Let me start by saying that I am by no means an active political or social advocate but this is just unreasonable. I am breaking the TechTalk tradition for this week and I am going to share with you one of the most disturbing events of the past few days. It is actually the most horrific commentary about our society that has been recorded since the Rodney King riot videos and the truck driver who was dragged from his vehicle.

For those of you who don’t know what I am talking about it is the arrest and tasering of Andrew Meyer, a University of Florida student. Meyer was verbally harranging Massachusetts senator John Kerry during a campus talk; he was at the microphone and would not listen to the forum moderators. He refused to back down from his critical questioning of Kerry and after a few moments the police hauled him off. They forced him to the ground, and tasered him.

Based on the numerous video accounts, he was complying with the request and even offered to leave and walk out on his own. The officers forced him to the ground and into handcuffs. Since when we became a society that responds to long winded questions at town hall meeting even if they are long winded or inappropriate with a taser? Where would our country be without the ability to protest? The most disturbing thing for me honestly was not the tasing itself but the fact that crowd just sat there. These are college aged kids, they are our canaries in the coal mine; If college aged people just sit back and allow this to happen, where do we go from here?

The technology slant on this email is, whether the user of this technology is actually justified? A few years ago, he would have simply been subdued, restrained, cuffed and removed from the property by a well trained police officer. The warring aspect here is just how trigger happy we have actually become. Has technology become a substitute for good judgment? I can appreciate that a calculator or a computer takes some of the burden off of us when working on complex issues, but to rely on technology as our sole remediation seems a little ridiculous. We can all do simple math in our head and the authorities should be able to handle a simple disturbance without resorting to an immobilizing technology.

What is it that we as a society find to be acceptable? What are out limits? Are we at the beginings of a cultural revolution? There are even T-Shirts that have been printed about this, with the slogan Dont Tase Me Bro

Amnesty International has been documenting the misuse of tasers for some time; you can find more information.

Amnesty International – Suspend Use of TASERs

For more information about wide spread taser abuse:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/9/19/14057/0584

http://valtinsblog.blogspot.com/2007/09/outrageous-taser-attack-on-florida.html