So I come back from class and find a flood of OTR headlines about this UF tasering incident. I'm sure you know by now what I'm talking about, if not here you go. The real news has more sarcastic headlines than we do ("Kerry Stunned Over Taser Incident") and focuses mostly on what Kerry thought of the whole debacle (apparently he didn't know the kid was being tasered) than on the blatant rights violations.

This event combines two of college students' favorite things, censorship and police brutality, so what would the reaction be like on campus here at U of M? Suprisingly enough, the students I talked to did not share the law enforcement's perspective on the issue. Here's what they said:

"What? Again? This happens all the time. Remember that time that kid got tasered in the library a while back? Oh, but now it matters cause John Kerry was there."

"When he gets dragged off after asking a question, it's eerily reminscent of the Soviet Union."

"****. Cops."

"He was kind of being an ****, but you can hear Kerry telling the police to let him go and he'd answer his questions. The cops were just being ridiculously overzealous since it was Kerry."

"Why do protestors ever get arrested for simply voicing their opinion and expressing their rights to free speech? This has always been the question at any protest, but no one ever answers it. The cops just come and start beating people."

"I got tasered once, it ****ing hurt like a bitch. I guess I deserved it though cause I kicked the cops window in when he was trying to handcuff me. That kid didn't do shit."

There you have it. Are you allowed to be an **** and still be protected under the constitution? Yes. That's what freedom is all about, an American citizen's right to be an ****. A non-violent act should never be met with violence. Watch the video again. Watch the cop smile after they taser him. It's unnerving.

I'm not sure how I would've reacted had I been there. If you try and fight the cops to get them off of him, then you're facing a felony. I think the most you could legally do would be to scream at them like they did in the video. Sometimes you have to let the system be corrupt, then sue the hell out of the system afterwards. Financial loss is the only thing public services understands. They don't care if you punch them in the face, because that just allows them to legally beat the shit out of you with a nightstick.

Unreal.