Scott Allan’s World

So some University of Florida student, Andrew Meyer, who obviously doesn’t get enough attention at home, decided to ask Senator John Kerry some ridiculous questions during a campus forum. His mic was shut off during questioning and immediately campus police tried to restrain him and escort him out. Baffled at what he had done wrong (and rightfully so), he started causing a scene and resisting arrest which eventually led to him being tasered.

I think the kid is a knucklehead, but really in this country people are allowed say ridiculous things without fear of reprisal. Freedom of Speech is cornerstone of our Constitution. I’m not going to cheer on the electrocution of a person because I disagree with him.

So many times I wish I didn’t have to listen to Code Pink or Air America or MoveOn.org or Howard Dean or various other nutjobs, but we do and should protect speech. Hopefully the truth will rise out of the muck and the foolish will expose themselves in a free society.

If they had just let Kerry answer the moron, it probably would have just ended right there with everyone rolling their eyes at the looney liberal. He did not seem to be creating a significant disturbance during his questioning except for embarrassing himself. If they insisted on removing him, I’m sure the four or five officers could have easily carried him out. This should have been handled much better.

UPDATE:

There is always more to the story apparently. There was much more that occurred prior to the start of this video clip. Here is an excerpt from an email Michelle Malkin received:

So I went to the John Kerry town hall forum this morning trying to get students registered to vote. I run a student government organization called Chomp the Vote. Anyway I went inside to watch the event. Senator Kerry took the podium and began delivering a speech about the Middle East, Iraq, dimplomacy, etc. Anyway, after he was done, a university ambassador asked Kerry a few premade questions. Once that was over, Senator Kerry announced he would take questions from the students. There were two microphones placed on each side of the aisle. One on my side and the other on Andrew Meyer’s side. Senator Kerry began answering the student’s questions from each aisle. Eventually it was announced that there would only be a few more questions answered. Since Meyer and I were both in the back of each line, it did not seem likely that our questions would be answered.

However, while Senator Kerry was responding to a student’s question, all of a sudden Meyer rushed to the microphone with cops in pursuit. At that point no one knew what was going on. Could he have a gun, a bomb? Immediately, Meyer began yelling into the microphone that he had been waiting in line forever and that Senator Kerry should “spend time to answer everyone’s questions!” Senator Kerry tried to calm the student down by telling him that he would “stay here as long as it takes to get the questions answered.” The police approached Meyer who began taunting them by saying “what! are you going to taser me? are you going to arrest me?!” The police grabbed Meyer, but Senator Kerry asked the police to let him go and that he would answer his question. Senator Kerry finished answering the other student’s question and then proceeded with Meyer. (*This entire scene is not in any video I can find so far. This is why 2 cops are seen right behind Meyer at the start of some videos*).

Meyer approached the microphone and began to talk about a book he had which stated that Kerry won the 2004 election because of disenfranchisement of black voters and faulty voter machines that produced “Bush” as the winner. He then posed another question about why President Bush had not been impeached. “President Clinton was impeached because of a blowjob, why not Bush?”. The third and strangest question he posed to Senator Kerry was asking him if he was part of the skull and bones society with Bush at Yale. Meyer’s mic cut off after that, probably because he had mentioned the word “blowjob”. The cops grabbed him, but Meyer was able to get away several times. Eventually more cops were brought in to help subdue Meyer. Meyer continued to resist arrest, scream, curse; however he was enventually subdued by about six cops up around the entrance. As he is on the ground, he is told several times to put his hands around his back. He is also warned that he will be tasered if he does not comply. Eventually he is tasered twice. The video does not show whether he complied or not.

Senator Kerry was trying to answer his question to the audience, mostly the one about faulty voter machines. I am a die hard conservative Republican but I do respect Senator Kerry for trying to soothe the situation as best he could and trying not to escalate the situation. He DID intervene by letting the student at least present his question. I never received an opportunity to ask my question, but when Senator Kerry ended the show after the Meyer incident, he did come off stage to shake hands and give autographs. At that point, I was able to ask him my question, shake his hand, and get a autograph at the same time. Now why couldn’t Andrew Meyer do that?

I don’t know if this is relevant or not, but Andrew Meyer is a former sports writer for the school newspaper The Alligator. In his columns, he has been known to make ridiculous statements in order to gain attention for himself. Was today a publicity stunt?

I also heard that he brought his own video camera to film himself in action and the video was put on the internet by his friends minutes after he was arrested at TheAndrewMeyer.com. My sympathy for him has lessened considerably since I first saw the video clip, but I do think the use of a taser was excessive and unnecessary.