Taser = Torture : Florida Student gets tasered (video)

Yep, some US police is at it again. This time it's the Police in Florida, tasering a student at the University of Florida:

The tactics of police in Florida who tasered a cheeky student as he tried to question former presidential candidate Senator John Kerry have been called into question after a video of the incident was posted on the internet. [..]

Event organisers were unhappy with his line of questioning and switched off the microphone as police officers moved in to escort him out of the hall.

Is this how it works at the University of Florida, "unhappy" questioning is responded to by taser?

Mr Meyer refused to leave quietly, and as police officers grabbed him, he repeatedly tried to wriggle free while shouting: “What did I do?”

So the student needs to be tasered?

After a scuffle, the police fired several thousand volts into Mr Meyer [..]

Did Kerry think taser-torture was the appropriate response for a student's "unhappy [..] line of questioning"?

Mr Kerry has criticised the arrest of Mr Meyer, suggesting that he could have dealt with the heckler himself.

"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,” he said.

What's even worse is that it appears that the student was taser-tortured after he was hand-cuffed:

Mr Meyer’s lawyer, Robert Griscti, said it appeared his client had been shocked after handcuffs had been put on him.

Tasering students, even resisting ones, is unacceptable. The University of Florida should be ashamed of how it treats their students, many paying tens of thousands of dollars to attend, not to be tasered!

Students at the university organised a protest yesterday and marched on the police station shouting “Don’t Tase me, bro” and demanding that stun guns were banned from campus.

Indeed, taser-torture should never be allowed to be used on students. Never.

Benjamin Dictor, an arts student, called for the officers to be disciplined and the charges against Mr Meyer to be dropped.

“For a question to be met with arrest, not to mention physical violence, is completely unacceptable in the United States, especially in the halls of education,” Mr Dictor said.

I'm afraid the reality is quite different. See for yourself:

-Times Online: full article
-Wikipedia: taser
-University of Florida
- Erik's articles on: Taser