Don't Tase me Bro!

Let me first say that while the phrase is catchy and sounds hilarious when being screamed as a joke, that it was no joke at all when campus police took down a student at University of Florida for vigorously, if not somewhat rudely, questioning John Kerry about why he conceded the Presidential election. Yes, the kid was a practical joker and maybe even an idiot, but I fear for the freedom in this country when people are dragged out of rooms by armed, uniformed police officers and tasered for asking questions. Freedom of speech is a very important, but also very delicate thing. What gave the event organizers the right to cut him off like that? It was purely arbitrary, and then when he told them off, they arrested him. Well, as obnoxious as his questions were, they were at least valid questions that had some political value to them.

Free speech is most important when it's speech that people don't agree with or that goes against the grain or when it tells an uncomfortable truth. I hadn't even heard about disenfranchised black voters in the election and voting machines counting backwards until his questions came up and had it not been for this incident I may have never found out about it. The right to free speech has to be very carefully guarded and given wide latitude and berth especially if others don't agree with it. I mean there must obviously come some point when you have to cut someone off, and maybe even escort them out, but it's not that hard to give someone the bum's rush and it's totally unnecessary to arrest them much less taser them. Furthermore, he hadn't been up there for that long and it looked like he was about done asking his questions when they cut him off. Also, Kerry has dealt with hecklers in the past, and I'm sure he could have ably done so in this case as well.