Updated: Out of control!

U.S. Sen. John Kerry's speech at the University of Florida came to a dramatic close Monday, shortly after a vocal audience member was hauled off by police and shot with a Taser gun.

After watching this video, I am really frustrated and disgusted with what happened.

This afternoon, John Kerry released a statement saying "In 37 years of public appearances, through wars, protests and highly emotional events, I have never had a dialogue end this way."

Meanwhile, Tom Nolan, a criminal-justice professor and former cop who teaches at Boston University, has his own views of the incident which were e-mailed to reporters by the university's media-relations office. Nolan doesn't side with the campus police.

“The deployment of an immobilizing, less-lethal weapon in an auditorium crowded with students to bring an unruly student (who was being arrested for a misdemeanor charge) under control, by no fewer than six police officers, is a shocking and dangerous breach of police protocol."

You can check out all the details at Andrew Meyer's website. I hope the march they have planned is well attended and that the outrage on campus can be wielded in a constructive way to not only change police policies but also shed light on how dissent is consistently stifled on and off campuses across the country.

~BT

Update: About 200 people marched to the University of Florida Police Department Tuesday afternoon to protest the arrest and use of a Taser.

An online post announcing the march, which started at the Plaza of the Americans, had called for officers involved to be suspended and investigated, policies involving disrupting speech and using weapons such as Tasers to be re-evaluated and all charges against the student to be dropped.

Also,

The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida has released a statement condemning the use of a Taser gun in the arrest of University of Florida student Andrew Meyer on campus Monday.

Executive Director Howard Simon said aside from the possible use of excessive force, the response of the University Police Department "squandered the free speech rights of both Kerry and Meyer."

Update 2: The two officers involved in the tasering have been suspended and police report that the arrested student told them: 'You didn't do anything wrong'.

Update 3: I was also reminded of another Taser incident in a library at UCLA.

Update 4: An eye-witness account via Dailykos diary that paints a very different picture. (h/t to Billy)