What if? (Special weird kid in Florida edition)
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No doubt, if you have a computer (you obviously do) and a desire to goof off for at least part of the day (guilty!), you have seen the video of this kid who got himself tasered. Personally, I think the kid was looking to make a splash for his Web site, but let's take that out of the mix for just a second.
This comment from Sen. Kerry, to me anyway, seems like an odd thing for a U.S. senator to say. This is a note from the Associated Press.
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"Whatever happened, the police had a reason, had made their decision that there was something they needed to do. Then it's a law enforcement issue, not mine."
Way to step up to the plate, senator. That's the Constitution we're hypothetically thinking about here.
And for the sake of the hypothetical discussion on the question of the right to free speech, let's assume that the reason the campus cop first put her arm on the kid -- ostensibly because he exceeded his allotted time in asking the question (which means they gave people 30 seconds to ask questions as near as I can tell) -- was because she didn't like what the kid was saying politically to a, ummm, politician.
At the time, of course, Kerry didn't know. He said as much. But what if the "disturbing the peace" allegation was directly linked to the politics about which he was speaking?
How would this quote sound then?
Whatever happened, the police had a reason, had made their decision that there was something they needed to do. Then it's a law enforcement issue, not mine.
It's not exactly Boris Yeltsin standing atop a tank... or a man in Tiananmen Square standing in front of one.
On his Web site, Kerry posted a statement today, saying...
"I regret enormously that a good healthy discussion was interrupted."
I suppose the story there is a politician thinking giving someone 30 seconds to ask you something constitutes "a discussion."
NBC Nightly News, by the way, had an interesting question: "is this part of something bigger?"
According to the "Future of the First Amendment Survey," nearly three-fourths of high school students don't know how they feel about the First Amendment, or they take it for granted (see pdf of survey questions).
Even worse: 24% of the students surveyed say they disagree -- or don't know how they feel -- with this statement:
People should be allowed to express unpopular opinions.
How could that be? Over to you, senator.
