In the case of Mr.Meyer, he was just being escorted out of the building without being arrested until he chose to pull away and start fighting. He was determined to resist until someone used enough force on him to look bad. His behavior was that of an exhibitionistic jerk. He looked like a fit, muscular young man who could put up significant resistance. It appeared to me as though the officers had one cuff on him, and he was resisting getting the second cuff on when he was tazered. This is an appropriate use for the tazer, since the worst injury he will get from it is a couple of minor burn marks versus the possibility of bruises, muscle tears, broken bones, or other injuries with conventional techniques. You may notice that no one punched, kicked, choked, or did anything else to him other than hold on and try to cuff him. It was not the officers who were using unreasonable force, it was Mr.Meyers.

I was in law enforcement for about 30 years, and it is much less common for people to be injured in arrests than it used to be, due to the availability of tools like the tazer and pepper spray. In Mr.Meyers case, as in every arrest I have ever witnessed, the suspect chose the level of force needed to subdue him.

You then asked “Don’t we want more young people like that?” The answer is a profound “No.” We want young people who respect everybody’s right to a peaceful and comfortable event. This man obviously did not recognize the proper means of channeling his frustration, and subsequently got himself arrested without ever achieving any of the points he may have had by posing his question/rant.

This man would have been much better off, and much more well-received, contacting Kerry at a later time with his questions. In hindsight, he may have written a compelling letter at a later time to the University of Florida student newspaper, addressing the issues he felt were missed at the event. This man did neither of these things; he simply broke the law. Thankfully, none of the police officers were injured while dealing with this violent student.

Meyer went to the event expecting the opportunity in this “Town Hall” to ask his questions. When he was told that he would not be able to ask, he asserted himself because of that injustice. Is that illegal? He found a Mike and asserted himself. Is that wrong? Don’t we want more young people like that?

At first I thought he was rude, now I do not think so. All of you that think he should have been tased are probably fans of Ann Coulter.

Vergognatevi, avete dimenticato cosa è la democrazia, americani del ventunesimo secolo!

I would also like to try to clear up all this talk about how the audience and Kerry should have done something to help. Kerry actually told the police to let him go several times. Kerry wanted to answer Meyer’s question, but when he was being escorted away, it was probably a better idea to just be calm and anwer the question to the remaining audience members. Seriosuly though, I can’t imagine anyone was fortelling what would happen next. It wasnt until Meyer was brought to the top of the auditorium that he began to really pull away and resist and was then brought to the floor in an attempt to handcuff him for restraint. He was resisting the police for quite some time while they were trying to handcuff him. There wasn’t really a reason for anyone to stop them. It was then in the next few moments that you hear “Don’t tase me, bro!” and a few people run up to the pile and yell to stop, after he had been tasered. I personally stood up and yelled “What the f_uck, don’t do that!” So, while I was totally appauled by him being tasered, there wasn’t much we as audience members could do to stop it. Right after being tasered, he was taken out, so there really was not enough time for anyone to act. I personally couldn’t have done much alone besides just be pushed aside by the cops or possibly injured myself (and I know that seems like a small sacrifice for human rights, and it is, but it would have just been pointless by now), as I am a teenage girl with a small frame, and, as stated, there wasn’t enough time for most audience members to say “Hey, lets get together and throw these heavily-armed cops off this kid!” No one saw it coming and up until then, to be perfectly honest, it seemed appropriate for Meyer to be escorted out. He first broke a rule by jumping onto a microphone out of turn and then asked a chain of questions that turned into more of a rant and speech of his own. So it wasn’t the fact that he was rude or passionate about what he was saying, or even WHAT he was saying; it was that he was turning the Q&A into a dialogue, and that’s not what it was. Then, however elementry it may seem, “b_lowjob” was inappropriate to say in the given situation. This was an organized event in which you needed a ticket to attend, so it was not just open for anybody to walk in randomly. These are the events that have guidlines that need to be followed to ensure the safety of the people (not that he himself was a threat at all) and the smoothness of the discussion.