Don't Taser Me, Dude!

Lots of hubbub about Andrew Meyer, the University of Florida student who was tased while trying to escape police who corralled him while he was hectoring John Kerry at an appearance last week.

I doubt I have anything particularly informative to add to the conversation, but it seems to me that, while you absolutely have the right to public speech, you do not have the right to public douchebaggery, and that this guy absolutely crossed the line. Similar to the Code Pink ladies who kept interrupting Petraeus' testimony last week on the hill, I definitely do not believe that the right to free speech allows you the absolute, inalienable right to say whatever you want, whenever you want, however you want.

The standard example, of course, is the fact that you don't have the right to disturb the peace by, for instance, yelling 'Fire!' in a crowded theater. I would argue that this means you don't have the right to interrupt the serious business of the state with your speech. If Code Pink members want to hang out in the back and hold up signs or banners, more power to them. But chanting and shouting prevent the state's business from being executed, and there has to be some ability to make sure that this doesn't happen.

Likewise, while Meyer absolutely had the right to ask Kerry a hostile question, he doesn't have the right to shout wildly at him, and he definitely lacks the right to resist arrest by trying to escape from the police officers. Should they have tased him? Probably not on the grounds of his conduct. But on the moral grounds that he was acting like an assclown, with no real goal but to make trouble and get attention, yeah, I could probably be convinced of that.