Letters to the Editor
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Asking for it?
Like a woman in a short skirt is asking to be raped?
I see this as part of a trend to squealch free speech by intimidation and use of excessive force. The university police are trained to diffuse a potentially dangerous situation, not to further inflame it. It shows very poor judgment on the part of the police. It also shows poor judgment on the part of the student, but isn't that what college is for?
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AKA
We all KNOW that the kid would not have been treated that way if he were a old person. The point of this article (and the suspicion that some of us have had since first witnessing his highly-theatrical performance) is that he was counting on being mistreated.
The First Amendment belongs to all of us, even to the other students who were waiting patiently in line to ask their questions and to those who were sitting attentively in the audience listening to the answers Kerry was giving (or, in the case of the practical joker, trying to give).
I hope your father is still alive. If he is, please thank him for his service.
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Last nail on First Amendment coffin
The reactions to this incident among many liberals and in many of these letters are so typical of the current "law and order" climate in the Bush era. Since when do we arrest people for acting like jerks and seeking attention to their causes?
When liberals and progressives think it's just fine to arrest someone for exercising First Amendment rights just because he wanted to draw attention to himself, we might as well kiss that amendment goodbye. Just like habeas corpus and warranted searches and seizures.
So Code Pink, PETA and other "attention whores" don't make fools of themselves?
Still, I have to admit to finding it ironic that the "she asked for it" defense is being applied to a white male.
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Better video
This video shows the lead-in to the student's questions
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpMSNjXhhhg&mode=related&search=
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Headline: Salon readers totally incapable of being in the presence of apparent contraries
These things are not exclusive:
1. The kid was a publicity whore who was hoping for a confrontation. There are dicks at every campus meeting I have attended over the last thirty years, and we just sit and take it when these ego-junkies seize the moment for themselves. They have piss-all to do with Berkley, Kent State, Greensboro, ACTUP, Code Pink, etc., etc.
2. He put himself in a situation where he would inevitably come under the control of undertrained police officers operating in a post-Virginia Tech climate.
3. Cops are often dumb and thuggish. They have weapons and the right to use them. Your default mode if you are a kid confronted by cops is to assume that you will be arrested or worse.
4. They were in the wrong to taser him.
5. Race/class is the real story here (bro). As MANY letter writers have said, what happened to this smirking child of privilege is as nothing compared with what happens, unnoticed, every day to poor people and people of color. He was a dick and had his underclass experience. Good for him.
6. Maybe he should get his notions about civil disobedience from "Letter from Birmingham Jail" instead of Jackass.
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See it's just more of America the Intolerant
And you're all members in good standing. No matter how much you thump your chests about how liberal you are, at the bottom of it you're just an intolerant screeching mob who's more interested in not being irritated than you are in anything else. You're the first people to squawk and moan how people who are offended by TV should turn the channel or turn it off. But woe to he who snatches the mike. Sure he was irritating. Imagine how you assholes look to him.
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Agitate!
When Frederick Douglass was asked what course of action black youths should follow in the face of continuing racism in this country. He replied, "Agitate. Agitate, Agitate!"
Thank gods for the agitators.
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Stockholm Syndrome
So, what's Meyer supposed to say on the way to the station to the cops who just hurt him? "You're a bunch of pigs and I'm going to sue your asses"? Or: "Good thing you pulled out that Taser. Next time, I'll remember to bring my gun?" He was in a "position" to tell them what they wanted to hear so he didn't get jacked up by these thugs all over again. I guess empathy isn't one of Farhad Manjoo's gifts.
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My second LTE on this.
Those of you (you know who you are) equating this with rape are out of your minds.
To explain further, since it is obviously necessary for anyone who would make such a comparison: The proper logical equivalent would be a young woman going into a known "trouble spot" bar, jumping on tables, tearing off her clothing, and writhing around in the laps of a group of assorted intoxicated ruffians. She might not be asking for it, but it is fairly easy to presume that bad consequences will follow.
Right? No. Predictable? Sadly, yes. And that is the point far too many people are missing.
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Mistakes in Article
1) The video record clearly shows that the officers who later attacked Meyer did not think that he had cut the line: they were standing behind Meyer, looking bored for the first 20 seconds of Meyer's question.
2) Meyer only shouted about Kerry needing to answer his question because he had been waiting 2 hours after he had been told to end his question, about 30 seconds in.
3) Meyer did not challenge the officers to Taser him when they approached him. He asked whether they were going to Taser him when they had pinned him with a Taser on his chest.
4) Clarissa Jessup's video disproves Nicole Mallo's allegation that he asked about the taping after asking his question.
5) As of 9/20, Meyer's website still has the video of him picking up a girl at a bar. See "Sketches."
6) Meyer seems to have planned to make a scene: asking a 1:30 long, mostly rhetorical question in a disrespectful tone. That accounts for the video-taping.
7) In another video of the event, after being dragged out, Meyer informs the police that he doesn't have ID on him. His business card was probably the closest thing to ID he had.
8) Officer Mallo's assertions about Meyer's conduct in the car is more suspicious than what is asserted.