Disgust

Have you seen this video yet? "UF student tasered at John Kerry Speach". Near the end of a question and answer session John Kerry calls on a student with a question. He steps to the microphone and spends about 30 seconds setting up his question. He recommends a book called "Armed Madhouse" by Greg Palast, which claims that Kerry won the presidential election of 2004. Kerry says he's already read it, and wants to know if the student has a question. A police officer taps him on the shoulder and says something to him. From his response it seems that the police officer has asked him to stop talking. From here things denigrate. The student manages to ask three questions before the cops drag him off. I've paraphrased them below:

1. Considering the amount of fraud and confusion as outlined in "Armed Madhouse" how could you concede the election on the same day?
2. If you're against invading Iran why not impeach Bush?
3. Were you and Bush both members of the same secret society at Yale?

He is forcibly removed from the microphone by the police officers as he asks the last question. This is just absolutely wrong. The student was allowed to speak for one minute 30 seconds before he was cut off and escorted away from the microphone. In the background you can see a man in a suit speaking with a police officer when the student first starts rambling, and you see this same man move his hand across his throat making a "cut him off" type gesture which immediately precedes the physical removal of the student. As the student is removed he is confused and resists the removal. He asks loudly what are you arresting me for? He struggles and is eventually subdued by 3 or 4 police officers. While on the floor he continues to shout and struggle and then he is shocked with a taser.

I'm amazed, but there are actually a lot of people who are siding against the student. They say things like "He's annoying" or "He had it coming". You know what? Carrot Top is annoying, but we can't get the police to taser him. They say "He was grandstanding and wanted it to happen." That may be true, but it is still not a valid reason to prevent his free-speech or forcibly remove him.

I listen to call in shows on NPR like Forum and Talk of the Nation. Those hosts do an excellent job handling callers with rambling questions. Why couldn't Senator Kerry handle this? How could he allow this to go on right in front of him? I'm really unimpressed by how Kerry has handled the situation and am interested to see how this all turns out.