Stay Informed: Tasers and More

Now I mind you, some of these things are in the eyes of the beholder, so you're going to have to watch yourself on these. Given certain actions should and shouldn't be taken, but I'll leave this up to you to decide. Are any of these things right? Are any of these things wrong? And why so?



Tasered Florida student now a Web star

By The Miami Herald

ANDREW STANFILL / AP

University of Florida student Andrew Meyer speaks with university police after being removed from a forum where Sen. John Kerry was speaking in Gainesville, Fla., on Monday.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Add this to the lexicon of American democracy: "Don't Tase me, bro. Don't Tase me."

Andrew Meyer, the University of Florida student who tested the limits of free speech during an address by Sen. John Kerry, walked out of jail Tuesday and into cyberspace history, and instant, if likely fleeting, celebrity.

Video clips of his fracas with university police officers flashed around the world, viewed more than 400,000 times. Tens of thousands of people debated the issue on Web sites. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Amnesty International USA rose to his support.

The degree to which Meyer, 21, was a nuisance or an opportunistic prankster — and the magnitude of the police response — stood at the center of the worldwide web of discussion as he left jail, was hugged by his father and drove away in his lawyer's SUV.

Meyer, a senior telecommunications major, has a Web site featuring several homemade videos. 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 in a bar while trying to pick up a man dressed in drag.

UF President J. Bernard Machen described the event as "regretful" and said two officers in the incident were placed on administrative leave pending an investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

As the forum with Kerry was ending Monday, the Massachusetts Democrat agreed to answer a question from Meyer even though the Q&A period was supposed to be over.

Meyer launched into a lengthy series of questions and amounted to this: Why did Kerry concede the 2004 presidential election? Why not impeach President Bush? Was Kerry a member of the same secretive society at Yale University as Bush?

Reminded he was to ask only one question, Meyer said: "He's talked for two hours. I think I can have two minutes."

Meyer's microphone was cut off as six police officers attempted to remove him.

During the fray, Meyer uttered the words that will live forever in the memories of millions of ... computers:

"Don't Tase me, bro. Don't Tase me."
Followed by:

"I didn't do anything. Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!"

Kerry, meanwhile, came under criticism from people who thought he should have done more to take control of the situation and cool tensions.

During the encounter, Kerry can be heard saying: "That's all right, let me answer his question." A little later, he offers again to answer Meyer's "very important question."

Material from The Associated Press is included in this report.

The Case of the Jena 6

Last fall, when two Black high school students sat under the "white" tree on their campus, white students responded by hanging nooses from the tree. When Black students protested the light punishment for the students who hung the nooses, District Attorney Reed Walters came to the school and told the students he could "take [their] lives away with a stroke of [his] pen." Racial tension continued to mount in Jena, and the District Attorney did nothing in response to several egregious cases of violence and threats against black students. But when a white student--who had been a vocal supporter of the students who hung the nooses--taunted a black student, allegedly called several black students "nigger", and was beaten up by black students, six black students were charged with second-degree attempted murder. Last month, the first young man to be tried, Mychal Bell, was convicted. He faces up to 22 years in prison for a school fight.

check out more at "freethejena6.org"
Jena 6