UF Student tasered at John Kerry Speech

A University of Florida Student was tasered and arrested Monday after asking questions at a John Kerry Question and Answer campus forum, according to FoxNews.

Andrew Meyer, 21, asked questions in a forum held by the Univeristy of Florida's student government speaker's bureau about why John Kerry did not protest President Bush winning the election, if he wanted to be president, and why Bush had not been impeached.

Steve Orlando, a spokesman for the university, said, "He apparently asked several questions — he went on for quite awhile — then he was asked to stop. He had used his allotted time. His microphone was cut off then he became upset."

Meyer yelled for help, asking "What did I do?" as four police officers tried to remove him from the forum. Meyer was tasered minutes after speaking. Alachua County Jail records said that Meyer was charged with disturbing the peace and resisting an officer. University police are conducting an internal investigation on the incident.

"The police department does have a standard procedure for when they use force, including when they use a Taser," Orlando said. "That is what the internal investigation would address — whether the proper procedures were followed, whether the officers acted appropriately."

Students were able to catch the incident on video.

In my opinion, the grounds for arresting Meyer were uncalled for. Because Meyer asked not one but three or more controversial questions, the police pulled him away from the microphone. At what point did asking argumentative questions become apart of the "disturbing the peace" charge?

Although its apparent in the video that Meyer resisted arrest, I think the use of the taser was excessive. Just before being tasered, Meyer said to the police, "if you let me go, I'll walk out of here...just don't taser me!"

Meyer resisted a baseless arrest, and for that, he was tasered. I wonder if the University of Florida considers this to be a valuable lesson for other students, that if you ask the wrong questions, you'll be arrested and possibly tasered.