Okay time for my two cents...
I think the kid went in there to create a spectacle, he purposefully baited the cops into a wrestling match, and I don't think cops used excessive force. If the police were only there to prevent a scene, they could have turned the tazer up to FRY and carried his smoking but out of there. But they didn't. I've not seen the vid yet, but my understanding is the punk walked out of there on his own power, with minimal effects of the tazering. I've been hit repeatedly with the low end of tazer voltages, they sting, but they're not bad. The kid squealed like a stuck pig. That tells me that he's just acting. I also don't think that he was being arrested. I think the police were removing a disruptive person from the forum. I'm fairly certain if he'd just left at the first "strong" urges, he would have been deposited at the front door, free to leave.
As it's been pointed out above, he was at a college event. Free speech does not necessarily apply to a closed event, any more than I have the right to appropriate a police officer's shotgun because it was paid for with taxpayer dollars thus belonging to the people. The event had rules, he willfully broke them, and then resisted removal from the event. Should punk kid be allowed to yell at the world in general from the sidewalk? Sure. I know were I at this event, I would be positively offended at some blog-munky that needed to make a statement. I don't like Kerry, but since I took out the time to see the event, I don't want somebody bringing out the soap box just to be funny.
Oh, and btw. I do have an idea how hard it could be to handcuff a struggling person. During a pool party at work, it took basically 5 people to throw me into the pool, and that was because I finally let them after disgorging the wallet and cell phone. Essentially as long as I could keep freeing one limb, they couldn't pick me up or move me. I'm only 5'10 and around 190#, 5 girls that are between 5'5 and 5'8 and 115-130# should have been able to throw me right in if it were completely up to size and brute strength.
Catchya on the Flip Side.....
Emerald Wolf -- Really, I've been hit by 20,000 volts before. It's not that bad....Besides, when I've been hit, it's usually hits from my hand to my belt buckle. (thats what having no sparkplug boots on a '53 chevy will do to ya.
