Andrew Meyer Supports Ron Paul: Your Thoughts on Tasered Student?
Filed under: News, Politics | By: Ryan
Posted on: September 20, 2007 | 60 Comments
You may have read recently of the unfortunate student, Andrew Mayer, who was tasered at a recent John Kerry event. Reports are claiming that the Florida student was a Ron Paul supporter, which is quite intriguing in that both have been stopped from broadcasting their opinions through the media in some way.
I feel as though people should be allowed to voice their opinions and support whomsoever they wish as long as it’s non-offensive.
As the student was being arrested, he yelled, “There are people that know I’m here. You can’t do things like that.”
“Oh my God. You’re giving me to the government. They’re giving me to the government. They’re giving me to the government.”
He then asked, “Can I get my camera back please?” That’s right. Andrew Meyer had a cameraman to film and upload his huge moment onto YouTube.
While reading through the myriad of comments about the incident many people across the web agree in saying that his speech was being hidden or “shut down” - “just like Ron Paul.”
Andrew Meyer and Ron Paul gain popularity successfully on the Internet from those that believe that America is deteriorating, especially with the healthcare crisis, economic crisis regarding mortgages and loans and also due to the falling dollar. Many believe that the elections are all a big hoax and that they’re fixed, with the media allegedly against them.
What do you think of Dr Paul and the tasered student? Are Ron Paul and Andrew Meyer similar in these respects?
Let’s hope the 71-year old congressman doesn’t get tasered any time soon.
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Jeanette Doney
He is pro-choice via the 10th amendment.
You cant break law to make law.
Also, he is god-loving but NON-AUTHORITARIAN.
I hope you can live with yourself after your lack of support for Ron Paul will lead to an authoritarian police state.
A Ron Paul presidency will be so much closer to libertarianism than ANYTHING ELSE in the past 100 years, you would be nuts to try and say he a PRO-LIFE and GOD-FORCING candidate - its simply not true!
Ron Paul voted NO on legislation to ban interstate travel to get an abortion. Its a 10th amendment issue. There is no enumerated right for various things, and these things are decided by the states.
If you dont like the constitution, maybe the libertarian party could propose a new one or some new amendments - but you have to have power in congress to do that!
David,
Thank you for your considered response.
As I wrote, I agree that freedom of speech was in play here. Investigation and trial (if one is held) will determine whether Mr. Meyer’s first amendment rights were violated. It would not surprise me at all if they were.
I am not an attorney, so I did have to research whether it is legal in America to resist an illegal arrest. I found several partial references to various decisions and statutes, but Craig Hemmens wrote what I found to be the most comprehensive review of the history from Common Law to modern day for the California Criminal Law Review (http://www.boalt.org/CCLR/v2/v2hemmensnf.htm) From the Magna Carta, to “The Queen v. Tooley”, to “John Bad Elk v. United States”, to The Uniform Arrest Act of 1941, to the ALI’s Modern Penal Code, all but 12 states had removed the right to resist an unlawful arrest by statue or case law at the time of his writing (which was some time after the year 2000). Florida was not listed as one of the 12 states that still retain the Common Law right to resist. Perhaps they do. I can only surmise at this point that Mr. Meyer did not have the right to resist the arrest in Florida.
As to what Mr. Meyer did that was illegal, the answer may very well be “nothing at all”. I will still maintain that the proper answer to that question is not found in a scuffle at the scene. Was Mr. Meyer was in danger of being tortured and/or killed after being arrested in front of a U.S. Senator and 350 witnesses, and while being filmed by several people? The answer seems obvious to me.
After reviewing the arrest reports, Mr. Meyer was charged with disturbing the peace (interfering with a school function) and resisting with violence.
As I wrote, Mr. Meyer asked good questions. He didn’t wait for answers (which may have been a result of his agitation, and may not have been). Yes, he was rude, loud, asked more questions than were allowed in the forum, and interrupted the senator. I do not see how any of these aspects could be construed as illegal. I do see how actively resisting arrest might be. To be clear, I present these as indictments of his effectiveness in getting his questions answered, and remaining welcome at the event, not on his exercise of free speech.
Your question: “How many of the students at that speech would now think twice before they confronted a public official on an issue?” Other students did indeed ask questions. Some at their turn at the microphone before Mr. Meyer’s arrest, some directly to Senator Kerry after the arrest. Will the students think twice about actively resisting arrest? Perhaps.
I have a return question: When the Accent event coordinator, Max Tyroler, asked the officers to remove Mr. Meyer for disrupting the event (whether he was justified in doing so at that point or not), and Mr. Meyer refuses to be detained, what would you have the officers do?
It just proves that people who vote for republicans (Paul is a republican) are insane.
Observer, you said: “However, once informed that he was under arrest, he should have sought redress in court”. There is the problem. Look at the videotape. Never one do the police tell him he is under arrest. They grab him and yes, he squirms away; that’s perfectly within rights for someone not told he’s under arrest. He asks them if he’s under arrest, and they say NOTHING. There are no miranda rights read, nothing. Here’s the biggest problem of all for the police; one of the policemen claim that Meyer picked HIM up off the ground. The video clearly shows it’s the policeman that picks MEYER up. Another officer claims she read him the miranda rights. That’s another clear lie. The tape shows she did not.
robthomaseyes
Paul is a libertarian running for the GOP war chest. The only thing insane is asinine identity politics that you play. If a republican is the best man for the job, so be it. Anyone who votes straight party lines is really just a stupid idiot.
#1 Rudy vs Ron Paul. ( Ron wins by ~43,000,000 )
http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=Ron+Paul&word2=Rudy+Giuliani
#2 Hillary vs Ron Paul. ( Ron wins by ~32,000,000 )
http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=Ron+Paul&word2=Hillary+Clinton
#3 Fred Thompson vs Ron Paul. ( Ron wins by ~32,000,000 )
http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=Ron+Paul&word2=Fred+Thompson
#4 Mitt Romney vs Ron Paul. ( Ron wins by ~41,000,000 )
http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=Ron+Paul&word2=Mitt+Romney
#5 Barack Obama vs Ron Paul. ( Ron wins by ~40,000,000 )
http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=Ron+Paul&word2=Barack+Obama
#6 Mike Huckabee vs Ron Paul. ( Ron wins by ~40,000,000 )
http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=Ron+Paul&word2=Mike+Huckabee
#7 John McCain vs Ron Paul. ( Ron wins by ~41,000,000 )
http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=Ron+Paul&word2=John+McCain
A recent Gallup poll finds Paul at the head of the so-called second-tier candidates (i.e., the candidates the establishment hasn’t anointed). Yet a point was recently made that at this stage in the election cycle, national polls reflect only name recognition, not respondents’ assessments of the candidates. Consider the past:
- In early 1975, Jimmy Carter was polling at 1% (he went on to win the presidency).
- In early 1987, Michael Dukakis was polling at 1% (he went on to win the Democratic nomination).
- In early 1991, Bill Clinton was at 2% (he went on to win the presidency).
- In the spring of 1999, John McCain was polling at 3% (he went on to win the New Hampshire primary).
- In early 2003, Joe Lieberman was leading the field for the Democratic presidential nomination (he failed to win any primary).
As of August 2007
- Ron Paul has more financial support from the Military than *ANY* other candidate. (Our troops hate Iraq and want to come home, Ron is the only one that can do that)
- According to the polls, Ron Paul has won almost every Republican Debate (Including the Fox debate)
- Ron Paul is by far the most popular candidate on the Internet.
DON’T BE AN MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX AND RUPERT MURDOCH ROBOT, GET OUT THERE ARE GET BEHIND THE ONLY POPULIST LIBERTARIAN CONSTITUTIONALIST CANDIDATE, RON PAUL. His campaign money ONLY comes from THE PEOPLE, not Hillary’s wihch comes from huge insuranace and medical oligarchs and lobbyists, and the Authoritarian Statist non-Constitutionalist Rudy, Mitt, Fred, etc, this comes from the military industrial complex.
The Media and the GOP are SUPRESSING THE TRUTH which is easy to see on: Youtube, Facebook, Google, Google news, Meetup, Reddit, MySpace, Digg you name it, Web 2.0 says Ron Paul is #1.
Stop being a pawn, and lash out against the oppressive media-militaryindustrial-government regime!
They use polling to disenfranchise voters, American want a football game and they want to pick a winner. Carter and Clinton prove the people can make this media coup ineffective!
The reason that Ron Paul is running under GOP is 3rd parties in the country get screwed at the ballot box, I voted libertarian in California and had to vote in Spanish because the poll officials had no libertarian ballots in ENGLISH!
Let me break down the first amendment:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
Since Kerry IS a Senator, he has a FUCKING RIGHT to petition the government. The fact that Kerry is a Senator makes the police even more wrong, since the violated more clauses of the first amendment.
One part of the video that is especially troubling are the other people. This scene is better than “COPS” and the others in the auditorium became the viewers. Without spilling blood or brandishing a weapon, Mayer was able to get himself assaulted. But no one rises up against the police. We the people are strong when we band together, and the fascists can pick us apart too easy.
He shouldn’t have said anything about Clinton receiving a “blowjob” in the oval office. You can hear this in an extended version of his question.
Regardless if he said “blowjob” or not, he still did absolutely nothing illegal. And that is why I’m a Ron Paul supporter. People are being arrested these days for absolutely no reason, and many of the rights (speech, etc) that the Constitution says cannot be infringed or abridged, are being infringed and abridged. I really don’t think it’s crazy to want to protect the Constitution, and even live under the freedoms it guarantees.
I’ve seen posts from people around the world asking: “Hey, if you’re not using your Constitution, can we borrow it for a while.”
Americans were saddened over what happened to the Monks in Burma, who were arrested because they protested the military rule there. Yet, this boy gets arrested because of a statement? In America? He has the right to stand publicly and say what he thinks. He shouldn’t have resisted. But it’ll take months (years?) to go through the process now, not to mention have a rap sheet, even if he’s found innocent. If the U.S. implements what the U.K. is trying to do, the poor boy would also have an RFID chip in him. http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article3333852.ece
And tampering with the votes has been proven in three elections already. And when we ask for a paper trail to prove our vote, we’re told quite simply “No.” When we ask the machines to be verified by an independent university, we’re told “No.” In the NH election, no candidate came in at where the polls said they would, except for Ron Paul at 8%. Current Polls, from Rasmussen to CBS, list different numbers for all the candidates in the next election, except for Ron Paul. Every poll says he’s coming in at 5%. That doesn’t add up to me; how every poll says “we’re not sure about everyone else, but we KNOW RP will be at 5%.”
The media…
Well, when 59,000 people vote for Hillary in an online poll, she’s a “favorite.” When 30,000 people vote for Ron Paul, we’re “a few rabid, Ron Paul-supporting spammers,” or “zealous” or “overly-enthusiastic.”
We’re not all crazy “tinfoil hate wearing kooks.” Although with his message, he is going to appeal to that crowd, as well. Most of us though, are everyday, working-class people. We’re both Democrat and Republican. We’re made up of all races and religions. From the rich CEO of PayPal to the poor black community, we’re everyone.
And most of us are just thinking that many things aren’t adding up anymore.