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Tuesday, September 18, 2007 - 8:30pm Taser Happy Campus Cops Shock Student We really need to think about taking tasers away from campus police officers. At a John Kerry speech at the University of Florida, a student who was asking pointed questions of the Senator was violently removed by the police. At least one officer decided to taser him, despite the fact that he was already on the ground and surrounded by five other cops. In addition, one police officer pulled a gun on the student.
The last time I checked, freedom of speech still exists in this country. The student was clearly being loud and obnoxious as you can tell from the video, but that's pretty much all he was doing.
John Kerry actually tried to diffuse the situation by saying "That's all right, let me answer his question." Kerry even called it a "very important question" to help matters. Unfortunately, the police ignored him and made the situation much worse.
Once again, campus cops acted recklessly and violently to something that was easy to handle. This is not an indictment of law enforcement at universities, but it is of the training, especially with regard to tasers. This is not the first time campus police have tasered a student. A student was recently tasered inside a library at another university.
If police are going to use tasers like toys, they need to be taken away. These are weapons that should be used in only the rarest of circumstances. If six police officers cannot handle an unarmed kid without tasing him, they need to find different jobs.
It is being reported that two of the main culprits have been placed on administrative leave. However, anything short of firing them is unacceptable.
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