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Tuesday, September 18, 2007 12:00 AM

Know your rights: The Kerry Taser incident

Police use a Taser on a college student who doesn't go quietly after posing an overlong question to John Kerry.

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  • Tuesday, September 18, 2007 08:25 AM

    Asking to be tased?

    "When you physically resist an officer after repeated demands, you're asking to be tased."

    Please, think about that statement. If the Florida student's greatest offense was to ask a rambling, incoherent question, animated by conspiracy theories, then he most certainly was not "asking to be tased." The responsibility of the officers was to show restraint and only use force when it became clearly a necessity. Based on the video evidence, the student did not demonstrate a clear physical threat to either Senator Kerry or other students in the auditorium ... or himself. Yet officers felt it warranted to 'tase' this guy because he shouted as he was being dragged from the building.

    Go ahead and make the argument that given Virginia Tech and the general mood that pervades the country (War on Terror, blah, blah), police are prone to overreaction. They probably are. But if the university does anything other than issue a public apology here, they are in the wrong.

    Seems like the student's greatest challenge at this point is to choose from the herd of lawyers assembling at this door.

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