University of Florida Taser incident: Difference between revisions
+current tag (as it will likely have newsworthy repercussions) |
response from Senator Kerry |
||
| Line 4: | Line 4: | ||
After Meyer asked the original question related to the Skull and Bones society, four police officers attempted to remove Meyer. The student struggled with them and continued speaking. He screamed "Help!" and "Get away from me!" as the officers physically held him and moved him to the end of the room. The officers placed Meyer on the ground and began to [[handcuffs|handcuff]] him. The officers threatened to [[taser]] Meyer. He continued to struggle, said he would stand up and walk out, asked an officer to not taser him, and an officer then [[taser|tasered]] him. He continued screaming as the officers removed him from the room. Meyer was arrested and "charged with [[Resisting arrest|resisting an officer]] and [[disturbing the peace]]." |
After Meyer asked the original question related to the Skull and Bones society, four police officers attempted to remove Meyer. The student struggled with them and continued speaking. He screamed "Help!" and "Get away from me!" as the officers physically held him and moved him to the end of the room. The officers placed Meyer on the ground and began to [[handcuffs|handcuff]] him. The officers threatened to [[taser]] Meyer. He continued to struggle, said he would stand up and walk out, asked an officer to not taser him, and an officer then [[taser|tasered]] him. He continued screaming as the officers removed him from the room. Meyer was arrested and "charged with [[Resisting arrest|resisting an officer]] and [[disturbing the peace]]." |
||
==Response from Senator Kerry== |
|||
On the day following the incident, Kerry's office issued a statement saying that the Senator was unaware that a taser had been used on Meyer until after he left the event.<ref name=kerrystatement>Office of Senator John Kerry, "[http://kerry.senate.gov/cfm/record.cfm?id=283508 Kerry Statement on Florida Campus Incident]", September 18, 2007</ref> The statement quoted Kerry as saying, "In 37 years of public appearances, through wars, protests and highly emotional events, I have never had a dialogue end this way. 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 regret enormously that a good healthy discussion was interrupted."<ref name=kerrystatement/> |
|||
==See also== |
==See also== |
||
| Line 11: | Line 14: | ||
* [[Free Speech Movement]] |
* [[Free Speech Movement]] |
||
* [[Mario Savio]] |
* [[Mario Savio]] |
||
==References== |
|||
{{reflist}} |
|||
==External links== |
==External links== |
||
Revision as of 17:25, 18 September 2007
 | This article documents a current event. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses, and initial news reports may be unreliable. The latest updates to this article may not reflect the most current information. |
The University of Florida taser incident is an event on September 17, 2007 in which police from the University of Florida forcibly removed twenty-one year old student Andrew Meyer from a forum with Democratic Senator John Kerry. Meyer reportedly asked Kerry why he did not contest the 2004 presidential election and why Kerry has not advocated for President Bush's impeachment. Meyer mentioned that both Bush and Kerry belonged to the Skull and Bones society at Yale University. The Associated Press reported that "He apparently asked several questions — he went on for quite awhile — then he was asked to stop" and "He had used his allotted time. His microphone was cut off then he became upset."
After Meyer asked the original question related to the Skull and Bones society, four police officers attempted to remove Meyer. The student struggled with them and continued speaking. He screamed "Help!" and "Get away from me!" as the officers physically held him and moved him to the end of the room. The officers placed Meyer on the ground and began to handcuff him. The officers threatened to taser Meyer. He continued to struggle, said he would stand up and walk out, asked an officer to not taser him, and an officer then tasered him. He continued screaming as the officers removed him from the room. Meyer was arrested and "charged with resisting an officer and disturbing the peace."
Response from Senator Kerry
On the day following the incident, Kerry's office issued a statement saying that the Senator was unaware that a taser had been used on Meyer until after he left the event.[1] The statement quoted Kerry as saying, "In 37 years of public appearances, through wars, protests and highly emotional events, I have never had a dialogue end this way. 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 regret enormously that a good healthy discussion was interrupted."[1]
See also
- UCLA Taser incident
- Electroshock weapon controversy
- Student protest
- Free Speech Movement
- Mario Savio
References
- ^ a b Office of Senator John Kerry, "Kerry Statement on Florida Campus Incident", September 18, 2007
External links
- The AP Report on Fox News
- The AP Report in The Miami Herald
- A video of the incident
- Reaction on Michelle Malkin's conservative blog
- An amateur video of the incident from YouTube
- Reaction on the liberal blog Daily Kos
- The UF student newspaper report in The Independent Florida Alligator
- Discussion on Slashdot