I’m sure everyone else is just as tired of the
Florida University “taser” controversy as I am, but regardless I still feel it is necessary to voice my own opinion on the matter. For those who have lived under a rock for the past few weeks, a
Florida University student named Andrew Meyer disrupted an on-campus Q&A session with John Kerry, refused to be led out, and got shocked with a taser for his troubles. The question has since become, who should be punished? The police, for tase-ing someone when it wasn’t called for? Or Mr. Meyer, for provoking them? Open-minded as I am, I am fully capable of seeing both sides of the issue; and my own feelings on the matter are aptly mixed. The split in my mind is one between my personal reaction to the situation and my logical understanding of its overall meaning. To start with how I, as an individual felt; personally, I was glad that guy was shocked. I think he acted like a royal jackass and he got what was coming to him. Back when I was in college, I crossed paths with people like Mr. Meyer from time to time; people who treat the world like a private audience for their comically overwrought, hyper-liberal crusade. Who hasn’t wished they had a taser handy in a situation like that? It irritates me to no end that this event has become a big deal for some of my more leftist friends. Mr. Meyer’s actions played into all the red-state stereotypes of the disrespectful, ivory tower, rabble rousing, college-kid liberal; why are you spilling so much ink in his defense?
What irritates me even more is the accusations I hear that a shock with a taser is such a traumatizing experience. First they describe in horrific detail how a taser works: by shooting out two metal barbs that pierce your flesh and send waves of electrical energy along trailing wires that cause unspeakable pain and paralyze the body by overwhelming the central nervous system. I admit that does sound unpleasant. However it misrepresents the situation, since that only describes one mode of the taser. The police, using a standard-issue X26-model taser, used a secondary mode called “drive mode” which mode is performed by physically pressing the Taser to the subject, and “causes significant localized pain…but leaves the central nervous system unaffected.”
Anyone who’s seen
Batman Returns will be familiar with this mode of shock. Following this refutation, comes the inevitable “how would you like it if
you were shocked like that?” Fortunately (or unfortunately) for me, I can respond to this as well: I
have been shocked in my life, rather severely at that. As a kid I once went swimming at a friend’s house, and while attempting to get a soda was dismayed to learn (one might say “shocked”) that their refrigerator had short circuited and was killing me. Enough electricity was passing through me that my central nervous system
was affected, the right side of my body was completely paralyzed and I remained frozen to the door handle for about a minute before I was freed by my quick-thinking mother, wielding a plastic piece of lawn furniture. Don’t get me wrong, the experience sucked (and I could have died), but I didn’t walk away crying “Ow, ow, owie” either. Actually, I felt rather exhilarated, but I that may have just been a side affect of all the electricity passing so close to my heart.
On the flip side, I have the ability to separate my personal sense of
schadenfreude from my logical understanding that the police overreacted. They did not overreact by much, but ultimately they did not need to hurt the guy- and they did anyway. As disruptive as he was- and anyone who has seen an unedited cut of the
video should agree he was very disruptive- Mr. Meyer was held down by six burly police officers before he was shocked. At that point, he was leaving no matter what. I’ve seen fewer than six bouncers toss unruly patrons bodily from bars in
New York; there is no reason why the same could not have worked here
without bringing a taser into the equation. I will also point out that the X26 has a third mode called “spark display” which simply demonstrates that the taser is ready to go.
That would have been enough. The police do not have the freedom to indulge their anger like that. While on a personal level, my base emotions were gleefully in favor of seeing a loudmouth jerk get what he deserved; my higher brain was just as quick to note that the definition of “loudmouth jerk” is open to debate- It has applied to me on more than one occasion. As much as Mr. Meyer deserved what he got, it would be even worse if the precedent set in his case gave police the freedom to tase anyone who pissed them off. In my opinion, justice would be served best by taking no sides in the matter: Punish everyone.
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