Usually, once one guy starts shooting, so does everyone else, sadly.

There's a good reason for that

Cops are put in lose/lose situations far too often. They do something and the public *****es about it. They don't do something (because the public will *****) and they get *****ed out. Frankly, I think the public is far too dumb to appreciate what it takes for a person to wear a badge. And, on top of that, in order for me to take anyone who criticizes police seriously I really need them to be in an officer's shoes for a couple of hours.



He didn't exactly give the cops much chance to explain what they were going to do. He began to get rowdy and make a scene as soon as they moved in on him. The kid could have been more cooperative and just left. Granted, having a bunch of cops move in on me would make we wonder what the hell was going on, but I'm not going to start yelling about it.

Guilty until proven innocent, eh?

No, I'm the tired one, a few words were left out. Basically, you telling Yoshi that he's just as bad as stat for saying "oh great, it's now guilty until proven innocent" is extreme, and it's worrying when someone of the badge says that people with that mindset are the same as people who enjoy when police die. It has nothing to do with a disliking of police forces, it has to do with valuing civil liberties.


You tend to back up just about anything a police officer does that's questionable with various articles from law books. Instead of saying "that's unfortunate, but they can technically do what they did because of blah blah blah, which seems vague, perhaps people should write their congressmen about this specific case to prevent this from happening" you say "According to blah blah blah, they're in the right, so I don't see what the deal is here." The recent stories of police raiding innocents and killing them comes to mind, you act like those people who died don't deserve any changes to happen because "it's right there in this here law book that we are allowed to do this." It tends to be a little unnerving as a citizen to hear police speak in such ways.


Ok, can we get back to the point that the police shouldn't have tried to remove him in the first place? John Kerry was right there, saying "No, it's ok." No, it's ok. John Kerry, the main focus of this forum, in fact the entire reason of the meeting, was saying he had no objection to what the kid was asking, and the police try to remove him. So, he was physically resisting something that shouldn't have been happening to begin with.

Police have the duty to enforce the law. If an officer disagrees with a law then they can work in their time off duty to have the law changed. Wouldn't it be a worse situation if each officer were to interpret the laws on their own?

Police do it all the time. From letting people off for speeding, to determining how rowdy a group of protesters are.

True, I should have said, "deciding on their own whether laws are bad."

People in positions of power need to know the difference between enforcing the intent of a rule/law as opposed to enforcing the letter of the rule/law. Enforcing the intent of the law is probably more likely to be just, but yeah, it can also be a thin line to walk.

What I'm doing is demonstrating the legal basis for their actions. As arrogant as it may sound, if you disagree with the law, that's not my problem. I swore to uphold the Constitution and the laws of my state. If you have an issue with the law, take it up with your representation.


Are you referring to the first time..? The narrative that I read stated that the officers permitted him to continue, and it wasn't until after his mic was cut that he was removed from the premises.

I agree completely, Bobbert.

JLee, yes, demonstrating legal basis without showing remorse or displeasure towards upholding the law to a T resulting in innocents being screwed over.

The video audio I've heard, repeatedly, shows the cops moving in to pull him away, and Kerry clearly saying "No, it's ok, I'll answer his question."

So, effectively, you're telling me that I'm wrong because I'm interpreting the law as it is written? You must hate lawyers.. I can't keep everybody happy.

I must've missed that. Regardless, (back to the 'T' here), Kerry doesn't make the call on what happens.

Yes. As with politicians, cops who apply are automatically abased by the populus, since desire to be a cop often translates to desire for authority over plebians. Cops exist only to limit freedom — criminal freedom or otherwise. I remain wholly unimpressed with cops. They enforce dubious laws (an example of their power-hungry nature), such as marijuana possession, while the populace can't count on them for security. They are a great reactionary force, but god help you if you are counting on them for safety while you are in a violent situation.

Cops don't do security — they do something else. If you want to be secure, you must rely on yourself.

I agree entirely.

OBEY THE LAWL

Okay, let me go do some coke, confiscate drugs and use them, illegally search cars/houses, and then bust some kids on some bull**** "infraction" for possession because they happen to have a bag in their car and I'm trying to make quota.

Because that's pretty much the cop situation here.

EDIT: Oh and JLee that's classic. How did he disturb the peace if even John Kerry, the reason for the convention in the first place, wasn't disturbed by his questions? Explain that one to me.

Here you raise an interesting point. Your theory that since the guest speaker said it was okay, the disruptful behavior of the audience member was to be allowed to continue and that police should not have removed him. My thoughts would be that Kerry pretty much had to say what he did. The kid, afterall, was simply spouting the typical left-wing rhetoric that those who support Kerry might normally say. But the kid wasn't really asking questions he wanted answers to. Kerry actually tried to answer him and he kept shouting additional questions.

But, all that aside, Kerry as a guest and a sensitive official had no say in any of the security matters. The police, as well as whatever other security elements were there, had the obligation to deal with the situation regardless of what Kerry said.

EDIT: Upon reading more of the thread, never mind. If he can't come back it's not really fair.

Patriot Act.

I don't understand? Are you saying Patriot Act in response to Detty's moronic post?

You know exactly what I mean, and it doesn't involve being a dirty cop. But just to clarify, I mean be put in a situation where you have to make the same split second decisions as a police officer would have to in a controlled training situation. Do so will give you a whole lot more respect for what some of these folks go and do every day they go to work.

I can't find the same link, but a news article did state that the student organizers requested the officers.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/18/student.tasered/


Interesting development, isn't it.

But just because the police have the ability to escalate the issue into a ridiculous spectacle doesn't mean that they necessarily should, right? If the guest speaker can help the defuse situation quietly and at least attempt to answer the crazy guy's questions (or "typical left-wing rhetoric that those who support Kerry might normally say"--oh Wookie, you crack me up), without the need for tackling and tasers, then why not let him? Obviously, hindsight is 20/20, but you seem to be saying that the only way that situation could have possibly played out was police confronting him, physically removing him, and causing national media attention.

The guy wanted attention, and they gave it to him. What if they'd just cut his mic, let him ramble on, and then Kerry apologizes for running out of time, and the forum is over? No one would ever even hear of this joker.

We should change the thread title to "Student arrested for being total douche"

I think cops have a rougher job than I'd want.

Last thing I'd want to do is talk to some meth addict that has abandoned her 5 year old because she needed more money to buy her drugs and get a divorce from her abusive husband who is also a belligerent alcoholic that sexually abused said abandoned child. At the end of the day, I go home thinking of the stereotype that most cops are fat donut eating homosexuals and ponder why this profession has such a high suicide rate.

You're too much of a counter-culture sponging douche to be a cop.

They'd probably towel whip you on the locker room every day until you turned pink.

I have no disrespect for clean cops, good cops. I know what kinda **** they have to deal with on a daily basis--not personally of course but still. It's just that I have no respect for 90% of the officers around here, because they're all dirty, and it's jaded my view on cops. Not to mention the dirty cops do enough damage to keep the clean ones busy as is.

Can't blame you there...just saw a news article on a cop that got caught in a sting, soliciting underage girls online...while in uniform, no less. Absolutely disgusting.

Anyone see the irony here?

One of the cops around here got fired for failing for coke. The others just were smart enough to buy whizzinators.

The story also confirms that Meyer was directly asked to give up the microphone. In light of this, I'm even more surprised that he wasn't charged with criminal trespassing. Charges for disturbing the peace are more than fair, I think.



This part reinforces my suspicion that they had no intention of escorting him out and letting him go, and meant to arrest him from the start.

The police are obviously saying all the right things, considering the national exposure for this case and the fact that the video doesn't look good for them. However, speaking as someone who's not usually inclined to cut the police a break, I can't see anything that they did wrong here.

The video shows the police acting quite calmly and rationally throughout the incident. That douche made the whole thing a ridiculous spectacle, not the cops.



Sure, everyone could have rewarded his bad behavior by allowing him to hijack the event. He was asked politely to cease disrupting the event. That was when he dissed the cop which caused a few laughs. He even cut Kerry off when he tried to answer one of his questions. The police then tried to escort him out.

1) Why did you concede the election, you actually won? Millions of people were disenfranchised.

2) Why won't you impeach Bush?

3) Were you in the same secret society as Bush?

Certainly the top 2 questions are typical of the rhetoric common of Kerry supporters. Cracks me up too!



Hindsight being 20/20 it's a good thing the cops handled the situation with complete professionalism. Of course having two dozen cameras in their face throughout the incident couldn't have hurt. Cops routinely have to use force to get belligerent people to comply with their directives.



Certainly they could have done that but I don't see why any rational person would think that they should have.

Don't know if this video's been posted yet, but it shows what happens for like 3 minutes after they take him out of the auditorium.

http://video.nbc6.net/player/?id=157250

Near the end of the video, they FINALLY give him a reason why he's in handcuffs: inciting a riot.

LOL, ****ing retarded pigs. They're the ones who incited the riot, as the students started swarming them because of THEIR actions.

if you watch the video that vinny originally posted it is fairly apparent that the police are going to ESCORT him out. watch the video from 2:06 to 2:00 it is fairly clear that the police have him an escort type hold. it is not until he starts freaking out that they even get forceful.

God what a delusional, whiney, tinfoil hat wearing douchebag.

Students were "swarming" them trying to get footage for YouTube. I'm not even a cop and I find your "****ing retarded pigs" comment extremely offensive. I can't help but hope that you meet some yourself someday. Anyway, here is a video that I don't believe has already been posted here, unlike Freelancer's:

Watch the video again, some of the cops are pushing back students, and later several students follow them to the lobby and offer to testify for him in court. Hey, I'm not the one who used the word riot, the cops themselves did. Only they were confused about who caused it.

don't tase me bro

A few people at most. Most of them were happy they were removing the moron. And I was going to make a joke about the dumb broad who offered to testify. The entire incident is on video for the whole world to see. I doubt she could offer anything to help him in this case. Of course it was real time for her so she wouldn't have been thinking about that. That punk would certainly have a hard time defending himself if he doesn't want to pay the fine. Maybe if the ACLU doesn't have any terrorists or pedophiles to represent that day they can help him.

Wow, he's whiny...'owww, owww, owww'..c'mon..

Edit: Referring to the 'detainee's' reaction to the :awesome:ness of the Taser X26

Can you translate that please?