(Aside: Oh I'm so pissed. Blogger's got an automatic save, but no undo button. So the moment I accidentally deleted my entire - may I say nicely done - post, Blogger automatically saved the newly blank page. So if this post sucks, sorry, but Blogger deleted my good one.)
The news came out today that the police officers involved in the tasing of a University of Florida student during a John Kerry speech are officially free and clear of all wrongdoing, and reinstated to the force. I'm cool with the officers being reinstated. I'm not cool with the clearing of all wrongdoing.
The student was a twerp. A rude, publicity-seeking, scene-making, discussion-disrupting twerp. I'll completely agree on that point. But I don't agree that his actions merited a dose of 50,000 volts by a police officer.
I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I've not-so-secretly wanted a Taser for years. How nice to just give someone a little zap when they deserved it. That asshat coworker who is normally a condescending twit but sidles up to your cube when he needs a favor? Zap! The dope who stands at the front of the line for 20 minutes trying to decide what to order even though they had all the time in the world to decide before they got in line or while they were in line? (True story.) ZAP! But that's just in fantasy land, and I am aware that I would probably get a Zap or two of my own, so maybe it's better that they're only in professional hands. Besides, I digress...
Officers are given weapons for use in situations of self-defense or to prevent physical harm to others by the assailant. We trust them to be - at least while in uniform - paragons of justice, reason, and restraint. We trust them to only use their weapons when absolutely necessary, when public safety is threatened.
Twerp was not posing a threat to anyone. He was making a nuisance of himself. According to every story I've heard, Twerp's biggest offenses were failure to shut his mouth, and failure to leave when requested. It was reported that he held onto a chair in the back of the room in order to avoid eviction, and the officers interpreted that as resisting arrest, so they zapped him. Again, I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't have wanted to do the same thing. BUT. Obnoxiousness alone does not deserve electroshock therapy and the forfeiture of bladder control. I've seen pictures of the guy - he's a scrawny little thing. I'm sure mothers everywhere can agree that the proper course of action would have simply been to pry his fingers off the chair and carry him out of the room like the petulant child that he is. Tasing, while tempting, was a bit over the top. Especially since he acknowledged that they had Tasers and were going to use them and voiced opposition to said control tactic. At that point the officers should have said, "You either leave this room, or we will be forced to Tase you." Considering the fear in his voice, my guess is he would have concluded his little temper tantrum and walked and none of this would have happened.
So, as I said, I agree fully with the officers' reinstatement. But I do think they went overboard in their actions and could do with some refresher courses in situation management and use of law enforcement aids. Please don't Tase me for saying so.
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2 comments:
Oooo, the 20 mins in line thing. Are you talking about the smelly hippies in front of us at Mesa Verde this summer? I would have loved to tase them. They looked like the kind of douches who would say "bro" or perhaps it's Pacific cousin "bra" on a regular basis.
Gonna have to disagree with you on the jackass at the Kerry rally. As opposed to JK as I am, I believe every speaker has the right to their forum, and every provider of said forum has the right to protect their business of providing said forum.
While this guy SEEMED to pose no danger, and did not have any weapons on him, what would the headlines have read had the police not used force to remove him from the facility?
He was asked to leave. They attempted to forcibly remove him. He still resisted. They showed and warned him of the tasing, he simply responded "Don't tase me bro.." yet still refused to get to his feet and leave with the authorities. Instead he heldfast to his chair, and BELIEF that he had a right to do what he was doing...and got what he freakin deserved.
My own social commentary (breaking from a reply to your post) begins with the crunchy hippie notion that we are all FREE TO DO WHATEVER WE WANT says Mr. Constitution. Problem here is that while we are FREE TO DO WHAT WE WANT, we in turn are free to accept the consequences. Yes, you are free to voice your opinion, just as the police are free to REMOVE you from said establishment by whatever means.
Heaven forbid they put the kid in a full nelson and carried him out...They'd all be sued for injuries.
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