This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
There are a million reasons LA is better than Gainesville, but both are home to major state universities with their own Taser-happy police forces. Earlier today, 21-year-old Florida student Andrew Meyer was apprehended by police and stunned with a Taser gun at a town hall meeting with Senator John Kerry on the UF campus. It seems he was tailed by the police as he came to ask the question -- challenging Kerry for not contesting the results of the 2004 presidential election.
You can hear the Taser at 3:09 after Meyer screams "don't tase me, bro!" Meyer was charged with disrupting a public event. Kerry did not appear to contest UPDATE: Kerry responds:
"In 37 years of public appearances, through wars, protests and highly emotional events, I have never had a dialogue end this way. I believe I could have handled the situation without interruption, but I do not know what warnings or other exchanges transpired between the young man and the police prior to his barging to the front of the line and their intervention. I asked the police to allow me to answer the question and was in the process of responding when he was taken into custody. I was not aware that a taser was used until after I left the building. I hope that neither the student nor any of the police were injured. I regret enormously that a good healthy discussion was interrupted."
