GAINESVILLE, Fla., Sept. 18, 2007
Student Tasered At John Kerry Forum
University Of Florida Student Arrested After Asking Senator Several Questions
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Play CBS Video Video Student Tasered At Kerry Q&A
CBS News RAW: Police tasered a University of Florida student who has been accused of disturbing the peace and resisting arrest at a talk with Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.
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University of Florida student Andrew Meyer, 21, is being taken by police after an incident at a campus forum with Sen. John Kerry. (CBS)
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Photo Essay Sen. John Kerry His early life, war days and Senate career.
Andrew Meyer, 21, spent a night in jail before his release from jail Tuesday morning on his own recognizance. He had no comment when he left. His attorney, Robert Griscti, did not return messages seeking comment.
Videos of the Monday night incident, posted on several Web sites and played repeatedly on television news, show University of Florida police officers pulling Meyer away from the microphone after he asks Kerry about impeaching President Bush and whether he and Bush were both members of the secret society Skull and Bones at Yale University.
University spokesman Steve Orlando said Meyer was asked to leave the microphone after his allotted time was up. Meyer can be seen refusing to walk away and getting upset that the microphone was cut off.
As two officers take Meyer by the arms, Kerry, D-Mass., can be heard saying, “That's all right, let me answer his question.”
Audience members applaud, and Meyer struggles for several seconds as up to four officers try to remove him from the room. Meyer screams for help and tries to break away from officers with his arms flailing at them, then is forced to the ground and officers order him to stop resisting.
As Kerry tells the audience he will answer the student's “very important question,” Meyer yells at the officers to release him, crying out, “Don't Tase me, bro,” just before he is shocked by the Taser. He is then led from the room, screaming, “What did I do?”
Meyer was arrested on charges of resisting an officer and disturbing the peace, according to Alachua County jail records, but the State Attorney's Office had yet to make the formal charging decision. Police recommended charges of resisting arrest with violence, a felony, and disturbing the peace and interfering with school administrative functions, a misdemeanor.
University President J. Bernard Machen issued a statement Tuesday saying he requested the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate the arrest. Officials said it would determine whether the officers used an appropriate level of force.
Machen called the situation “regretful” in an afternoon news conference and said two officers involved in the incident were placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the probe.
“We're absolutely committed to having a safe environment for our faculty and our students so that a free exchange of ideas can occur,” Machen said.
Kerry said Tuesday he regretted that a healthy discussion was interrupted and that he never had a dialogue end that way in 37 years of public appearances. He also said he hoped neither the student nor police were injured.
“Whatever happened, the police had a reason, had made their decision that there was something they needed to do. Then it's a law enforcement issue, not mine,” he told The Associated Press in Washington.
Meyer has his own Web site and it contains several “comedy” videos that he appears in. 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 while trying to pick up a woman in a bar.
The site also has what is called a “disorganized diatribe” attributed to Meyer that criticizes the Iraq war, the news media for not covering the conflict enough and the American public for paying too much attention to celebrity news.
©MMVII, The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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- John Kerry has put himself in for another Purple Heart, claims he was hit in the crotch by a flying spark from the taser.
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John Kerry tazers dissent!- Reply to this comment
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- What are you so afraid of they can''t find us yet. Keep talkin your spew after a while they will find you too. xxxxxooooooo
- Reply to this comment
rjstolba,
Re: "With this guy, I go a 180--lock him up, stitch his mouth shut, and then prosecute the heck out off him!!!!"
Sounds like your inner fascist talking. At least you know a little bit more about who you really are, rather than the illusion that you "pride (your)self as".- Reply to this comment
Re: "yeah ok I guess it''s time i am not afraid come and find me. I am a florida resident. My vote hasn''''t counted for years and probably never will. But this is bad and it''s in your face. I am a little girl but I will take the tase"
If only a few more Americans could display this kind of courage....- Reply to this comment
- Generally, I pride myself as a free, speech advocate. With this guy, I go a 180--lock him up, stitch his mouth shut, and then prosecute the heck out off him!!!!
- Reply to this comment
- When you are ordered to do or stop doing something by law enforcement and you do not comply, that is called "resisting" which is a crime. When you physically resist, that is usually a felony.
I does not matter if you are personally right or wrong or even have a right to do something. If you are ordered by law enforcement, just follow the order. Your "rights" can be sorted out later in court.
I think the boys behavior was completely wrong & he should have followed orders. He looked like he was SPOILING for trouble from the second he showed up.
I also think that the police could have just dragged him outside instead of tasering him.
However, its hard to see him on the floow while he is resisting. He MAY have been hitting, scratching, kicking or biting the officers which COULD justify tasering. - Reply to this comment
- yeah ok I guess it''s time i am not afraid come and find me. I am a florida resident. My vote hasn''t counted for years and probably never will. But this is bad and it''s in your face. I am a little girl but I will take the tase......... as the dictactor saz BRING IT ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Reply to this comment
- Posted by snidegrass at 09:03 PM : Sep 18, 2007
What was his general take on it Snide? I didn''t get to hear him at work. - Reply to this comment
- michael savage discussed it for three hours on
his am radio show today. - Reply to this comment
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
