never had a dialogue end this way,” Kerry said in a statement. “I believe I could have handled the situation without interruption, but I do not know what warnings or other exchanges transpired between the young man and the police prior to his barging to the front of the line and their intervention. I asked the police to allow me to answer the question and was in the process of responding when he was taken into custody.”

“I was not aware that a taser was used until after I left the building,” he continued. “I hope that neither the student nor any of the police were injured. I regret enormously that a good healthy discussion was interrupted.”

Interrupted by a man on a mission. 

Some are questioning why the police were so quick to get him out of there.  I have to question what occurred prior to the video.  It sounds like this guy barreled his way to the front of the line which he cannot do.  That would be justification enough to remove him as being a nuisance, but they comply with Kerry’s demand to allow him to speak.  He goes on a rant and says "blowjob," which appears to be the catalyst for the facility turning off his microphone.  If I had been the cop there I would have taken that as a signal the guy had overstayed his welcome and taken him out of there.  The exact same thing these cops did.

Meanwhile the video is out, the guy gets his two minutes of fame, some cops are now under investigation sitting at home wondering about their career and the left are cheering for their heads.

Amazing.

UPDATE II

Slimguy in the comment section has taken apart the video bit by bit and come to the conclusion the whole thing was staged from beginning to end, of which I have no doubt:

Points from curts video (from main video edited short not my link)

1) note gal to speakers right with cell phone taking video from the start

2) note camera guy squatting on floor next to her till action started

3) at 20 sec mark note guy in coat and tie next to police signals someone (sound people? to cut of mic)

4) at 1 min mark note those close by are laughing a giggling about staged incident and seem to sense the speaker is under no duress. 

From the video on Youtube that is longer and starts early in the rant

1) angle of video and proximity conclude it must be from the cellphone video to the speakers right

2) the earlier video showed no cameras behind her position

3) the short stage shot of Kerry show low video quality of a cellphone

4) the audio lag is consistent with a cellphone video.

5) early in his rant people on the far side of the room start exiting the area with looks of seeming disgust on their faces

6) the female officer (hatbill intrudes on video) tapped him on the shoulder when he was getting out of line

In both videos the speaker appears to have been trying to provoke an incident and his confrontation with the police when reviewed shows he does not try to break contact completely, but stage plays the scene to the cameras

From the mannerisms of the spectators on either side of the isle, there seems to be apparent realizations of this staging and no threat or duress to the speaker based on the facial expressions and relaxed demeanor. It would seem to appear that the lady taking video with the cellphone and the squatting camera men may be friends/class members of Mr Meyer.

UPDATE III

Even more confirmation that the whole thing was staged:

During Monday’s forum, Meyer came to the microphone to question the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee from Massachusetts. 

"You will take my question because I have been listening to your crap for two hours," Meyer told Kerry, according to the police report of the incident.

He then turned to a woman and said "Are you taping this? Do you have this? You ready?" the report said.

Clarissa Jessup, who contributed I-Report video of the incident to CNN, said Meyer gave her his camera and asked her to shoot video of him posing his questions to Kerry.

~~~

Police noted that his demeanor "completely changed once the cameras were not in sight" and described him as laughing and being lighthearted as he was being driven to the Alachua County Detention Center.

"I am not mad at you guys, you didn’t do anything wrong. You were just trying to do your job," Meyer said, according to the police report.

At one point, he asked whether there were going to be cameras at the jail, according to the report.

~~~

Meyer was carrying a business card advertising "TheAndrewMeyer.com ‘Speak My Mind,’ " the police report said.

The only form of identification this retard was carrying was a business card to his website.

Wow.

UPDATE IV

Michelle Malkin has copies of the reports written by the officers involved.  And via RightWingSparkle comes a shocker.  Andrew Meyer is a Ron Paul supporter.

Curt

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