Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Rant: University of Florida Student Tasered

I found this link today: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaiWCS10C5s&mode=related&search=

And it just raises so many questions. First of all, I think that the kid had valid questions to be asking, perhaps not the secret society question. But I think the other questions were indeed valid. I am still very unclear as to why he was pulled away. I think that Sen. John Kerry could have easily said something along the lines of "I don't have an answer to your question at the moment" or something diplomatic like that.
When I watched another video of the events I sort of sided with the police in that, this guy is clearly strong, and IS resisting arrest. Whether the arrest was necessary or not (Also, I didn't hear any of the police offiers telling him that he was being arrested at any point before he started yelling and screaming about being arrested). However, I find it amazing that five police officers can't control one sober 20-something college student (I only bring up the sobriety, because from what I've seen, when drunk any pain that might occur, i.e. having your arm bent backwards, etc. doesn't really bother you much, and it certainly doesn't slow you down). If you watch the video there are four of them leaning on him, pinning him down. While I still take the side of the police officers, I do believe that perhaps our campus officers aren't properly trained for events like this to occur.

The whole thing just confuses me, and I'm sort of on the fence about how I feel about it. I do feel however that the whole thing could have easily been avoided had the event coordinators been prepared for questions such as the one the boy was asking. After all, this is a college. Aren't we educating our children to be independent thinking people? Especially at University where protest are a daily occurrence because of so many people of differing opinions?

It just blows my mind.

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