Cops on leave after Taser incident, student's behavior under scrutiny - CNN.com

Cops on leave after Taser incident, student's behavior under scrutiny - CNN.com: "Two University of Florida police officers were placed on leave with pay after using an electronic stun gun to subdue a student who was questioning Sen. John Kerry at a campus forum, the school's president said Tuesday.

But the student's behavior and past activities are prompting questions about whether the incident was part of a stunt."

I love it when police are put on paid leave for their indiscretions. Here in Schenectady, it is very rare for an officer to get suspended without out pay, much less fired, no matter what they have done. The police union has way too much power in this city, and I assume it is like that elsewhere.

Also, leave it to CNN to decide that this might have been some kind of joke or something... The videos make it obvious what happened, and until there is any proof otherwise, a respected "news" organization should not be making such baseless remarks... Everyone has pulled a practical joke or two, that does not mean that everything they do is a joke...

The Raw Story | Student Tasered at Kerry speech

The Raw Story | Student Tasered at Kerry speech: "Police Tasered and arrested a University of Florida student Monday when he engaged in 'combative diatribe' following a question of Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) at a student forum about why he didn't contest the 2004 presidential election or impeach President George W. Bush.

According to the Gainseville Sun, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications student Andrew Meyer 'approached an open microphone at the University Auditorium and demanded Kerry answer his questions. The student claimed that University Police Department officers had already threatened to arrest him, and then proceeded to question Kerry about why he didn't contest the 2004 presidential election and why there had been no moves to impeach President Bush.'"

This guy was arrested for asking a question, what freaking country are we living in here? Check out the video at the bottom of the story... The student was charged with disrupting a public event. He asked the hard questions, the questions that Kerry wants to avoid, and that the media wants to avoid, and he is arrested for it.

You also have to love the sheeple in the background that start to cheer as he is being arrested, again, for asking a question. Then there is Kerry, who keeps talking, and even jokes about the situation, almost as if nothing happened. Apparently he does not care about the abuse happening in front of him. Several police officers are hovering over the questioner just before he is shot with a taser. All those cops, and they cannot restrain the guy without resorting to a taser? Police are supposed to use THE MINIMUM AMOUNT OF FORCE to effect an arrest...

Here is the web page of the University Police, perhaps emails/phone calls are necessary...

Update, my Sister found the full video of the question, shot from another perspective. It is below:




And here is another:

Police Dislocate Protester's Knee

Now this is exactly how the gestapo protect and serve...

Here is the story from RawStory, and the photo, by Jonathan McIntosh, can be found here, among others from the event.

The police, of course, claim that she was assaulting them... I don't care how hard she might have been fighting, there are ways in which they could have cuffed her without doing that kind of harm. It was my impression that the police should always use the minimum amount of force necessary.

I go to court Friday morning...

I have to take time out of my day to go and fight the system. I will have to try hard to contain my anger over this incident, so that I do not end up with a contempt charge added on to my resisting arrest and violation of the noise ordinance charges. Unfortunately, I do not take well to my rights being violated and there is a good possibility something might slip out of my mouth.

The Gestappo Paid Me A Visit... Schenectady, NY

Thursday night, my friend and I were hanging out having a few beers. As the night progressed, we became a bit too loud with our music and goofing off, but the night was now winding down, because I had a trip to make in the morning. As I was drifting off to sleep, just after 1:30AM or so on Friday morning, my friend woke me up to tell me that the police were outside the house. Ok, no problem, I figured. They were probably going to give me a ticket for being too loud. They had never been called here for noise before.

So, half asleep and tipsy, I wandered down the stairs to accept my minor punishment. Unfortunately, I did not know what I was in for.

As soon as I opened the door, I was grabbed by the police and thrown on the floor of my porch. They then attempted to cuff me. I asked them what this was about, why I was being cuffed, and why I was being arrested. They gave me no answer, so, naturally I began to resist, asking why I was being arrested again. Before I knew it, one of the police was on me, punching the crap out of my ribs, over and over. My major focus was on that officer, but there were others joining in. When the attack began, I yelled for my friend. [While I was being attacked, a couple of officers were laughing at my "COME BACK WITH A WARRANT" door mat, like it was a joke...]

He came down the stairs just in time to witness the one cop repeatedly punching me. After a few more punches, the cop realized he was being watched, and ceased. I continued to resist, as my question had not been answered. They continued to attack me. My friend pleaded with the cops to stop, and then my friend pleaded with me to stop resisting, though the arrest was unlawful. At some point during the beating, they got the cuffs on me. Soon after that, I went limp, and continued to demand an explanation. At no point had I hit an officer, as their charges would show the next morning. I simply twisted and writhed to avoid being cuffed for no stated reason. After the cuffs were on, as their charges would also show, I used passive resistance.

After they dragged me off the porch, I asked again why I was being arrested, and they finally said that my music was too loud. I asked the officer where the decibel meter was, and got no response. Let's not forget, that a noise ordinance violation is just that: a violation. It is like getting a ticket for littering or not picking up a dog's feces. It is by no means a reason to cuff me.

Next they dragged me over to the back of the cruiser, and bounced my head off the trunk a few times, until my nose was bleeding and left a nice streak of blood on the vehicle. Soon, I was loaded into the transfer van and headed off to jail. I did not answer any questions during the booking process, including those of the social worker. I do not remember them asking anything about a phone call, though I could be wrong there, everything was so chaotic. (They claim I refused it. I did, however, ask for one many times later)

They placed me on suicide watch, because I refused to answer the social worker's questions, and I was left in the cell naked for a while. Finally, they left me with a cheap paper smock, that shredded when I tried to put it on. So I made do the best I could to cover myself and stay warm with the shreds of paper. I also let every person in the area know what was going on, by shouting over and over. At that point, that was all I could do.

In the morning they gave me my clothes back, and let me talk to a public defender. Apparently, because I own a house, I do not qualify for a public defender, though the defender gave me some good advice, anyway. [The only decent thing of the night] Then I went to my arraignment. (What happened to the right to counsel? I am just as poor as the people who were next to me but happened to rent.)

I have never been arrested before(I am 27), own a house, lived in Schenectady most of my life, and only was charged with a misdemeanor of resisting arrest and a violation of the noise ordinance, so the Judge saw fit to release me on my own recognizance.

My sister was in court to make sure they did not railroad me, so I went to her nearby house afterwards. From there I called my friend, to find out more about what happened. It turns out that they supposedly received a report of "shots fired" and "people fighting" at the house, which was later confirmed through some connections he has with law enforcement. They asked him if they could search the house, and since he has a family and did not want to end up in jail with me, he consented. It is too bad that it was an illegal search, because he does not live there. They found absolutely nothing in the house. Thank god my friend was there to secure my dogs, because the Schenectady police are known to shoot dogs on sight, even if they do not attack. Of course, they would not let my friend back into the house to let the dogs loose.

So my father, who lives with me, and downstairs neighbors did not wake up during our excessive noise, nor the arrest, though that took place outside, where it was not as easily heard.

Ok, so now the questions.

How can I be charged with resisting arrest when I should not have been arrested for the noise violation?

If there was, in fact, a report of shots fired, why did they not check to see if my downstairs neighbors were alright when they found no guns in my house?

Did they use force on the account of the fact that I know my rights? Perhaps they thought that I would be trouble with my WARRANT mat.

Did they fake the music citation because they realized they had screwed up?

If it was simply a noise complaint, why did the show up with 4 or 5 cruisers and six or seven officers?

I did not hit an officer, according to them, so why did they beat the crap out of me?

Why did they immediately take me down, without a single question?

I ended up with scrapes and bruises all over my body and, as confirmed at the hospital, a fractured rib. I have also been in intense pain since the incident, and the pain is only now starting to wane. I look forward to seeing the police report. I was drinking, but I am almost 100% sure that I am not forgetting anything that happened that night, and my friend was witness to the incident. Let me also be clear, that when they started violating my rights, I started acting like a real jerk, with a lot of foul language. I was mad, and I was getting beaten. I was not being nice at that point.

I am just now able to sit at the computer long enough to write this, now that the pain from my ribs has dulled enough that it can be taken care of with pain medication.

My sister's account of the entire situation is here, she is almost as pissed as I am.