University of Florida student Tasered = 1989 Tienanmen Square student

[liberal N proud]

Remember this guy?


He stood up against a fascist government.

How is the student like this guy? If he had not made a scene and just left when they police grabbed him, there would be no story. Yelling, making a scene and getting tasered has put his story in the news. And Yes Kerry did ask the police to leave him alone at the beginning but they had already settled on picking him up and physically removing him from the room.
It has exposed the 2004 election question anew.

BUT, bigger than that it has exposed the censorship that has taken place since the bu$h regime has taken control. From the Free Speech Zones to removing the Code Pink girls at hearings and FOX censorship of Sally Field.
I had held my judgment and opinion on this until I saw several segments in the news that questioned why they had to taser him.

It wasn't until I caught a rerun of Hardball when it dawned on me this guy could America's Tienanmen Square student. He made a scene to expose the censorship. The police were trampling on free speech.
Tweety had two guest on that showed one that he has evidently turned on the bu$h regime and two that this was a violation against free speech.
One was a member of Code Pink and the other was reporter from the New York Observer, Sorry I don't have their names (not enough time to find it and get this posted).
There was now right wing representation on the show which means Tweety isn't doing the fair and unbalanced thing.
Between the three of them, they exposed many instances over the last 6+ years where censorship has taken place. From the bu$h campaign follies and his staged photo ops to the Emmys. They even talked about the same thing is happening at Hillary rallies.

Tweety even called the censorship a taste of fascism WOW!

As right or wrong you think the guy in Florida was, he exposed the censorship and if we help it can stay in the news for a long time. If more scenes were created at points of censorship the MSM would not be able to ignore them.

[trumad]

1. LOL

funniest post of the year... I nominate it for a DUZY.

[hang a left]

2. Day 3. The Saga Continues.

Do you think it is apt to compare the martyr at Tianemen (sp?) Square with the attention monger that got his ass handed to him for being an idiot???

Do tell.

[liberal N proud]

3. It is about exposing the fascism and getting it in the news

These things don't get in the news without sensationalism. If that is what it takes to expose the censorship and violations against free speech then he was justified.

[hang a left]

8. First of all...

I have had a bone to pick with you for a couple of years now. You copied my screen name which used to liberalnproud. Which I changed when Skinner allowed everyone to at the end of the 2004 elections. I did so because you selected a moniker so close to mine.

Well now, I got that off of my chest...moving on.

I certainly don't want an idiot attention grabber asshole, like the one you are referencing, to be the poster boy of the first amendment.

Certainly we could find someone that has altruistic characteristics, and not someone who wants to make a scene.

If the MSM wants to hold him up as an example, well then it is only to humiliate the whole idea of protesting.

The spoiled little brat who needs an ass kicking DOES NOT SPEAK FOR ME!

[Cobalt Violet]

18. So your pro taser.

I mean if someone happens to be "spoiled little brat".

[hang a left]

24. Yep.

I guess you could say I am, in this case.

What else ya got??

[Cobalt Violet]

29. Anything I got is too good for you.

[hang a left]

31. Now you have went and hurt me deeply...

I don't know if I will EVER be the same.

[kdmorris]

4. Um, no...

That dude in Tienanmen Square got run over just a few seconds after this picture was taken. (Edited to add: Forget this part. I was mistaken that he was actually run over. The rest of my post stands. Andrew Meyer is still not like the the guy in Tienanmen Square)

It's a REAL stretch to say that Andrew Meyer is even close to that guy.

[trumad]

6. Actually the dude wasn't run over...

He was pulled aside by fellow protesters....

[kdmorris]

7. Really?

See, now I had always thought he was run over.

Shows what happens when you get your news from the "news". That was in my pre-computer days.

Thanks for the info!

[hang a left]

13. No, he didn't get run over but there are conflicting reports regarding his demise

snip

What happened to the 'tank man' following the demonstration is not known. In a speech to the President's Club in 1999, Bruce Herschensohn — former deputy special assistant to President Richard Nixon — reported that he was executed 14 days later. In Red China Blues: My Long March from Mao to Now, Jan Wong writes that the man is still alive and hiding in mainland China. In Forbidden City, Canadian children's author William Bell, claims the man was named Wang Ai-min and was killed on June 9 after being taken into custody. The last official statement from the PRC government about the tank man came from Jiang Zemin in a 1990 interview with Barbara Walters, when asked about the whereabouts of the tank man, Jiang responded that "the young man was never, never killed."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989

[muriel_volestrangler]

30. There was a whole documentary about him

You can watch it online, if you want:

In the face of official silence about 1989 and the Tank Man, the program concludes with Thomas' quest to find out what became of the Tank Man and who he was. In the end, his identity remains a mystery, but the symbolism of his act of defiance continues to have power. "That story ... is not getting weaker because of time. Because we don't know who he is, it's actually getting stronger," says Xiao Qiang of the China Internet Project at the University of California at Berkeley. "In the long frame of history ... human freedom, courage, dignity will stay and prevail, and that's what that picture will testify (to) forever."

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tankman/view/

[hang a left]

33. Cool! Thanks.

I will check it out.

[trumad]

14. Now to be honest...I have no idea what happened to him later

some say he was killed, others say he's happy and alive.

[sandnsea]

5. I have a new sig line

People really need to try to get in touch with reality around here. This is getting ridiculous. Nobody was censored.

[DemBones DemBones]

10. How can you say "Nobody was censored" when police kept

a guy from asking questions? Kerry was saying "It's alright, I'll answer the questions" but they had gone into Robo-Cop mode and even after he was out of the hall (and therefore no longer able to ask questions), they used a Taser on him.

[sandnsea]

12. He asked his questions

If he'd shut his smart-ass mouth they would have been answered. It's really that simple.

[DemBones DemBones]

16. I guess he should have shut his smart-ass mouth when

the cops were Tasering him, too. :eyes:

[sandnsea]

40. He should have let them cuff him

When the cops arrest you, you can't resist. You plead your case to the jury later. That's the way it works.

[Cobalt Violet]

19. Someone was TASERed.

Why?

[sandnsea]

37. That's what cops do in Florida

Taser people who resist arrest. That's a cop probem, an excessive force or cruel and unusual problem. Not a free speech problem. The 21 year old adult was disruptive.

[Virginia Dare]

43. Overreaction...n/t

[cali]

9. I don't know whether to laugh or

cry.

[durrrty libby]

11. Have people around here lost all common sense?

I'm tearing off my DU bumper sticker. This is embarrassing

[cali]

15. It really is, isn't it?

I don't know why I'm so shocked at the idiocy of holding Andrew Meyer up as a poster boy for the first amendment, or a courageous truth teller, but I am. Embarrassing is right.

[KillCapitalism]

21. Aren't you worried in the least bit?

Personally, this whole thing gets me worried about the escalation of a brutal police state. Whether the kid was being an asshat or not isn't really the issue, but there were FIVE cops there, was it really necessary to taser the kid? You'd think 5 cops would be able to physically escort a skinny college kid off the premises with no problems.

[cali]

34. No. This has me worried:

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. (AP) — Chained to a 55-gallon drum to protest the proposed development of a vacant lot, Jonathan Crowell wasn't threatening anyone. But he refused police orders to unshackle himself and leave, so they zapped him with a Taser, then charged him with trespassing.

"It wasn't just a short burst," said Crowell, 32, of Dummerston, recalling the July 24 incident. "Five seconds is a long time to be electrocuted. My whole body was contorting and flapping around. You can't think of anything else but that pain. It's really scary. I felt like I was being tortured."

Increasingly, police facing stubborn lawbreakers, belligerent drunks or violent suspects are reaching for stun guns to shock them into submission. In one recent incident, a hospital security guard in Houston used a Taser on a defiant father trying to take his newborn home, sending father and daughter to the floor.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jNtoNb-8KkgY3hUz58buVCxMFdoQ

Andrew "Huckster" Meyer. Not so much.

He deliberately set up the scenario. They shouldn't have tased him, but he swung at a cop. They handled it poorly, but it's not indicative of a police state. The cases I posted are, at the very least, indicative of a gross abuse of power.

[Bassic]

35. It's inevitable now.

And the general population apparently doesen't give a rat's ass.

[Virginia Dare]

41. Valid question, and the one that we should be debating..

without all this other extraneous bullshit of trying to smear Kerry or make out like this guy is some hero. I think the police overreacted in this case.

[Virginia Dare]

39. Yes. I truly believe they have...n/t

[NoPasaran]

17. Bull-fucking-shit

About the only thing that the Florida clown had in common with the guy standing in front of the tank is they're both carbon-based lifeforms.

[onenote]

20. not as offensive as the thread comparing him to the kent state victims, but close

The guy is more of a moran than a martyr.

[moggie]

26. I'm glad I'm not alone in finding the comparison offensive

We don't know for sure what happened to "tank guy", but we can be sure that, when he committed that symbolic act, he knew that he was facing likely death: either immediately, or in a hellhole of a prison later. It was an act of incredible bravery, and it still chokes me up to think of it. He didn't even know that his act would be captured on film and inspire others! To compare "taser guy" to this is a massive failure of the sense of proportion, and an insult to the memory of a very brave man.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

22. I'm Waiting For A DUer To Compare Him To Rosa Parks, Dr. King, Or Malcom X

:sarcasm:

[mainegreen]

23. Naw, it's more like what Jesus went through.

:hide:

[durrrty libby]

27. Ooh I like that. Andrew Myers is Jesus. I 'll buy that T-shirt

[piesRsquare]

25. Personally, I could stomach such comparisons better

than the comparison to the students in Tienanmen Square! ESPECIALLY the student who held up the tank convoy!

This is disgusting!

[DemocratSinceBirth]

28. Dr. King And Malcom Died For Their Beliefs

Pretty tough to top that commitment and sacrifice...

[ProSense]

44. Where have you been

The man is an American Hero like Cindy Sheehan and Martin Luther King.

Squirrels!

[JerseygirlCT]

32. Comparison to Tienamen Square?

Please.

Award for the worst acting of the year? Maybe.

[brentspeak]

36. Something tells me the Tienanmen Square student DIDN'T do it as a practical joke

Like Andrew Meyer did.

[Virginia Dare]

38. Holy Fuckerooni Batman!...

[Kelly Rupert]

42. ROFL MAO

This is the most ridiculous thing I have seen on DU.