Taser talk

Video of police at the University of Florida subduing a student, Andrew Meyer, and then zapping him with a Taser during a question-and-answer session with Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) is remarkable and disturbing.

The first thing to say is that the police grossly abused their power.

Meyer cut in line to the microphone and in a hectoring manner asked Kerry why he hadn’t disputed the 2004 election result given what he claimed was evidence of ballot fraud, why he didn’t support impeaching President Bush, and whether, like the commander in chief, he was a member of the Order of Skull and Bones at Yale.

At this, the police moved in. The incident was captured on video from several angles and swiftly posted on the Web. Meyer’s only offense seems to be that he is an irritating bore, which, though irritating and boring, does not justify his treatment as a dangerous criminal. The fact that he was physically unharmed and will wear the incident as a badge of honor doesn’t change the fact that the cops went too far.

But the event was fascinating for several other reasons. First, it was recorded indelibly and aired widely — no need for investigators to rely on the hazy, conflicting recollections of people in the room.

Second, people sat and watched and did nothing despite Meyer’s cries for help. There were murmurs about police brutality on at least one tape posted to the Internet, and some indistinct shouting. But it takes a lot to confront officers who are out of line, and no one in the auditorium was prepared to do it.

Nor, precisely, was Kerry. He called for calm and said he would answer the student’s question, which he said was important. But he did not tell the police they should back off.

He was in an awkward position. A senior politician who interferes in operational police matters risks being denounced for grandstanding and for trading on his status. But by not stepping in, he can appear ineffectual and look more like a follower than a leader.

In condemning the arrest and Tasering, Kerry later said: “I believe I could have handled the situation without interruption, but I do not know what warnings or other exchanges transpired between the young man and the police prior to his barging to the front of the line and their intervention. I asked the police to allow me to answer the question and was in the process of responding when he was taken into custody.”

Unforeseen events such as this that spin out of control test what politicians are made of. They reveal more about those politicians than any number of scripted speeches and carefully nuanced policy pronouncements. It is hard not to sympathize with Kerry, but also hard not to conclude that, for all his propriety, he knows he doesn’t look good.