Comments on Tasered University of Florida Student

I would hope no one would think I was advocating indifference to civil liberties violations by offering up a parody to the University of Florida incident in which the student was tasered. It is a bit chilling to think that the police could come in and taser a non-violent individual for trying to ask a question. However, I think this incident was a put-up job, as if the victim had read Carlos Marighella's "Mini-Manual" but who, instead of inspiring serious revolutionary activity, decided to create a farcical incident tailor-made for the YouTube age (recall that the Mini-Manual was de rigeur for 1970's Marxist revolutionaries).

When the storm troopers come, I hope I would have the courage to join with those with whom I who disagree on other matters and stand up to the thugs. But on a college campus, there is always a danger of youthful group-based overexubrance, and when things get heated, ugly incidents sometimes need to be put down before general mayhem ensues. In this case, I think if Mr. Kerry had the cojones he could have said, "Thirty seconds, man. I'll answer your question, but others have questions, too." Or maybe somebody with a bullhorn could have said the same thing. No one would have had to be tasered or arrested, if this guy was for real.

But this guy probably would have kept at it until he was physically confronted, yelling, "OW, OW!!" at every opportunity in order to show he was being repressed. This stunt would show how repressive the "powers that be" actually are.

It was Karl Marx who said, "History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce." In the 1970's we had the Baader-Meinhof Gang / Red Army Faction. Now we have this guy. He was ripe for parody.