Letters to the Editor
-
Gee, I would never have guessed.
I am shocked, shocked, I tell you.
-
It seemed pretty obvious
It seemed pretty obvious that he was looking for trouble. A person who wants to ask his question doesn't act like Mr. Meyer did unless he is on some chemical stimuli, delusional or deliberately trying to incite a reaction. Asking if they were arresting him and resisting arrest is just stupid. Did the cops overreact? Sure. But, they didn't overreact by much, IMO.
-
Okay, I agree. The guy's a jerk. And a self-promoter. His goal was to cause a disturbance, not to further any discussion. He was asking for trouble.
Now, distinguish him from Cindy Sheehan.
-
yes, he was being a jerk. So?
He wasn't looking for excessive force, or tasering. Nearly 200 people have died in the last five years after being shot with a Taser stun gun.
http://www.alternet.org/rights/44455/
(or click on my name)
-
At least one long-winded loony at every public meeting
I've been to a lot of public meetings and public hearings in my life, way too many. If we tasered every loony who hogged the mic at these meetings to make long-winded, incoherent and possibly semi-obscene speeches, the zapping would be non-stop across this nation.
-
I knew from the instant I saw him
that this guy was wack.
I thought he was schizophrenic.
I did not guess that it was all a big theatrical performance, but I should have guessed because my daughter is the Queen of Theatre at her high school, as well as the Queen of the Fairies (she goes out with the gay guys).
A big fake. A put-up job.
What a jerk.
-
This only reinforces my previous points
If the guy was an asshole looking for attention and was a known quantity in the community, the cops reaction is even more unprofessional.
-
Didn't take long
What was that, three posts before some Neocon clown pulled out a Cindy Sheehan slam? Um, let's see, the difference would have been that she lost her son in war while this guy was a pissed off college student probably looking to end up on Jon Stewart. She was camping out in Crawford looking to start a dialog with the Resident while this guy was coming off like one of those wacko 911 conspiracy theorists.
OK, so how you gonna pull Bill Clinton, Hillary and Ted Kennedy into the discussion now? It never fails.
IMO, the cops were put in a bad spot. You can't let people take over the mic in a public forum like that, and if they refuse to step down, you remove them. The guy was an idiot for resisting and sounded like he'd been rehearsing for weeks with his "Oh my God!" when they tased him. Now he'll go on the Daily Show, write a book and be a blogging superstar for about 6 months.
Whoopee.
-
Now distinguish him from George W. Bush
Oh, right - this guy doesn't have a father who was President. Oh, and he can probably speak in complete sentences without rehearsal.
-
To answer the question posed in your headline,
Yes.
And he's fine, and so is everyone else involved. So on to the next outrage, please! I can only get worked up about one thing per day.
-
And of Course Cops NEVER Lie In Their Reports
Sorry, but the new footage only confirms the obvious. He WASN'T being a deliberate provocateur, he WAS simply asking questions, and the police DID make an unlawful and brutal arrest. End of story...or is it??
-
Meaningless Mudsligging
I don't know if he was "looking for trouble" or not. What I do know is that nothing so far reported indicates in anyway that his actions warrented the response he recieved from the police. Since where does cutting the line in a an open Q&A session to abrasively frame questions designed more to make a point than elicit an answer warrent being manhandled and tasered by the police? Don't the police have more pressing concerns than arresting annoying indivduals who your are likely anywhere an open mike is offered. If cutting the lines and acting like a prick was a crime they would have to drag off half of the bargain hunters every time there was a really big sales event at the mall. I don't care what anyone thinks they know or don't know about this guys personality based on a few tidbits of information. The bottom line is it has no bearing on how he was treated in this specific situation.
-
Let me make sure I understand this
If you're a jerk, you're "asking for" police overreaction/brutality? Because you're a jerk, the behavior of the police isn't so bad? What if the guy were indeed mentally ill? Still okay? Are we really having a discussion about whether or not being an asshole puts you at risk of being tasered?
If I were the supervisor of the police in question, I would be pissed that they were suckered into this kind of behavior. Sure, taunting them with "What are you going to do, taser me?" is intended to be provocative, and lends credence - if not actual proof - of his motivations. But law enforcement officers are trained not to be provoked, right? At least I think they are, and if not, wow, there's a glaring error in police training!
This is not a free speech issue, as it was billed on so many talking heads cable shows last night. But the fact that Salon is publishing this article and we're having a (small) discussion about whether or not he deserves this tells me just how far we've moved the line in this new world of civil rights, due process and things like Geneva Convention protections being rights and protections we can withhold with self-righteous indignation about the person we're denying the protections. The idea of not "deserving" rights is no longer a shocking assertion, and has trickled down so far into the way we view our justice system that we're debating - as if there were more than one reasonable answer! - whether or not it's okay for cops to beat the crap out of someone just because they don't like his attitude.
Good Lord.
Eudora
-
Not a jerk
The kid was not acting like a jerk. He was attempting to force Kerry to answer some questions that Kerry and the rest of the political establishment consistently refuse to answer. He did what it seems that those of us who can no longer stand what is happening in this country must do, which is to act rude and aggressive. My analysis of what you say about the kid and his other "stunts" and the fact that he had a camera is that he suspected that he was going to be silenced, and he wanted a record. And what if this were a bit of self-generated political theater? Did he get tased or not? If he did, then the cops should lose their jobs. They over-reacted.