UF Student Tasered at Kerry Speech

[Thrashdragon]

This is where we are going to disagree forever. I don't care if you change your statement to include 99.99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 9% of subjects in a safe manner. The problem is that the penalty for resisting arrest should never be death. Also, your final statement, "if you have a heart problem, maybe you should be a little more inclined to not resist arrest" looks like sound advice--but what if you have an unknown heart problem? I don't think I have heart arrythmia, but to be honest, if you stuck a gun (or a taser ) to my head, I couldn't honestly tell you.

You're right, death is too harsh a penalty for resisting arrest, but tasering a subject is not meant to be "punishment", it's done to force him to comply. We're obviously going to disagree on this, but I feel that officers having the ability to safely and quickly incapacitate a subject from a distance without using a firearm, or having to close on the subject and engage him in hand to hand combat, outweighs the worry of them possibly lethally injuring a subject with a medical condition. A subject that is, after all, breaking the law.

I was a pretty bad kid way back when, but when a cop told me to do something, I shut up and did it. I don't have any sympathy for some little "I'm entitled to everything" college student looking for his 15 minutes of internet fame.

On a side note, it turns out this whole thing was staged. The camera used to film this event belonged to Meyer (the tasered student), and he handed it to another student, told her to film what was going to happen next, and at one point in his rant stopped and asked her if she was getting everything. Once in the squad car, Meyer became lighthearted and was joking with the cops, told them he had no hard feelings and that they were just doing their jobs, and inquired if the media would be present when he was being booked.

Just another wannabe youtube celebrity.

[{CLR} ObiTroy]

Well said, thashdragon.

The kid got what he wanted: Attention. He also got what he deserved.

[L_Mo]

You're right, death is too harsh a penalty for resisting arrest, but tasering a subject is not meant to be "punishment", it's done to force him to comply.

Maybe you can clarify what you mean? You've conceded that tasers sometimes result in death, and agree that death is not the appropriate punishment for resisting arrest. That makes sense, but then you justify that tasering is not meant as a punishment, but to force people to comply. If death isn't an appropriate punishment for resisting arrest, it certainly isn't a good means to force someone to comply. "You have a right to remain lifeless and unresponsive..."

I don't care if you change your statement to include 99.99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 9% of subjects in a safe manner. The problem is that the penalty for resisting arrest should never be death.

I don't necessarily disagree with this statement, but unfortunately this doesn't work in our non-ideal world. Humans are frail, but cops have to enforce the laws - there is no perfect solution. Guns certainly aren't safe, high-speed chases aren't safe. There is a 99.9999...% chance that a cop will accidentally shoot someone, yet I think it is imperative that cops carry guns (until such a time that no criminals carry guns...).

The best thing we can do is train our police officers to use these tools in the safest manner possible. Every officer carries a gun, yet there are very few (though highly reported) gun accidents. I wouldn't be surprised if there were more gun accidents by civilians during hunting season than all year by the police. If there is a significant risk of a taser killing someone, then obviously this needs to be investigated. With better training, there might be a way to reduce these accidents. However, the unfortunate truth is that there will always be a finite risk... it's unavoidable. However, again, the tool is still necessary. For every occasional abuse of a taser, there are probably 50 cases where the use of a taser significantly reduced the risk of injury, or even death.

[CheebaNinja]

IMO the cops should get a pay cut if it takes 6 of em and a taser to take down one kid not even throwing punches.I would have had his face in the ground first time he tryed to run. JK ppl but in all seroiusness this was no Rodney King incident.

[Thrashdragon]

You're right, death is too harsh a penalty for resisting arrest, but tasering a subject is not meant to be "punishment", it's done to force him to comply.

Maybe you can clarify what you mean? You've conceded that tasers sometimes result in death, and agree that death is not the appropriate punishment for resisting arrest. That makes sense, but then you justify that tasering is not meant as a punishment, but to force people to comply. If death isn't an appropriate punishment for resisting arrest, it certainly isn't a good means to force someone to comply. "You have a right to remain lifeless and unresponsive..."

Death is a rare side effect of taser use that can effect people with certain medical conditions (frequently heart problems brought on by extensive drug use). No one looks at the business end of a taser and thinks they're being threatened with death, just a whole lot of pain and the irrefutable fact that they're not going to get away. If tasers were considerably more dangerous to the average person, their use would not be justified in situations like this one. Since they are not, they are very effective at forcing compliance, and the fact that a very small percentage of the population may suffer adverse effects from being zapped should not invalidate the use of the tool for its intended purpose. Death may be too harsh a penalty (unfortunately) for resisting, but it's too rare of an occurence to be relevant.

This kid is a bratty little waste of oxygen that is going to cost Florida taxpayers a boatload of money before he's out of the news, I hope he gets to do a little time in general population with Bubba for this stunt.

[mapes]

About a year ago here in Santa Cruz some distraught guy grabbed a little girl from a grocery store and right on the main street held a knife to her. They finally negotiated the rlease of the girl but the guy held the knife to his own throat..kind blazing saddles style. Well up walks one cop from behind and he levels a shotgun. Boom shotgun beanbag took that dude down...That was pretty righteous

[{CLR} ObiTroy]

... This kid is a bratty little waste of oxygen that is going to cost Florida taxpayers a boatload of money before he's out of the news, I hope he gets to do a little time in general population with Bubba for this stunt.

[ThisElfRocksHard]

I hadn't seen this version before (WARNING: HARSH LANGUAGE):

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/200...ase-me-br.html

Contrary to what was stated previously, he was OBVIOUSLY in handcuffs when he first started saying "Don't tase me, bro". Do you still maintain that the tasering was necessary? And some of you persist that he dererved to be tasered for being unruly? Using your first amendment right earns you 70,000 volts?

I am sorry, I can't wrap my brain around that.

[thedeadlyassassin]

Wow, that video explained a lot more. Police brutality

[jaspurr]

When I saw the report, witnesses were saying the dude was already on his stomach and cuffed when they zapped him. If so, he's going to make himself a lot of money.

-Rand

Just watched that...possible case of police brutality (again) ?

For resisting arrest?

I don't actually remember hearing anyone saying he was under arrest. Whatever I think it was too much force using the taser. especially as he was already on the ground with cops around him and he was begging not to be tasered. It must have been very frightening for those cops.

[Thrashdragon]

I hadn't seen this version before (WARNING: HARSH LANGUAGE):

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/200...ase-me-br.html

Contrary to what was stated previously, he was OBVIOUSLY in handcuffs when he first started saying "Don't tase me, bro". Do you still maintain that the tasering was necessary? And some of you persist that he dererved to be tasered for being unruly? Using your first amendment right earns you 70,000 volts?

I am sorry, I can't wrap my brain around that.

I actually can't tell if the cuffs are on him yet at the point where they taser him, you can tell they're trying to get them on, but it doesn't matter, you can clearly see that he was still struggling. I have no problems whatsoever with the use of a taser to subdue an unruly subject, and especially a spoiled little bastard that thinks his rights are more important than anyone else's. He wasn't tasered for using his first amendment rights (which don't apply in a private forum with specific guidelines that he chose to ignore), he was tasered for fighting with the cops. He could have walked outside and ranted and raved about whatever he wanted, and no one would have stopped him. Of course then no one would watch his YouTube video.

A lot of people are asking why couldn't that many cops subdue him without the taser and carry him out...they could have, but why should they risk injury to themselves, or worry about him lashing out and striking a bystander, when they can just taser him and be done with it? Safety of the suspect comes after the safety of the public.

Police brutality? Give me a break. Except for a 6-7 second jolt, he wasn't hurt at all, except for his pride when he starts crying "ow ow ow ow". I could listen to that part of the video all day long.

[WhIsKyTaNgO1]

Being on our fire dept I know lot of the cops here. When our police received their issued taser I asked a cop what the rules of engagement were. He told me the person has ONE chance to comply and they are authorized to use the tazer. So, you get one chance to do as youre told or they can tase you. From Ive seen people usually get several chances, but there will always be trigger happy cops.

[FieryDragon]

as mentioned earlier about cops being able to take down suspect or whatever u wan to call them in this case...but im sure tyhat thrshdragon and elfrockshard can verify that police training shows multible methods in physical combat that r easy and in the long runless threatoning to themselve and the detainee! correct me if im wrong but as of using the simple yet dumb way, they could of brought him down using his own wieght and movement which would of been less painful but had actual physical effort...LAZY cops! i have personal experiance when i was little...they took down my brother and detained me since i was present palying a video game, nonetheless...what else would i be doing at home! ok my r in. nothing more said by me!

[Rovey Wade]

Happened to come across a related video:

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/...n.tasered.wytv

[thedeadlyassassin]

Happened to come across a related video:

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/...n.tasered.wytv

Again, people should feel protected by the police, not afraid of them. I'm more worried about a police knocking on my door then a physco-path.