Meyer Taser Sick ...His Fellow Students Apathy is Worse

This film clip of a student in Florida , a Mr Andrew Meyer, getting tasered by US police officers at a campus political event where John Kerry was speaking is both shocking and depressing . OK he was a rather irritating sort of heckler cum questioner and his questions to Kerry did seem rambling and may have been embarrassing to the former Democratic candidate for the Presidency. He may also have had , shock horror a 'reputation for being a prankster'. However..... The reaction of the cops to this guy is simply mindblowingly over the top.

Perhaps the most disturbing and depressing aspect of this footage is the utter inertia of his fellow students upon his arrest. The thought that armed police would detain a student for simply telling John Kerry that he had in fact WON the last Presidential election seems hard to believe, but that his fellow students would simply sit and smirk as the drama escalates is amazing. Even when he is being electrocuted, a reaction that can be heard distinctly is one of amusement from some of the assembled students.One can only surmise as to the shock and outrage that would fill the world of comment had this happened in China, Cuba, or the USSR, I can just imagine Charles Wheeler going apoplectic. In Other filmed accounts of the events one or two concerned voices are raised, these appear to be concerned older adults, perhaps academics, who may be old ennough to remember the massacre at Kent State University? The Kent State shootings, also known as the May 4 massacre or Kent State massacre, occurred at Kent State in the city of Kent , Ohio , involved the shooting of students by members of the Ohio National Guard on Monday, May 4th 1970 . Four students were killed and nine others wounded, one of whom suffered permanent paralysis, they were protesting against the US involvement in Vietnam. For those who do not know about violence against free speech in US universities, then this clip below will enlighten readers as to what happened in Kent State....

Maybe some of these concerned people, perhaps old enough to remember the violence employed by the US state against students at Kent State University in 1970 , could after all this hoo-hah, take a little time and explain to these smirking youngsters, who seem to know so little about so much despite having access to more information than ever before. Take time to tell them what happened then,and remind them that freedom of speech on US campuses is a right that was sanctified by the blood of students from a previous generation. Kids just like them, in some ways, except I can not envisage that a student so assaulted in 1970 would be so utterly abandoned by his fellow scholars.