Update 9/18/07: There was a lot more to this story than was apparent at the first glance. Michelle Malkin covers much of it. Short version, the questioner had already asked a lot of bizarre questions and seemed to be daring the campus police to arrest and taser him with his bizarre behavior around a national figure. Somewhat unbelievably, Kerry claimed he didn’t know the guy was getting tasered. I guess he couldn’t hear the caterwauling from the front of the hall.
I’ll leave my embarrassing rant up so you can all slap me around for it. That might stop me from getting my panties in a bunch next time.
Update 9/24/07: You knew this would happen. The star of the video has inspired a spoof.
Not once did Kerry call out for mercy for the questioner. Not once. He is a coward who lacks the guts to answer an embarrassing question and a moral idiot who cannot identify wrong being done in his own name when he sees it.
Character matters, John Kerry. I thank God you lost the Presidential race in 2004!
John Kerry should be ashamed of what he did today, tomorrow, and every day of the rest of his life. Democrats who respect him should rethink supporting him and any other leftist candidates who mouth platitudes about free speech they do not adhere to in their own lives.
What am I talking about? Watch.
A young man goes to the microphone at a John Kerry Townhall meeting to ask a question. “Were you a member of the Skull and Bones in college. Were you and Bush members of the same secret society?”
Eight police grabbed the student and hustled him up to the back of the auditorium where they forced him to the ground and piled on top of him. The audience cheered when he was grabbed and moved away. Shouting, the student protested his treatment, repeatedly asking why he was being arrested, what he did, and begging them not to taze him. They tasered him more than once. I counted four flashes and probably missed some.
Shame on John Kerry and the other passive, spineless jellyfish in the auditorium. Shame!
H/T: Stop the ACLU, Michelle Malkin
Technorati Tags: John Kerry, Taser, Corruption, Politics, United States, Leftism, Injustice
22 responses so far ↓
sarah // Monday, September 17, 2007 at 23:15
just saw this vid tonight, horrible. I admire that guy though, wish more people asked those questions.
Skull and Bones: The Consequences of Asking John Kerry « resist/revolt // Tuesday, September 18, 2007 at 10:18
[...] John Kerry Posted on September 18, 2007 by resistrevolt We found the following news from a WordPress blog this morning. We feel this sort of torture and censorship should never happen. Help this man fight [...]
Perry Corneau // Tuesday, September 18, 2007 at 10:56
Kerry did nothing to intervene. They surely were going to escort him out of the place. He did resist but there appeared to be no provocation for being removed in the first place.
7thgradekangas // Tuesday, September 18, 2007 at 11:07
Evil happens when good men do nothing.
In a room full of people, no one did anything!
There in lies the greater shame.
Angryflower // Tuesday, September 18, 2007 at 11:10
Quite a factual account, not.
7thgradekangas // Tuesday, September 18, 2007 at 11:14
Click on Michelle Malkin’s link above. You get a different perspective. I forgot how there are two sides to every story.
fitnessfortheoccasion // Tuesday, September 18, 2007 at 11:19
Liar. Kerry did try to stop the cops (AP):
Wolf sez: There is a difference between making a mistake and telling a deliberate lie. You had better learn it before you call the wrong person a liar.
Student Tasering: Not Kerry’s Fault « Fitness for the Occasion // Tuesday, September 18, 2007 at 11:48
[...] to all the hyperventilating bloggers, take a deep breath. This wasn’t Kerry’s [...]
sonia rutherford // Tuesday, September 18, 2007 at 17:27
He did not get tased for asking that question!! He got tased for talking about Bush our DUMB president…open your eyes!
blueollie // Tuesday, September 18, 2007 at 19:02
Actually, that student cut off others who had been patiently waiting to ask questions; he just cut right in front of them and grabbed the microphone.
Still, Kerry showed patience.
This was NOT one of those “he got cut off for doing what he had the right to do” sort of things.
Believe me, there is a world of difference between what happened here and what went on during those Bush events.
Go to the Daily Kos to read what happened.
g.peaceburton // Tuesday, September 18, 2007 at 19:03
Ooooohhhhh, Kerry said, “That’s alright, let me answer his question.” Big man. I would have jumped from the podium and approached the officers and chased them away from the poor kid. Kerry is a coward.
Stephania // Tuesday, September 18, 2007 at 19:18
Interesting idea- jumping in. I’m sure Kerry is experienced enough with the security to know that you don’t just expose yourself to any kind of threat, perceived or otherwise. Doing so would have endangered his security force and himself unnecessarily. In addition, he has no real authority over local security. All he can really do is ask and say that he doesn’t think there’s a real threat.
Notice that there is no perspective in this video. You have no idea whether or not Kerry is 5 feet or 250 feet from the student in question. This is a big speaker, I suspect Kerry wasn’t close enough to hear everything that we can. Definitely click on some of the other links - this video only presents part of the story.
Irving // Tuesday, September 18, 2007 at 19:28
Bloggers seems to get the most exercise by jumping to conclusions.
Wolf sez: Guilty on this occasion. Mea culpa.
ehylee // Tuesday, September 18, 2007 at 19:36
Right, the campus safety officers were the ones who tased the student. What I don’t understand, however, is why the president of the University of Florida mentioned the possibility of pressing charges against the student who was tasered?
http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2007/09/18/florida.tasered.student.wjxt
Wolf Pangloss // Tuesday, September 18, 2007 at 20:31
As the 7th grade kangaroo pointed out, Michelle Malkin was able to get into the middle of the news cycle with good information. I wasn’t able to update my blog today though I wanted to.
I’m peeved and frustrated that I jumped to conclusions. I expect I’ll do it again some day, but I’m sorry I did it anyway.
It turns out that there was a lot more to the story than I could tell from the cleverly edited video. And the fact that the campus police actually did something about an out-of-control conspiracy freak and attention hog gives me hope. Maybe the next time the Minutemen appear at a campus they won’t be shut down by out-of-control conspiracy freaks. Maybe one day campus security will actually provide security to a conservative speaker visiting the campus.
Bradley // Wednesday, September 19, 2007 at 07:35
I think this is a great example of people using a news event to support thier agenda. Don’t like Bush? The kid was tasered because he mentioned Bush. Don’t like Kerry? - …Kerry. Don’t like the police? The police tasered him for asking a question. Don’t like college kids/hippies/etc? The kid got tased because he was non compliant.
Most peopel with an opinion about this event are just pushing thier normal agenda. Same with 9/11, same with most stuff. That’s why people check out, stop careing, stop voteing.
Wolf sez: That’s fair to note that most meaningless news events serve as mirrors, but I think you went over the line with 9/11.
Mailbox // Wednesday, September 19, 2007 at 09:24
Please people, don’t be such sheep. Never justify our police state. This was nothing more than a nervous kid who feels powerless in a country where power has never been so centralized as it is today.
He was not an “out of control conspiracy theorist.” Nothing he said was unreasonable in its content–it was all merely an immature and nervous delivery. So what. Kerry is Skull and Bones. The 2004 election and the possibilities of vote fraud are well-documented (you don’t have to agree with them).
This is politics on a college campus, in a society where adulthood is delayed far past its natural place, and yet we are surprised when an enthusiastic person is a nervous and rambling public speaker.
We should never justify tasering of someone so desperate to speak the truth. Any “discomfort” caused by his more challenging and incisive questions is the price of a free society and liberty. To the extent they were indiscrete–a good speaker can redirect a questioner to maintain civil dialogue. Its called free communication. The cost of sacrificing such is what we have today — a place where one cannot even ask provocative (i.e. meaningful) questions of our rulers and politicians without suffering a Kafkaesque fate.
Wolf Pangloss // Wednesday, September 19, 2007 at 20:00
Our police state, or the police state common on college campuses where free speech is prevented by speech codes and rampant, militant multiculturalism?
Bradley // Friday, September 21, 2007 at 12:36
Whatever your opinion or agenda, this 30 seconds of history supports it. Liberal? It’s a Police State! Conservative? The students are running wild!
Like a mini 911 people are spinning this every way to sunday to support and promote thier agenda. Everyone’s talking nobody’s listening.
renaissanceguy // Saturday, September 22, 2007 at 23:11
I wrote about some of the misconceptions on my blog. Check it out.
What do some people expect Kerry to do in such a situation? He doesn’t have authority over the campus police at the U of Florida. He can’t order them to stand down.
Everybody talks about Meyer’s rights, but the fact is that he was violating everyone else’s rights by going over the time limit, speechifying rather than asking a question, and uttering an obscenity. The guidelines for the Q & A are there to protect everyone’s rights–not just one vocal individual’s.
renaissanceguy // Saturday, September 22, 2007 at 23:13
Hmm. . .it seems that my name doesn’t link to my blog. It’s
renaissanceguy.wordpress.com
Thanks.
Ask a Democrat about the Skull and Bones secret society, get tasered « Today // Friday, September 28, 2007 at 14:10
[...] http://wolfpangloss.wordpress.com/2007/09/17/ask-a-democrat-about-the-skull-and-bones-secret-society... [...]
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