I know. That really freaked me out, too... it wasn't until he was screaming in pain that anyone told them to stop. Before that, it seemed like the audience was cheering his departure.
"I was just at a conference where John Kerry was the speaker. During the Q&A section, a hyperactive young man grabbed the microphone while someone else was asking a question, proclaiming that he would like to ask a question. The leader of the conference just announced 5 minutes before that the current person asking a question was to be the last person to ask a question. The hyperactive young man was being forced by the police to leave the building. During this dramatized event, John Kerry said to the security to let him ask the question, but first let him finish with the current one being asked. The police respected John Kerry’s request but stood very closely to the young man. When it was the young man’s turn to speak, he was very revved up. But I would be too, if I was just handled that way by the police enforcement. He did ask a controversial question and was a bit out of line, even to make one police officer to try to pull him away while he was speaking. After he was done, the police did not just let him go sit
( ... )
Honestly, it sounds like that witness account was probably one of the many assholes who cheered his arrest. Being awkward and excited doesn't make him a threat, and I saw no way in which his question was out of line.
Well, to be fair -- he wasn't asking a question so much as grandstanding, and he didn't seem anywhere close to stopping. Being in the audience when someone like Kerry (or anyone else, obviously) speaks doesn't license every kind of discourse by disguising it as a question. Obviously, it's a judgment call when to cut someone's mic when they start down that road, and perhaps even lead them out of the room should they be disruptive thereafter.
Obviously, you should only use a taser when someone is being violent. And if campus police can't be trusted with tasers, why the Hell are we arming them? Thanks, Brandeis!
Apparently the dude stood on a streetcorner on HP7 release day with a big sign saying "[SPOILER] DIES"
Dunno, the more I read, the more the guy seems like an asshole and the authorities were acting rationally. I mean, you can turn this into a discussion as to whether tasers in general are acceptable but I'm not sure this situation says anything else more than that.
Yeah, I read about his "jokes" too, although Harry doesn't really die, so it's not really a spoiler. I mean, clearly the guy has issues, but I don't really get the sense that he was trying to do it as a prank.
I don't know, I still feel like there's more at play than just the taser issue. I don't like obnoxiousness or rudeness, but that doesn't mean people should be arrested for it.
I agree, I'm really upset at the huge amounts of power that we're unquestioningly giving to authority figures right now. This is not totally related, but I've been thinking about it lately...in New York these days, pretty much every store you go into has a guy at the door who checks your receipt on the way out. And it always makes me feel shitty and taken advantage of, and I always let them see my receipt, because they've told me to
( ... )
Comments 16
Reply
Reply
"I was just at a conference where John Kerry was the speaker. During the Q&A section, a hyperactive young man grabbed the microphone while someone else was asking a question, proclaiming that he would like to ask a question. The leader of the conference just announced 5 minutes before that the current person asking a question was to be the last person to ask a question. The hyperactive young man was being forced by the police to leave the building. During this dramatized event, John Kerry said to the security to let him ask the question, but first let him finish with the current one being asked. The police respected John Kerry’s request but stood very closely to the young man. When it was the young man’s turn to speak, he was very revved up. But I would be too, if I was just handled that way by the police enforcement. He did ask a controversial question and was a bit out of line, even to make one police officer to try to pull him away while he was speaking. After he was done, the police did not just let him go sit ( ... )
Reply
Reply
Obviously, you should only use a taser when someone is being violent. And if campus police can't be trusted with tasers, why the Hell are we arming them? Thanks, Brandeis!
Reply
Reply
Dunno, the more I read, the more the guy seems like an asshole and the authorities were acting rationally. I mean, you can turn this into a discussion as to whether tasers in general are acceptable but I'm not sure this situation says anything else more than that.
Reply
I don't know, I still feel like there's more at play than just the taser issue. I don't like obnoxiousness or rudeness, but that doesn't mean people should be arrested for it.
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment