| 
I'm curious about why there were police officers standing 3 feet behind the guy from the beginning of the video -- before he even starts his streak of comments. The easiest (and natural) thing to do is to jump to conclusions based on what is shown in the video, but it's also irrational if we really do want to examine the situation objectively because the video doesn't explain the whole context. The pervasiveness of media has not been matched by enough education about how to accurately interpret it, and nowhere is this more apparent than with emotional news stories. For example, I could post 100 links to stories (and at least one dramatic video) involving taser-related deaths in the United States in the past 5 years. A very common reaction would be to view the taser as the problem, which is understandable but inaccurate because it fails to acknowledge all of the other contributing factors of equal or greater significance, like inappropriate use of the taser, the presence of certain drugs and/or an underlying medical condition in the deceased, and the precise circumstances leading up to the use of force--as well as the alternatives available to the officer(s) at the time. Sorry to go a bit off topic; I'm just trying to show how the feelings a story causes need to come into relative balance with its actual significance and context before we can feel confident about our conclusions. What I'm getting from this video is one person--inexplicably flanked by police--wanted to voice his opinions during a question-and-answer session. His low-grade rant, which was inappropriate, was met with an inappropriate response by the police, who were too quick to use force and probably should have let him continue for at least another 20-30 seconds before asking him to stop talking in order to give Kerry a chance to respond, and then using force if he did not. The taser was unnecessary because there were more than enough officers present to physically restrain him, and it only served to agitate this guy further who at that point was yelling for the audience to help him.
|