Jon Katz at Underdog has written previously on the inappropriate use of Tasers, and the police misapprehension that a Taser is just an easy way to shut people down when they have the audacity to not do whatever cops tell them to do.

This video clip is shocking.  Sure, the speaker was annoying.  He was disruptive.  It was not his platform to monopolize.  He was rude.  But that doesn’t mean he should be subjected to being tasered for it. 

Was any of this necessary?  Did they need to wrestle him to the floor and handcuff him?  Was he threatening anyone with harm or violence, or was he talking too long, too loud and too aggressively to make the others comfortable? 

The speaker was clearly rude, and the video shows the crowd support the police putting an end to his rant.  But this devolved so quickly into the physical, and then into a physical assault on the speaker.  He assaulted no one.  He threatened no one with physical harm.  It is an outrage that those people in whom we vest the power to use force against others will do so just because they can.  And so casually. 

As the news stories develop, this comment has come out:

Orlando said university police would conduct an internal investigation.

“The police department does have a standard procedure for when they use force, including when they use a Taser,” Orlando said. “That is what the internal investigation would address — whether the proper procedures were followed, whether the officers acted appropriately.”

What standard procedure could they possibly have that involves the calm, deliberate use of force against someone whose only offense is not jumping as high as the cops demand? 

What makes a cop think that when they say jump, people must obey like dogs or they have the right to harm them?  What right did that cop have to harm a person because he didn’t comply.  I’ve seen people charged for decades with the capital offense of disobeying a “lawful order.”  How dare people not do whatever they are told by a cop.  This is America!  If a cop tells you to get on your knees and suck, you better damn well suck or bear the consequences.   How many people must be tasered, or shot, or beaten, for their failure to do as they are told by men with guns and shields.  Just because they can.  Here’s another view:




I realize that I’ve added little to the discussion on this video, but I am just so outraged by what happened that I wanted as many people as possible to see it.