No one in public life goes through a political career without encountering a heckler. It's part of the rough and tumble of politics, of robust debate. All politicians learn to deal with hecklers, and most learn to do it with wit and class.
Take, for example, Harold Wilson (1916–1995), the great labor leader who was twice prime minister of Great Britain. When a heckler interrupted one of Wilson’s speeches by bellowing “rubbish,” Wilson looked his detractor in the eye, said “We'll take up your special interest in a moment, sir,” and finished his remarks without missing a stride. Wilson never needed the constable’s help in dealing with those who exercised free speech.
Senator John Kerry didn’t need the constable's help in dealing with 21-year-old Andrew Meyer, the student who heckled him at the University of Florida on Monday evening, the 17th of September, but the constable — in this case, constables — “helped” him anyway by pinning the heckler to the ground and Tasing him with 50,000 volts of electricity.
His offense? Asking too many questions and ranting a bit. But while he challenged Kerry, he never threatened him or anyone else. Like Wilson, Kerry can handle himself in public. Had the campus police not been hellbent on giving the heckler the bum’s rush, the situation would have sorted itself out peacefully.
I've watched videos of the Tasering several times. The last time I viewed as ugly an episode of police overreaction — police brutality — was when Mayor Daley’s police rioted during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968. What makes the Florida so chilling is that the Taser was not administered to subdue the student — it was administered after the student had been subdued. At that point, the Tasering was a punishment executed by police officers who had appointed themselves prosecutor, judge, jury, jailer, and, figuratively speaking, hangman.
Equally disturbing, this happened at a major university, a university with the resources to train its police force to behave with restraint and intelligence. Instead, they behaved like stereotypical southern police goons — and now they’re trying to throw the book at Meyer:
Meyer was arrested on charges of resisting an officer and disturbing the peace, according to Alachua County jail records, but the State Attorney’s Office had yet to make the formal charging decision. Police recommended charges of resisting arrest with violence, a felony, and disturbing the peace and interfering with school administrative functions, a misdemeanor. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20070918/student-arrested-kerry/
Two of the officers involved have been placed on administrative leave, with full pay. The president of the university, J. Bernard “Bernie” Machen (president@ufl.edu), held a press conference at which he promised a full investigation of the incident, which he called “regretful,” an ambiguous characterization at best. Perhaps the investigators will get to the truth, and perhaps the truth will be made public, but announcing an investigation often is simply a public relations maneuver to move the issue behind closed doors. It allows those involved to duck questions with the phrase, “I’m sorry, it would be inappropriate to comment while the investigation is being conducted.”
While we await the results of Florida’s investigation, we should remain mindful that the Tasing of Andrew Meyer, while extreme in its manifestation, was just one of many incidents in what is a pattern of suppressing free speech in post 9/11 America.
Last night, on Hardball, Chris Matthews put the Florida incident in context. It was, he reported, yet another example of how dissenters are being ejected from public meetings. Only loyal Republicans are allowed at President Bush’s speeches. Protesters are not only hustled out the gate, often they’re arrested. One of Matthews’ guests, CodePink’s founder, Medea Benjamin, revealed that even Hillary Clinton, the darling of the social progressive wing of the Democratic Party, employs what Benjamin called goon squads to remove dissenters (Benjamin’s example: a woman wearing an anti-war tee-shirt) from her campaign events.
This is how a free nation can march into a jackbooted future.