Senator John Kerry released a statement this afternoon about the unfortunate incident at the University of Florida, in which student Andrew Meyer was was pulled from a microphone by police and led away before being tackled and tasered in front of an auditorium full of students. Meyer was in the process of asking Kerry a series of questions.
Said Kerry: “In 37 years of public appearances, through wars, protests and highly emotional events, I have never had a dialogue end this way. 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. I hope that neither the student nor any of the police were injured. I regret enormously that a good healthy discussion was interrupted.”
Background
University of Florida Student Tasered at John Kerry Event [tr]