On September 17th, a University of Florida student was tazered by campus police at a John Kerry speech after questioning the ex-presidential candidate about his relationship with G.W.Bush through the Skull and Bones organization at Yale….

This video has been heavily circulated on all media outlets:

My Two-Cents:

1. Freedom of Speech and First Amendment Protection – Now according to reports, this guy may have been obnoxious with his questioning and overall personality, but that does not give ANYONE the right to place their hands on an individual while/because they are contributing to an educational discussion. The whole reason we even have the 1st Amendment is so that shit like this does not happen. If someone goes over the allotted time for questioning then you can ask him to leave, but there was no reason for physical escalation – let alone tazering a student.

If he were honestly badgering or slandering Kerry and refused to leave and began to act violently himself, that to me would warrant the kind of response that the police gave. Yet, none of those elements were brought to the situation by the student. I firmly believe any individual has the right ask any question they want in a town hall forum or educational environment; I thought that is how ignorance is drawn out and people learn. I really don’t know what the world is coming to when you cannot question nor gain access to the truths behind a “public servant”….

2. Excessive Force by the Police – You would have thought that law enforcement, especially that of campus police, have learned their lesson on excessive force considering the backlash a few months ago in a similar case at UCLA (watch video). The issue I have with campus police is that they are pretty much worthless cops who really do not do anything to solve crime nor help the general public. Think about it: at any University or college campus, the college has their own campus security, Residential Security Officers, and Community Services Officers already provided. So that leaves one vital question – What the fuck do the University PD do? The answer in most cases is: not a damn thing.

Because there really is not a whole lot of crime that generally happens on a college campus (most colleges are not in South Central L.A. like USC ; my alma mater of UCSD happens to be located in La Jolla, for example) when officers get the opportunity to finally get something to do 9/10 times they end up going overboard. But I guess I would be understating the problem if I just said campus police use excessive force or go too far because they are bored. Correction, it is also because campus police are the lower tier officers who either do not want the action of real city policeman, or those who simply are not fit for that kind of duty.

What results are sub-par officers responding to a situation which they hardly ever encounter and lack the adequate skills as a police officer to assess the situation and respond responsibly. This is why I believe these cases of students being unnecessarily tasered have occurred. When unprepared and untrained, the first response to a serious situation is panic and it is obvious that was the case here.

In the future, campus police either need to establish better criteria for when it is and when it is NOT appropriate to use that kind of force on a student, or get quality officers who know what the fuck they are doing! So in closing today ladies and gents: FUCK THE POLICE…you know, just out of pure principle.