I sat around with about five other officers, senior officers at that, today and viewed this tape of the tasering of a protestor at a John Kerry event at UF.

Our verdict? Tasering was appropriate. It has reported been reported two of the officers have been placed on paid leave, which standard whenever ECD’s are used.

For the untrained in the use of such device let’s review.

Electronic Control Devices or (ECDs) are used as tool of compliance. This subject refused to comply with the lawful order of a law enforcement officer. If he didn’t agree or thought his “constitutional rights” were being violated he simply only had to comply with the order to leave and then he could have filed complaints with the school or even hired a lawyer and sued later on. Courts by the way have generally ruled in favor the officers, as in Graham vs. Conner:

“The severity ofthe crime; whether the suspect poses an immediate threat to the safety of the officers or others; whether the suspect is actively resisting arrest or attempting to evade arrest by flight. In addition, the court acknowledges that the right to make an arrest carries with it the right to use some degree of physical coercion or threat thereof.”

In essence there is no excuse for non-compliance of a lawful order. He was told to leave he refused. He was told to roll over on his belly (assume a position for arrest) and refused.

Let’s also not forget that there was a US Senator present and thus highten security responses required. There is no doubt however framed the subject voiced hostility towards Senator Kerry and if I had been on the scene the possibility of the subject wiggling loose and grabbing one of the officer’s weapons I’m sure was on their mind.

He’s lucky. In the old days he could have be night sticked into compliance or by use of choke hold or pressure points used to make a subject comply. Tasering - of which I had in training - is relatively painless compared to other methods - trust me.

Michelle Malkin has more on the individual tasered and it appears - that for whatever reason - he “set this up” for attention or some other motivation other than just exercising “free speech”.

John at Stop the ACLU notes that there is more to the story that was originally reported. There always is.

UPDATE: As suspected and noted in the comments, looks to have been a demented prank.

” Andrew Meyer wrote in the report that Meyer later told police, “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

In the 12-page report, which gives accounts of the incident from the perspective of eight different officers who were present Monday afternoon, Officer Nicole Mallo writes that Meyer would only resist officers when cameras were present.

“As (Meyer) was escorted down stairs (at the University Auditorium) with no cameras in sight, he remained quiet, but once the cameras made their way down stairs he started screaming and yelling again,” Mallo wrote.

Mallo was one of two officers who actually rode in the vehicle as Meyer was escorted to the Alachua County jail, and she said said he told them during the ride: “I am not mad at you guys, you didn’t do anything wrong, you were just trying to do your job,” according to Mallo’s account.

Mallo also wrote in her report that he asked, at one point, if cameras would be present at the jail.”

Smile smuck, you got your 15 minute and good zap to go with it.