Wednesday, September 19, 2007

More on Tasering

"University spokesman Steve Orlando defended the officers' actions in an interview with the Associated Press, but said an internal investigation would be conducted to make sure they acted appropriately.

"He apparently asked several questions -- he went on for quite awhile -- then he was asked to stop," Orlando said of Meyer. "He had used his allotted time. His microphone was cut off, then he became upset."

That's where we are, folks: you get tasered if you go over your allotted time. I think I'll start tasering students who turn their papers in late or show up late to class while I'm talking. Have we lost our mind????

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yup I think the biggest problem is not the police reaction, but the crowd non-reaction, that allows for such situations to exist and to be repeated over and over.

Scott Walters said...

What is happening is that we've come to allow our personal feelings to take the place of firmly held principles. Clearly, the people in the audience were annoyed by this guy -- I probably would have been too. But to put my personal annoyance ahead of a belief in a person's right to protest, to question, without being attacked by the police -- well, that's scary. That's how we end up with the media focused on the haircuts and the personal charm of our candidates instead of their values.; That's how Al Gore gets hammered in the press during the 2000 election while Bush is presented like a charming rogue. This is how people allow fascists to take over as long as they attack people who aren't part of your group, or better yet are part of people you don't like. Democracy lives and dies on firmly held principles of what is and is not acceptable, and we are fast losing them.

Alison Croggon said...

Too right.

We have a current affairs comedy program here called The Chasers War on Everything. Last night they had a section where an interviewer did a vox populi in American streets, asking people if Muslims ought to have special ID, if they ought to be locked up for the duration of the "War on Terror" and if they ought to have their ID number tattooed on their arm.

Shockingly, a wide range of people agreed with ALL these ideas, without hesitation. Some wanted them taken further. (They didn't realise that the interviewer was taking a rise). I suddenly understood how Nazi Germany had really happened.

Think Again: Funding and Budgets in the Arts

Every once in a while, I think I'll post a link or two to posts written earlier in the life of Theatre Ideas that seem worth revisiting ...