If you haven’t seen the video of the incident, you can see it here -
Now, I’ve actually wondered about the same thing myself - about why Kerry didn’t contest the counts in Ohio, and several other states. Given the closeness of the election, and the stakes involved with a war going on, John Kerry should have erred on the side of leaving no stone unturned or possibility at large that either deliberate or accidental miscounting cost him the election.
But that’s not the point of this post - which is, bravo to YouTube for making videos of police brutality, such as occurred with Andrew Meyer in Florida, more accessible than ever to the general public.
Video allowed the public to see the Rodney King beating - nothing the police said in its aftermath could contradict what the public was able to see with its own eyes. YouTube has taken this once step further - allowing us to see such videos without having to wait for television to show them to us. The iPhone is helping as well, by allowing people to see such videos when they are away from their desktops and laptops. All of this is by no means stopping police from trampling on First Amendment rights - but it is making it harder than ever for them to get away with it.
On the one side, we have retrograde forces like the commissioners of the FCC, and incompetent out-of-control police, who each in their ways threaten our freedom. On the other hand, we have miracles of technology, which speed us news of the FCC's misdoings, which provide immediate, irrefutable images of policy brutality and misconduct.
Perhaps for the first time in American history, these technologies have made freedom-loving people more equal to the task of combating these totalitarian thugs. At very least, they can't pretend it never happened...
4 comments:
Did you happen to catch the arrest of Reverend Yearwood when he tried to enter the General Petraeus hearings? I think that incident was more upsetting and said all about the ongoing assault on free political speech.
Hasn't it occured to anyone that the police were called to the forum by either someone from Senator Kerry's group or the folks responsible for hosting the speech? These are the people who were denying Meyer's free speech. The officers who responded were asked to remove someone who was creating a disturbance. Meyer was repeatedly asked to sit down or leave by the moderator and officers. HE chose to physically resist when they tried to walk him out. HE made the officers have to resort to force to remove him. A tazer leaves a couple of red marks and no lasting physical pain (believe me I know). Would it have been better to have clubbed him with a baton or pepper-sprayed him forcing everyone to leave the meeting for fresh air? Or better yet how about the police don't do anything and just let him and anyone else disrupt the meeting anyway they want. It's not like Kerry is all that profound anyway.
Jake:
First of all, people have died from getting tasered. If the kid had a pacemaker (it's a strectch but still possible) he would have been dead. That is why a taser is technically classified as a "Less Lethal" device rather than a non-lethal one. Even rubber bullets have the ability to main and even kill.
The point here is not that he was out of line, which he obviously was. Neither is it that he is known as a prankster. The point here is that five or six officers were required to subdue and remove him. Having been in situations where I had to physically remove people from a room, I can tell you that you generally three people to subdue and carry. One for the legs, one for the waist, and one for the arms. with five people there you can pull arms and legs away from the body, pin them to the ground, and begin the process of handcuffing the individual. BTW, he was apparently already in handcuffs when they tasered him.
Also, Kerry could have been stronger in telling the police to let him go, at least until he has the chance to answer the guy's questions.
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