Everyone’s talking about it, on both the right and the left, so I feel I have to weigh in on my thoughts, too.

First of all, let’s look at the video:

Now, they cut in right as he’s starting his question, and the campus police are already there…so clearly, something else was going on that we’re not quite aware of. Knowing what happened in the minutes before the video begins would go a long way towards either justifying or condemning what these guys did to the lad.

Second, the question he asked (something along the lines of “Why didn’t you contest the 2004 election” and “Why haven’t you started impeaching Bush?”) was your typical lefty, moonbat question, but it was certainly harmless and should not provoke that kind of reaction from the authorities…I mean, it’s not like he threatened to kill anybody.

And he certainly was within his rights to ask those questions. It doesn’t matter what his questions were, you can’t censor him or have him carted away for asking them. If the questions were too tough for Kerry to answer, or his people thought it was too embarrassing, they could have handled it another way or screened the people at the speech to prevent this from happening in the first place. He should certainly be used to getting these kinds of questions by now, though, and if he isn’t, then he ought to be asking his people for a little training session on it.

Third, did the campus police use excessive force? Without question they did. They outnumbered him and surely could have handled it without resorting to the taser. If they couldn’t, then they either need more training or they need to find another job. Now, that doesn’t mean they and they alone are guilty, here. This student brought this on himself, to a large degree. When you attempt to resist arrest, you can expect just about any amount of force to be brought to bear to force you to comply. If you think you’re being arrested unjustly, fight it in court, not in public with the police.

There’s a reason why cops have guns and tasers, and that’s because people who resist arrest can do just about anything, without giving the least bit of warning. Police are fully justified in popping a cap in your ass if they think, even for a split-second, that you pose a legitimate threat to them. The taser is a different story, designed to subdue a person who poses a threat to the officers (and this guy flailing around as he was certainly did), but not a lethal threat.

And finally, one further observation. Here was John “I served in Vietnam” Kerry, the 2004 Democratic Presidential nominee, just standing there and talking on and on and on and on…he could have stopped this at any time. He didn’t. Instead, all he wanted to do was talk. Just like he wanted to do with al Qaeda and other extremist regimes. Not action, just talk and hope the problem goes away. Quite the leader, no? Now you know why he lost, now you know why his swift boat stories were total b.s., now you know what a miserable fack-up this guy really is, and now you know what kind of President he would have made. We’re lucky as hell he didn’t win.

Others commenting:

Stop The ACLU
Hot Air
Riehl World View
Don Surber
Right Wing Nation
The Jawa Report
Outside the Beltway
Ace of Spades
Ed Driscoll

Update: Jay emailed this update:

ABC News’ Rick Klein Reports: Sen. John Kerry on Tuesday comdemned the arrest of a University of Florida student at one of his speeches, saying that he was engaged in a “good healthy discussion” with 21-year-old Andrew Meyer when he was Tasered and taken into custody.

“In 37 years of public appearances, through wars, protests and highly emotional events, I have never had a dialogue end this way,” Kerry said in a statement. “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,” he continued. “I hope that neither the student nor any of the police were injured. I regret enormously that a good healthy discussion was interrupted.”

What a freaking LIAR this man is. Watch that video again. How could he NOT hear that and/or see it going on???

And WE’RE the ones who supposedly have the problem with rights being surpressed and telling the truth in this country? Spare me.

Update #2: AllahPundit locates the video of the events before the original video. He’s clearly agitated, and he’s shooing the police away (although, why they’re trying to stop him from asking his question in the first place isn’t clear).

The video also clearly shows that not only did Kerry witness the entire thing, but was cracking jokes while this was going on. The taser episode might — MIGHT — have been far enough to the back of the room where he didn’t actually see it, but he sure as hell could have heard it. Pathetic. Again, this man wanted to be President. Can you imagine the mess we’d be in right now if he had won? While Iran nuked the crap out of Israel, we’d probably get some kind of stand-up routine from this guy.

Update #3: Here’s a better view, taken from right next to the guy ranting and raving. Notice where they drag him to. Right at the top of the aisle…and clearly, it’s still within full view of the stage.

Popularity: 28% [?]