Black Box Report

How Not to Behave*

( * for both the tas-ers and the tas-ee)

Fame-seeking amateur journalist and UF student Andrew Meyers' biggest contribution to our lexicon is likely to be the catchphrase "Don't taze me, bro!" Most writers aspire to be remembered for something more substantial, and likely Meyer himself regrets his entry, as well as the manner of its inspiration. Will Bunch looked at his body of work and is only surprised this didn't happen sooner:

Every piece written by Meyer, mostly intended for the Alligator student newspaper and one or two published in a daily newspaper, the Sun-Sentinel, is an angry diatribe against someone, no matter what the subject matter -- Republicans, his fellow students, Florida quarterback Chris Leak, even a fraternity Dance Marathon for charity.
......
He is a young journalist whose brief career has been devoted writing things to make people really angry and apparently to becoming famous, so we shouldn't be surprised that he provoked an extreme response.

Just to establish, if it wasn't apparent from his writings and the video, Meyer's a bit of an ass.

Reaction from the right was tentatively supportive at first, as it was assumed anyone giving John Kerry a hard time must've been a conservative:

Boy, that security team sure was in a wicked hurry to lay hands on someone disrespecting a Democrat, weren't they?

Meanwhile protesters are allowed to menace and charge conservative speakers at will.

In fairness, he seems to have hogged the mic for a while.

...I sure hope he's not one of ours..., but still, the alacrity with which campus security jumps to protect a Democrats' dignity is surprising. Couldn't they have just turned off the mic and ignored him?

But the timid defenses quickly reversed course when Meyer was found to be to the left of even John Kerry:

Good for the campus police because Meyer deserved what he got...I wish the campus police acted more like these guys when conservatives are speaking at colleges instead of sitting on their thumbs while libs takeover the stage and throw pies.

Because the only thing better than someone getting tasered is a pie-throwing liberal getting tasered. Or anybody, really. Because if you're getting punished, you obviously deserved it. That's the authoritarian way.

But on the other end of the spectrum, Naomi Wolf goes into high dudgeon, fretting about the coming police state:

A very ordinary-looking American student -- Andrew Meyer, 21, at the University of Florida - was tasered by police when he asked a question of Senator John Kerry about the impeachment of President George Bush. His arms were pinned and as he tried to keep speaking he was shocked -- in spite of begging not to be hurt...It is an iconic turning point and it will be remembered as the moment at which America either fought back or yielded...That taser was directed at the body of a young man, but it is we ourselves, and our Constitution, who received the full force of the shock.

(emphasis mine)

Ummm...no. Not really. This isn't Kent State '70. Meyer was acting like an ass, not Gandhi, and resisted arrest. That said, Meyer may not be a free speech hero, but getting hit with 10,000 volts ought to have a higher standard:

That the cops over-reacted is clear from the tape. Sure the kid was a loudmouth jerk but he wasn't incoherent, just abrasive. That's not against the law. He wasn't presenting any threat to the public and Kerry was clearly willing to answer his question. Furthermore, with six freaking cops, there was absolutely no reason to taser the kid. This weapon was originally issued as an alternative to lethal force, not common sense.

But even that's not the most disturbing thing:

What disturbs me is that so many of his peers think this young hotdog’s behavior meets the standard at which they’re comfortable with him being punished. And what does that say about young people today? That no principles are worth making a fool of yourself in public? That dissent must take place within designated zones or you deserve what you get?

"Kids! What's the matter with kids today?"

25% said “the First Amendment goes too far in the rights it guarantees,” well below the 49% recorded in the 2002 survey that followed the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, but up from 18% in 2006.

Wonder who they voted for?

In a situation where everyone involved acted inappropriately, no one deserves to be thought of as a hero of any kind. But in the event of a tie, the win goes to the loser - figuratively and literally in this case, Meyer:

I think it's fair to say that the kid was being a jerk. I think it's also fair to say that in the United States, there's no law against being a jerk.

Good thing, too. There aren't enough jails in the world if we criminalize being stupid.