Watch this CNN I-Report Video of student (Andrew Meyer) asking a series (3) of questions to Senator John Kerry at the university of Florida and I hope feelings of disgust and shock start to surface with you.

The actions of those police officers is en-excusable. Mr. Meyer spent no more than 2 minutes asking his questions, raised 3 legitimate inquires and yet was forcibly removed from the discussion. He repeated asked what he “had done” and why several officers were physically retaining him. No answer was given. When he failed to “stop asking questions” he was TASERED into submission. Now, I do not know which (if any) official asked for him to be removed or why, but clearly something went wrong here.

1) U of F says that it “prides” its self on civil debate and exchange. Obviously the officials at this event don’t because Meyers was never allowed to hear the answers Kerry was prepapred to answer.

2) As a member of the armed forces with private security experience I along with all others in these fields are taught something called the “force Continuum“. This continuum outlines the proper use of force when dealing with resisting subjects. These officers violated this central part of their training. As an example you can view this layout of a rather standard force continuum. http://www.cpso.pdx.edu/images/forcecontinuum.gif

The part that applies to this situation is listed under the Physical Control section. It lists Hair takedown, Joint Takedown, Digital Control (meaning control of the arms and legs), Joint Come-Along, Pressure Points and THEN electronic Stun Device. The police in this video clearly failed to follow anything that could be resembled as a proper escalation of force; add on top of this that the student did nothing to warrant physical police involvement to begin with and you can see how absurd this situation is.

Kerry can be heard in the background telling the police to let the student be and and that he will answer his questions but the officers are un-phased by this instruction.

Shame on the officers for acting in a such a poor manner. Does it really take 4 cops AND a taser to remove a student from a room? Absolutely not.

Shame on Kerry for not being more forceful in his instructions to the officers to release Mr. Meyer.

And lastly, shame on society for normally being such sheep to police, on not knowing our rights and on allowing official intimidation. This whole situation makes me ill and reminds me of another situation where police acted out of line. Could we please stand standing up for out rights?