Graphic by Justin Hemlepp/TheSequitur.com with cartoon from Andy Marlette/AndyMarlette.com
TheSequitur.com Editorial Board Sept. 26, 2007
It is often hard to determine who is right and who is wrong in a dispute, even when it is caught on camera. Take the police tasering of a University of Florida student last week at a Sen. John Kerry speech. It is obvious that everyone involved cannot be in the right. But in this instance, it is also clear that they all were in the wrong.
From the UF Student Government agency running the event, to the University Police Department, and, yes, to the victim, Andrew Meyer, himself, all were at fault in the shameful, saddening incident that developed in Gainesville, Fla. on Sept. 17.
Ironically, the Kerry speech was expected to be less controversial of two big events sponsored this semester by Accent, the student government's speaker’s bureau. (The other is an Oct. 11 speech by assisted-suicide advocate Dr. Jack Kevorkian.)
During the forum, Meyer pushed his way to the front of a line of students waiting to ask Kerry questions then launched into an inane screed. He pressed the Massachusetts senator on both his 2004 presidential election concession amid allegations of voter suppression and the congressional decision not to impeach president George W. Bush -- then student government officials cut Meyer’s microphone. The Accent chairman told local newspapers it was because Meyer used a profane word. The word was "blow-job."
Problem is, the government (in Florida, student governments are real governments and thus subject to the same rigors of their state parent, like public records disclosure and, yes, the First Amendment) cannot shut up a speaker in this kind of public forum simply because it does not like what the speaker is saying. That is illegal.
[L]et the man speak. This is America, after all.Moreover, Meyer's words - while uncouth - were hardly profane, especially in light of the audience and the context in which he said them. He was referring to what he saw as injustice that Congress has not impeached President Bush for his alleged transgressions while his predecessor, President Clinton, faced removal for lying about having oral sex with an intern. And, to borrow from Nixon, if the president does it, it’s fair game for discussion.
Meyer was overbearing in his desire to be heard, and asked questions outlying the mainstream, but it is definitely not the government’s place to decide whether or not he should be listened to. The public decides that. Most public forums, whether at UF or city councils nationwide, feature the obligatory nutty citizen, high on liberty, righteousness and the American way, and still talking well after their time has elapsed. When President George H.W. Bush last spoke at UF, a Meyer-like questioner droning on about Iran-Contra pardons was booed off the mike. At the Kerry forum, the same reaction would have sufficed.
Or better yet, let the man speak. This is America, after all.
Still, the student government official’s error in shutting down Meyer's speech does not excuse Meyer's subsequent behavior.
As University Police officers sought to escort Meyer from the microphone, he became belligerent, yelling, flailing his hands, breaking away from and disobeying the orders of the officers. The proper venue for Meyer to have challenged the unjust squelching of his speech was not in that auditorium, regardless of how unfair that may seem. He publicly made his objection to being cut off prematurely; that was enough. He then should have gotten a lawyer, made the appropriate formal complaints and maybe thought about a lawsuit. He also could have gone limp, following in the footsteps of seasoned protesters. Instead, his reaction was immature and only distracted from his earlier comments.
Lastly, the university police egregiously overstepped during the incident. Based on the multiple videos of the confrontation, there is no rational explanation why six police officers trying to subdue one average-sized college student needed a taser gun to tip the scales in their favor. A taser is a potentially lethal weapon, and officers should not use it with abandon simply because it is easy and its effects are immediate.
If police would result to such force in front of cameras, a room full of college students and a sitting U.S. senator, imagine what is happening day in and day out in some of this nation's poorest urban areas where too few eyes are focused. Nevertheless, where the nation's eyes were focused last week, in UF’s University Auditorium, there were no saints and plenty to share the blame in this debacle.
Everyone was in the wrong. Senior Editor Dwayne Robinson abstains from all staff editorials.
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