I’m surprised, it’s all over the blogs, and there are a number of people here who monitor them religiously. Anyhow, here’s some video:
Long version
Shorter, clearer version of the time from when Meyer is escorted away from the mic to the time he is removed from the hall.
I’m of two minds about this. Predictably, the outcry from the left has been that this is a blatant example of those damn fascist police suppressing this student’s right to free speech. If that was the case I’d be outraged, but after watching the video I don’t buy it. Her was arrested after he started to resist the cops. According to witness accounts, he jumped the line to get to the mic and demand an answer to his “oh so important” questions, because it had been announced that they were going to stop taking questions. (Here is one source. I’ll use Michelle Malkin just for the fun of it) At the beginning of the first video, you can see one cop put her hand on him and ask him to step away from the mic. He lashes out verbally, and is allowed to stay at the mic. He then rambles on for another minute or so, his mic is cut after he rants about Clinton’s blow job, and as the police try to remove him he starts to spin around, resisting their lawful attempts to remove him from the scene because he was causing a disruptence, pushing the cops away, all the while screaming “What did I do?”. At this point he is resisting arrest, and is subject to being forcibly restrained, which the police do. They take him to the ground, where he resists being handcuffed, and after several warnings that he would be tasered if he did not submit, he is and they do. He is then lead from the room and the real comedy begins (although I have to admit that I laughed at the part where he goes “Don’t taser me bro…ow!ow!ow!ow!ow!ow!ow!”). As the police talk to him in the hall, he begins the black helicopter bullshit. “I have people who know I’m here!”, “Oh no, they’re giving me to the government!”, “Help, help, they’re going to kill me!” High comedy indeed.
So, the crux of the matter: Was he removed and restrained for asking unpopular political questions, or for causing a disturbance and resisting the cops? I think it’s pretty clearly the later, he was given a chance to ask his questions even after he broke the rules by jumping the queue, it was only after his questions became a rant with no end in sight or pause for Kerry to answer (which the Senator clearly states that he is going to do) that they started to physically remove him. Cops have the right to remove disruptive people from public events. You do NOT have the right to resist them, your rights are ensured by the courts after the fact if the cops acted unlawfully. Quite clearly (moreso in the 2nd video), he is resisting right up to the point when he is tasered, you can clearly see his hand grasping the arm of the chair so that he couldn’t be cuffed just before the taser is used (as he is clearly warned that it would be). The taser might have been a bit much, you’d expect 6 cops to be able to subdue him, but the quarters were tight in the aisle and he was clearly not complying with their orders, they were unable to cuff him, what would have been a better option, the baton?
I just don’t understand some people. If he has stopped after his first question and quietly waited for an answer, nothing would have happened. If he had aquiessed to the demand that he step away and leave the auditorium, nothing would have happened. Instead, he resisted and began shouting, creating a disturbance. Cops are invested with the power to enforce order in our society, and no matter the purity of your ideological outrage, you do NOT have the right to resist them or to refuse to comply with their lawful orders. No matter what you think of cops, you don’t have that right. What are your thoughts here? (And I bet I’m in the minority WRT my opinion, but would your opinion change if ideologies of the people involved were different? Suppose Meyer had been shouting inflammatory Republican talking points?)