This is a wake up call. Right here. Look at this video. And look and scream and cry for what we don’t have in this country: LEADERSHIP.
A man, a student, is dragged away from a speech being given by Senator John Kerry yesterday in Florida. Kerry should have gotten down off the damned podium and stopped the officers from this awful act. The audience should have gotten up to stop it. THIS SHOULD NOT BE HAPPENING IN AMERICA.
What the fuck is going on here? What is happening to us? This is wrong. THIS IS WRONG.
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we have to stop this
Senator Kerry, where are you? I need some answers. I expect some answers.
…of the doubt, I think this is the best that can be said for him in this situation:
Maybe he didn’t really understand what was happening and decided to trust the University cops.
Maybe he had been warned of some protest ahead of time and was told to trust the University cops.
Maybe these guys are constantly told to be extra cautious in dicey situations over and over and over again (you never know how it’ll hurt you, just look at his ‘joke’) by their consultants that he froze and didn’t speak up.
Maybe it’s a little of everything and rather than do something, he decided to do nothing.
But regardless, I want a political leader who doesn’t hesitate in this situation and has the common decency to say ‘Hey, just wait a minute here. There’s no need to go overboard. Stop. Right. Now.’
Sigh.
that this went on for so long…
….and kerry is droning on in the background trying to ignore it…..it took EFFORT to ignore it…
its a disgrace. im gonna send that kid a fruit basket.
the questions he was asking. It was chilling and made me think that all of those in power are only interested in scripted, fake, and controlled images of democracy.
In 04 I went to Portland State to hear Howard Dean talk. A Nadarite started questioning him, persistently. Howard did not ignore him but spoke with him and answered his questions with humor and honesty. After the speech the Nadar guy and Howard talked. The conduct of Kerrry is not consistent with what he supposedly represents. If the Democrats have another pen at the convention for ‘protesters’ we are lost.
the questions he was asking. It was chilling and made me think that all of those in power are only interested in scripted, fake, and controlled images of democracy.
In 04 I went to Portland State to hear Howard Dean talk. A Nadarite started questioning him, persistently. Howard did not ignore him but spoke with him and answered his questions with humor and honesty. After the speech the Nadar guy and Howard talked. The conduct of Kerrry is not consistent with what he supposedly represents. If the Democrats have another pen at the convention for ‘protesters’ we are lost.
for asking a question in school. I believe about anything these days.
I’d say that poor kid got his first question answered pretty clearly, wouldn’t you?
Because instead of standing up to wrong doing (like the stolen 2004 election), Kerry is pathologically conditioned to ignore it – mumbling on as if nothing is happening.
What a dolt.
No wonder he’s a Senator.
posted by one of his bloggers here, What happened from John Kerry’s perspective. The jist of it is that he wasn’t able to see the kid once taken into custody, wasn’t aware that he’d been tasered, and says nothing like this had happened at his speaking engagements in 37 yrs.
A lot of commenters in the diaries over there felt the kid deserved it.
After watching that video, there is no way I could agree with that sentiment. His screams of pain… no way. Excessive force to the max. Welkome to Amerika.
I’ve been pretty discouraged reading the spin being put on this by many progressives.
I really don’t care what the kid was asking, or if he did or didn’t cut in line to ask it; I do care that neither the audience and the Senator stepped up to stop what is pretty obviously a case of excessive force.
is an absolute disgrace.
Let’s review:
University-sponsored event on university property and open to university students.
Subject in question is an acknowledged university student – ergo, not tresspassing
Questions seesion via two mics with speakers’ lines forming behind each mic – subject is waiting in line
After announcement that last question is being taken, subject objects by cutting in line and speaking into open mic. – Not a criminal offense – happens at meetings where this process is used to register a protest.
Was acknowledged by the guest speaker and allowed to continue. Mic was not cut off.
Subject prefaced his questions with background information, thus prolonging speaking. Not a violation of any law.
Guest speaker asked him to reframe into question.
Subject asked a three part question, to which guest speaker verbally agreed to answer. Subject’s mic cut off at this point.
Forcibly removed by law enforcement at this point – but no obvious crime was committed.
As a former college prof, free speech is a value most cherished and tolerated, even when the speaker is acting in an annoying, unpolished and ill-mannered way.
The message that the subject was speaking is not germane to this case. There were no threats, no weapons, no aggression. Nothing other than the expected gangly awkwardness of a late teen/early 20s student practicing free speech.
Since when do universities use weapon-bearing police to pre-emptively control university-sanctioned events?
Having bodyguards for celebrities and protecting their person is one thing. Using police to intimidate, control, censor and terrorize people is another.
The actions of the police were illegal. They are intolerable. They are abominable. They are obscene.