<p>The cops do not have to prove much of anything. It was clear that the guy was continuing to resist and was warned to stop. He did not and they used the next level of force. Nowhere is it written that cops have to risk getting hurt to subdue some jerk. They have the right to use reasonable force to get compliance and non lethal tasing falls under that. Maybe they just should have clocked him in the head but that hurts the hand.</p>
<p>Admin leave is standard procedure and means nothing. 99 times out of 100 the cops are supported by the admin upon investigation.</p>
<p>He was most definitely doing things legally wrong.</p>
<p>He interrupted a formal function, broke the rules of the forum, which was grounds for removal. He disrupted the peace and when officers tried to escort him out, he resisted. That is legally wrong.</p>
<p>collegehopeful, if they hadn't tased him, they would have caused more physical harm in restraining him (because he resisted, key word; it is hard to get someone to keep their hands in place to get cuffs on if they are actively resisting). I'm not sure why that's so hard to realize.</p>
<p>If they didn't tase him, and forced the cuffs by physically restraining him, he would have been screaming "OW! MY WRIST" and "DON'T CUFF ME BRO", gotten bruised up, and all of you same people would still be yelling "POLICE BRUTALITY". The taser is much less harmful than that would have been. Simple as that.</p>
<p>To all you blind people who's anti-police bias can't let you see the facts clearly it goes like this:</p>
<p>If the main issue is to tase OR not to tase:</p>
<p>1- As they are physically removing him from the room he is actively struggling with the officers. Does he have a weapon hidden on his person? police don't know and certaily NO ONE in this forum knows.
2- As he is placed on his stomach at the rear of the room, the police try unsuccessfully to handcuff him. I don't care if he has King Kong on his back, he is NOT under control until he has the cuffs placed on him. He could reach into his clothes and pull out a weapon or possibly grab one of the officers weapons.
3- On the GOOGLE video you can clearly see his left hand on the armrest of the chair next to him while the officers are trying to cuff him. He refuses to bring this arm back.
4- They warn him that he will be tased if he continues resisting.
5- They tase him on the left shoulder. (per the police report)
6- He lets go of the seat and FINALLY allow the officers to cuff him.
7- He is FINALLY under control.</p>
<p>College..
Take a look at 53 seconds into the video as they were "dragging" him out of the room like you requested. Thats when he starts jumping up and down and breaks free from the officers and bull rushes back towards the front. Thats when it went from being escorted out of the room to resisting.</p>
<p>The police disrupted the peace by making a scene out of this. It's not within their rights to taser whomever they feel like. The police are held to standards for a reason. What they did to him makes me sick. They should be fired and banned forever from holding any weapon ever again.</p>
<p>The students around him should have called the university president or dean of students on the spot. I would have fired their asses right then and there and then pressed charges if I had the authority to. Nobody has the right to assault anyone like that. And as dean of students you're responsible for the safety of the students, and if campus security goes around randomly attacking students with tasers, they should have their tasers permanently taken away and they should be fired.</p>
<p>"The police disrupted the peace". What a laughable statement.
If you think this is normal appropriate behavior you might want to get used to a life of being tasered a lot.</p>
<p>I still don't get how hard it is for 6 "well trained" cops to put cuffs on a guy who's pinned down. Come on, it's laughable to pretend that these cops couldn't have cuffed him with ease.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Come on, it's laughable to pretend that these cops couldn't have cuffed him with ease.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Of course they could have forced his arms to a position to handcuff him, but not without possibly injuring or breaking his arm, etc. to do it, not to mention possible injuries to themselves. The taser takes care of all of this.</p>
<p>I always find it laughable that some here complain about the police's lack of controlling taser boy. Why? because the closest they've come to an adult aged fight is with words on a keyboard. ;) </p>
<p>Having been in several adult scrapes here and there involving restraint of a suspect.... boys and girls... it ain't that easy. To sit there and backseat drive.."they should have..." is laughable. If you've never been there, you have no idea that what it takes.</p>
<p>To me, this case is simple: you don't fight the police. They actually said, "stop resisting or we will taser you." He didn't stop resisting. He's lucky that he didn't receive much worse injuries.
And, at least if you believe the police officers' version of the facts, they were justified in trying to escort him out of the room, even before he started physically resisting.</p>
<p>are you kidding me? watch that video again. the guy looks unstable. if i was there i'd be thinking "holy moly he's about to snap.". if he had lowered his voice and not waved his arms around so emphatically, he would not have been subdued. come on, when there's a high profile guy like kerry they're going to be extra vigilant. and then the theatrics when he was being arrested. if he had just let himself be arrested instead of screaming he'd have a much better case and many more sympathizers.</p>
<p>And obviously a lot of people are unfamiliar with what cops can arrest for. People every day get arrested for silly things like talking back to an officer during a routine traffic stop. Charges won't necessarily be brought against you, but it does ruin your day. Don't talk back to an officer, even if you think they're wrong. That's what lawyers are for.</p>
<p>I still think Meyer's going to win quite a settlement out of the tasering. Having watched multiple angles of the video, I dispute xNYers' list of events - I don't see his arm in a position that couldn't be easily pulled around to get cuffed.</p>
<p>As for Opie of Mayberry (#91), any 120-lb girl with 2 weeks in an Aikido class can get my arm back in such a position that they have complete control over my movements. This kid was hysterical but not in any physical condition (or position) to overpower anybody. In those circumstances, with him lying on his stomach, do you really believe that four police officers couldn't have gotten his other hand into a cuff? Did they even try? I don't recall seeing that they did.</p>
<p>Let's compare this situation to a mental patient in an institution who gets a little jumpy and needs to be restrained, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"-style. He's clearly not rational, but you've got him on the floor with 4 police officers restraining him. Has he done anything to suggest that there might be the slightest possibility of a problem once you've accomplished that? No? Then is a tasering necessary?</p>
<p>I'm not saying my mind is made up completely on this, but I do think the videos shift the burden of proof a little bit. If I were a gainesville personal-injury attorney i'd have already sent Meyer flowers down in the clink.</p>
<p>"As for Opie of Mayberry (#91), any 120-lb girl with 2 weeks in an Aikido class can get my arm back in such a position that they have complete control over my movements."</p>
<p>Unfortunately.. you weren't the one resisting ;) and I think think your statement is full of holes. You sound like the guys on monday morning complaining about an NFL quarterback.... "I woulda hit the back out on the flats..." yea sure you would :) </p>
<p>Having experienced some physical confrontations in my day, the goal is to end it as quickly and efficently as possible. end of story. they did that. </p>
<p>"do you really believe that four police officers couldn't have gotten his other hand into a cuff?"</p>
<p>Quite possibly. They also could have separated his shoulder or broken his wrist in the attempt. Since it wasn't you on the ground, how can you be certain of taser boy's level of cooperation when he hadn't shown much along the way?? </p>
<p>"Did they even try? I don't recall seeing that they did." </p>
<p>What I saw was a struggle to get the first one on, a verbal attempt to get him to cooperate, a warning of tasing if he didn't comply. He didn't he got zapped, which might have made him wet himself, but it certainly didn't mean he'd be needing medical treatment on his way to jail. </p>
<p>Look in the days since there have been numerous tapes showing "actual" abuse by officers with tasers. In each case they already had the suspect cuffed and/or in compliance, yet they continued to shock the suspect every few seconds for what appears to be hits and giggles as the suspect had stopped resisting, and in some cases even talking.... Look at one of those and come back to taser boy, there's a big difference.. Those contain clear abuse, taser boy's case is no where near an abusive situation.</p>
<p>"Don't fight the police"? I don't care if you're the president of the united states, I will beat the crap out of you if you try to assault me, attack me, or take my money, or anything else that I own. I don't care if you're the police or the president of the united states, if I'm being attacked wrongfully, I have the right to self-defense. Don't think of government as above the law. You are legally entitled the right to defend yourself against ANYONE who tries to do you harm, INCLUDING your own government.</p>
<p>Likewise, I don't care if you're some rentacop hired by the university, or an FBI agent, you have no right to approach me, let alone assault me, without my permission, which, of course, I will never give. What happened to the America that watched its children dying in Vietnam and got angry? What happened to the America that told the British to shove it up their ass? WHAT HAPPENED TO LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS????</p>
<p>And since when was it a crime to speak when asked to shut up? You have a first amendment right to speak, even when told to shut up, and the rest of the country has the right to tell you to shut up. But the police has no right to approach you just because nobody wants to hear you speak, let alone arrest you for it. And please tell me what crime did he commit by exercising the rights that were so clearly protected by the first amendment? Granted it was undignified and rude to speak beyond your time limit, but you're free to be undignified and rude as well, it's a right protected by law.</p>