Andrew Meyer is a student in Florida. Yesterday, he was at a campus forum featuring Senator John Kerry, and apparently went over his allotted time to ask questions. He was removed by the police officers of his school, although the Senator said he would answer the student's questions. As the scene escalated minimally, in that Meyer resisted being led away, the campus police apparently thought it appropriate to use a Taser; that is, the police used a stun gun on the student. A stun gun.
"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."
OK. The police use a stun gun because four of them are having a hard time controlling a student at a campus forum, and now they recommend he be charged with a felony offense.
I was just having a conversation with someone this very day about the need for checks and balances on police power because of the possibility of abuse inherent in that power. This is exactly the kind of situation I was thinking about, the kind where the person in question is not a threat, not breaking the law, but is treated as a violent offender anyway. Leaving out entirely that it doesn't help the image of the police (or the many security personnel at campuses all over who have a very difficult and thankless task), it's a waste of police and court resources (read: your tax dollars) to prosecute this "criminal."
*Edited to say that having seen the video, the only comment I can add to what I've already written here is that Kerry, who drones on and on while this whole thing goes down, once again is left looking totally ineffective.
Source:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070918/ap_on_re_us/student_arrested_kerry
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