Internet videos show student tased for asking John Kerry questions

WASHINGTON D.C. – Sen. John Kerry issued the following statement today, in response to the arrest of a student at the University of Florida.

“In 37 years of public appearances, through wars, protests and highly emotional events, I have never had a dialogue end this way. I believe I could have handled the situation without interruption, but I do not know what warnings or other exchanges transpired between the young man and the police prior to his barging to the front of the line and their intervention. I asked the police to allow me to answer the question and was in the process of responding when he was taken into custody. I was not aware that a taser was used until after I left the building. I hope that neither the student nor any of the police were injured. I regret enormously that a good healthy discussion was interrupted."

Excerpt of Greg Palast's comment (he reports that the student's name is Meyers, not Meyer):

Student to John Kerry: “I want to recommend a book to you. It’s called ‘Armed Madhouse by Greg Palast.’ He’s the top investigative journalist in America.”

Kerry: “I have the book. I’ve already read it.”

Student: “… In this book, it says there were 5 million votes and you won the election. … How could you concede the election on the day?”(Andrew Stanfill / Alligator Staff)

Meyers, a telecommunications student at the Gainesville campus, asked related questions including a query as to why Kerry refused to vote for impeachment. When he passed his alloted one minute mic time, five cops jumped him, threw him to the ground, shot him with taser shockers.

Kerry, true to character, stood immobile.

http://www.theandrewmeyer.com/

THERE WILL BE A MARCH AT 12PM, SEPTEMBER 18, 2007 IN THE PLAZA OF THE AMERICAS ON THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA CAMPUS
VIEW THE FACEBOOK GROUP! http://ufl.facebook.com/event.php?eid=5779218759. SHOW UP AND DEMONSTRATE YOUR SUPPORT.
FREE ANDREW MEYER

-------------------------------

Andrew Meyer Arrested for Speaking at Kerry Forum

NOTE: The following is not posted by Andrew Meyer, but has been posted by his friends.

Andrew Meyer is currently incarcerated in Alachua County. While asking U.S. Senator John Kerry a question during a question and answer period following Kerry's speech at the University of Florida, Meyer was attacked by five police officers, manhandled and tasered. Fortunately there are videos and many witnesses to this injustice. Some articles and videos are linked below. Please show your support by educating yourselves and raising awareness by letting others know what has happened. Continue checking back to this website for updates.

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

Video on Digg (Please digg this!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqAVvlyVbag
Keep DIGGING! This is currently number one on DIGG!!!

FoxNews! (Meyer made the front page of FoxNews.com)
http://www.foxnews.com/
The article is located at http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,297126,00.html


University of Florida Newspaper "The Alligator"
The Alligator Article

Gainesville Sun
http://www.gainesvillesun.com/article/20070917/NEWS/70917016/1002/NEWS

Star Banner
Ocala Newspaper
http://www.starbanner.com/article/20070917/NEWS/70917006/1053/BREAKING_NEWS

Miami Herald
Miami Newspaper
http://www.miamiherald.com/775/story/241199.html

WikiProtest.com
Wiki Protest: The Blog of the Revolution
http://wikiprotest.com/blog/index.php/2007/09/17/uf-student-tasered-and-arrested-at-john-kerry-speech/

Contact The Andrew Meyer
famouswriterman [at] aol.com

Andrew Meyer, the UF student who was Tasered and arrested by University Police Department officers Monday, was released from jail at 9 a.m. today.

Meyer, a telecommunication senior, spent the night in jail but was in good spirits, said Robert Griscti, Meyer's lawyer.

Griscti said Meyer and his family are very surprised at the UPD officers' actions and do not think using a Taser was appropriate.

He said UPD has not attempted to communicate with the family.

Aside from some minor traffic violations, Meyer has no criminal record, Griscti said, adding that he would fight for complete dismissal of the charges.

Cynthia McKinney comments at her website today:

Not only residents of the United States are being subjected to illegitimate authority due to two stolen elections in 2000 and again in 2004. The entire global community is suffering because of it. When John Kerry, 2004 Democratic Nominee for President had the opportunity to tell us and the world why he didn't fight for his own victory that the voters of this country gave him, John Kerry proceeded to talk while the student who asked the question was violently tasered by the police.

That University of Florida student asked one of the central questions that the American people deserve to have answered.

Kerry didn't even fight for the victory that the U.S. voters had given him. He remained mute as the Libertarian and Green Parties demanded to know what happened in Ohio. And took their meager resources to investigate election theft by Republicans in Ohio. And all of the revelations that have come out since then can be placed at the feet of these two Parties, and not the Democratic Party that would have benefited. It was the Libertarian and Green Parties, not the Democrats, that demanded that the will of the voters be respected.

A student gets the taser for asking a simple question.

But what's more frightening is the reaction of those in the audience who sat through the screams of the student being tasered, listening to Kerry who obviously became a man bereft of his senses.

The student was harassed even as he attempted to ask his question, referencing Greg Palast's work, "Armed Madhouse." Pointing out the huge disfranchisement of black voters that marked both of Bush's "wins," he asked Kerry, "How could you concede the election on the day?"

He asks why Kerry is not in favor of impeachment, then the students applaud when the police attack him at the microphone. From the video, it appears that he is literally picked up by the police and carried to the back of the room where he is put on the floor, handcuffed, tasered, carried out, and in the background one can hear Kerry talking--not trying to get the police officers to stop attacking the student--but blathering on, reminiscent of George Bush when the towers were hit.

No police officer should be in the business of denying Constitutional rights to anyone; I am particularly chagrined when it appears that a black police officer participated in this attack on an innocent student.

What is happening to us???? How much more will the people accept?? I was outraged as early as 2000 when Florida was stolen and the Democrats said nothing!!!! Now, innocent students get tasered just for asking questions.

What kind of US Senator do we have who can't or won't answer a question about his own election that affects all of us???

We must channel our efforts into the kind of movement that has been successful in the past in our country. A movement that unites us all, regardless of the labels usually used to divide us. We the people must run for office and vote the current, non-representative crew out of office. We must become the government that is supposed to represent us. It is time for all of us to become involved now. There is room for everyone in this movement. I shudder to think what our country will become if we fail to act.

If you haven't seen it yet, here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaiWCS10C5s
--

We heard the screams on KPFA tonight, 9/18/07, 6 p.m. and are horrified, again. This is not the first time we have heard the screams from the use of tasers. It is long overdue that tasers and pepper spray be banned everywhere. This is fascism. Hopefully, the victim will sue the stinking police department for millions of dollars. The hundreds of witnesses alone will force a good settlement. This is the same government that perpetrated the 9/11 Inside Job and that should not surprise anyone. This government does not hesitate to attack anyone and everyone at every level of government, Democrats and Republicans together, at every chance they get. They will murder us, taser us, pepper spray us, and any other horror so as to terrorize us to accept this stinking cesspool of a society with low wages, inadequate housing, no national healthcare, no decent public transportation, a death penalty, a prison-punishment concentration camp system, endless wars to maximize their profits, fascism and no future for young people. How much more of this nightmare will people allow before they finally stop voting for Democrats and Republicans, and instead vote socialist or Green, preferably socialist? How much longer before the workingclass organizes a general strike to get rid of this rotten government?

source: USA: That’s what free speech looks like

During an “open meeting” with John Kerry (former candidate for USA president) at the University of Florida, a student, Andrew Meyer, asked him about the falsification of elections in Florida for the 2004 presidential election. Six officers brutally pulled Meyer from the microphone after his 90 seconds of questions to Kerry, and since he resisted, threw him to the ground and tasered him. The taser is becoming more and more controversial, since despite it’s so-called “safe disabling”, in the USA and Canada a few hundred people have already died from the effects of tasering. Most people in the room failed to react to the attack. A video of the incident is HERE

Today, a more than 200 person solidarity picket with the detainee and against the limiting of free speech and the user of taser by university police took place. Banners were carried saying “Freedom of speech is not a crime”, “Stop using tasers”. Firing the security guards from the university was also demanded.

Andrew’s three questions:

1. he showed Greg Palast’s book Armed Madhouse and asked about the faking of voting in Florida during the 2004 US presidential election
2. he asked why Kerry didn’t call for impeaching Bush before Bush attacks Iran
3. he asked if Kerry was in the same secret group Skull and Bones at Yale University with Bush (it’s already known that both are members)

Editing is open

In light of recent events, we have three demands to make of the UFPD:

1. Drop all charges against Andrew Meyer.

2. Immediately suspend the officers involved in his tasering, pending an independent investigation into their actions.

3. Because of the hundreds of deaths that have been attributed to their use, and because their very existence on an officers belt encourages their excessive use, tasers can not be standard issue police equipment on campus.

This has become national [international] news quite fast, so lets show them how UF students can stand up for one another and for our rights!

Students getting tasered, while Kerry blabs on........and on. Kerry: What f@cking jerk!

The Meaning Of That Kerry Fracas In Florida

By Paul Craig Roberts

Naïve Americans who think they live in a free society should watch this video filmed by students at a John Kerry speech September 17, Constitution Day, at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

At the conclusion of Kerry’s speech, Andrew Meyer, a 21-year old journalism student was selected by Senator Kerry to ask a question. Meyer held up a copy of BBC investigative reporter Greg Palast’s book, Armed Madhouse, and asked if Kerry was aware that Palast’s investigations determined that Kerry had actually won the election. Why, Meyer asked, had Kerry conceded the election so quickly when there were so many obvious examples of vote fraud? Why, Meyer, went on to ask, was Kerry refusing to consider Bush’s impeachment when Bush was about to initiate another act of military aggression, this time against Iran?

At this point the public’s protectors—the police—decided that Meyer had said too much. They grabbed Meyer and began dragging him off. Meyer said repeatedly, "I have done nothing wrong," which under our laws he had not. He threatened no one and assaulted no one.

But the police decided that Meyer, an American citizen, had no right to free speech and no constitutional protection. They threw him to the floor and tasered him right in front of Senator Kerry and the large student audience, who captured on video the unquestionable act of police brutality. Meyer was carted off and jailed on a phony charge of “disrupting a public event."

The question we should all ask is why did a United States Senator just stand there while Gestapo goons violated the constitutional rights of a student participating in a public event, brutalized him in full view of everyone, and then took him off to jail on phony charges?

Kerry’s meekness not only in the face of electoral fraud, not only in the face of Bush’s wars that are crimes under the Nuremberg standard, but also in the face of police goons trampling the constitutional rights of American citizens makes it completely clear that he was not fit to be president, and he is not fit to be a US senator.

READ THE REST:

Niemoeller was a pacifist who spoke out against nuclear weapons. He is best known for his powerful statement about the failure of Germans to speak out against the Nazis:


“First they came for the Communists,
but I was not a Communist s
o I did not speak out.

Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists,
but I was neither,
so I did not speak out.

Then they came for the Jews,
but I was not a Jew
so I did not speak out.

And when they came for me,
there was no one left
to speak out for me.”


He died in Wiesbaden on March 6, 1984

AND YOU CAN ADAPT THIS POEM FOR OUR DAYS :

Then they camme for the Palestinians
But I was not a Palestinian , so idid not Speak out ,

For Arabs ...
For Iranians

And when they came for me
there was no one left
to speak for me.

For those who think that ethis cans be divided

Below is the letter that was quickly posted on the University of Florida webpage and emailed to students, staff, faculty and alumni:



To students, faculty, staff:

I have received a great deal of communication and input last night and this morning regarding the incident that occurred Monday at the conclusion of a town hall forum being held by Sen. John Kerry. The incident resulted in a student being tasered.

We are interested in learning what happened and are taking the following immediate steps to ensure the university utilizes best practice protocols.

University of Florida Police Chief Linda Stump has requested the Florida Department of Law Enforcement conduct a formal investigation into the arrest of UF student Andrew Meyer. An independent review such as this will make sure the results are objective and impartial. Chief Stump's priority is to ensure that the public remains confident in the department's ability to keep the campus safe.

Two officers involved in the incident have been placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.

We plan to assemble a panel of faculty and students to review our police protocols, our management practices and the FDLE report to come up with a series of recommendations for the university.

Administrators and police officials plan to analyze the incident and conduct an internal review and will consider changing protocols in response to this incident, if necessary.

Finally, as is standard procedure, the State Attorney's Office will review the charges brought against Mr. Meyer. We have communicated with the State Attorney and understand he plans to expedite his review.

I will talk about the incident and answer questions at a news conference scheduled for 2 p.m. in Emerson Alumni Hall.

Sincerely,

J. Bernard Machen

Greg Palast, investigative reporter visited Portland Wednesday evening, April 24, 2007, promoting the addition of two chapters to his most recent book, "Armed Madhouse."

AUDIO FILES: How Bush Drowned New Orleans and the Theft of 2008
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2007/04/358322.shtml

Here is a link to the complete police report of the incident.

http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2007/images/09/18/offense.report.072274.pdf

UF Protest for Andrew Meyer 9-18-07
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVRMkUWOzJE

I don't understand why some student was smiling during the aggression......

I can't understand!

It's a bad world

What I don't understand is the logic of activists, media activists or otherwise, repeatedly making these eager statements about these events, but then doing nothing.

How many times are we going to say "look how bad the cops are. look at this fucked up thing they did this time. we live in a fascist country." and then go back to our daily lives and or same old tactics? i mean, do we think that just by talking about all the bad things they're going to get better? or do we just not take ourselves seriously when we say "see, we live in a fascist country". because it seems that if we really thought that, it would be time to start making some serious plans.

i'm just wondering, what is the logic of this "look how bad this is" without the proportional response? are we just reveling in how awful our world and lives are? or are we just deadening our own emotions by watching these kinds of videos, where someone gets tasered, beaten, teargassed, etc?

what are we doing about the problem that the police are the real enemy, are the soldiers in this war against us, on the streets outside our homes everyday, beating, raping and killing us with impunity?

I concur with "noone". I've asked this question here on Indymedia many times. Each and everytime I received no reply.

We need to begin making some major...physical plans.

Martial law is just around the bend and all we are doing is complaining.

It's now long-obvious that the anti-globalization movement (in North America) is dead. We need to pick up those pieces and begin preparing for armed conflict...which, now, appears inevitable.

The 2nd Amendment exists for a purpose and it wasn't constructed to defend ourselves from eachother. It was intended to protect ourselved and eachother from tyranny.

Gun Control? Yes, after the global elite has been disarmed.

It was not too long ago that the very presence of PIGS on campus would have caused a riot, because it was a rare occurance. A "police" presence is bad enough, but look at the ugly grin on that stupid PIG's face and it tells you everything about the thugs that would never be on a campus anywhere excepts as whores of a fascist regime.

Any campus considering the fool's trap of having "badged officiers" (instead of the traditional security guards) should view the video. The owe allegiance to the FOP, not to your campus or any high ideals except for their own salary, and expensive equipment with which to restrain the "snotty intellectuals" they naturally despise.

As for Kerry, he once waged a courageous fight against BCCI, and got some of the CIA-BANKING-WARMONGER connections written into the record of the US Senate, but it appears his main interest has not been that different from that of brother Bush -

Power.

He're a man who married a dead Republicans' Billionaire spouse, bonesman et al good bye john, you showed your ass that day in September, either that or else you've become just a bit to slow on the draw to be of any use in the wild west this world has become - or perhaps did the Viagra affect your hearing?

Who will fight for democracy?

It appears "John Kerry" would be an incorrect answer to that open question.

REALO!