“Don’t Tase Me Bro!” – The Andrew Meyer Taser Incident
Student Andrew Meyer Arrested, Tased at John Kerry Event
Andrew Meyer, 21, a University of Florida student, was tased and arrested after trying to ask U.S. Senator John Kerry about the 2004 election and other subjects during a campus forum.
Videos of the incident posted on several Web sites show officers pulling Meyer away from the microphone after he asks Kerry about impeaching President George W. Bush and whether he and Bush were both members of the secret society Skull and Bones at Yale.
“He apparently asked several questions – he went on for quite awhile – then he was asked to stop,” university spokesman Steve Orlando said. “He had used his allotted time. His microphone was cut off, then he became upset.”
As two officers grabbed Meyer by the arms, Senator Kerry said: “That’s alright, let me answer his question.” Audience members applauded, but officers still try to remove Meyer from the room. Meyer tries to break away but is forced to the ground while officers order him to stop resisting. Meyer says he will walk out if the officers let him go. As Kerry tells the audience he will answer the student’s “very important question,” Meyer struggles on the ground and yells at the officers to release him, crying out, “Don’t Tase me, bro!” The police don’t listen, and Meyer is tased, then led from the room, screaming, “What did I do?”
Aftermath
Meyer was charged with resisting an officer and disturbing the peace. Meyer spent one night in the Alachua County Jail and was released the next morning. He later issued a public apology, stating that he was “out of line”. All charges were eventually dropped. Lots of opinions follow on the incident, many suggesting that the police were excessive, but some also suggested that Meyer was at fault for not obeying police commands. The line “Don’t Tase Me, Bro” came to define the year 2007 in many circles.
The rise of the use of TASERs by police officers has been very controversial in the 00 decade, with some deaths resulting, accusations of excessive force on the part of police, and some seeing their use as evidence of the growth of the police state under the Bush/Cheney administration.
