On Monday, September 17, 2007 a University of Florida student named Andrew Meyer, age 21, barged to the front of a line of students waiting to ask questions to U.S. Senator John Kerry. He then proceeded to barrage Kerry with a flurry of questions before his microphone was cut off. At this point events turned sour, despite Kerry’s calm attempts to prevent escalation.
The campus police started to escort him out of the room to the shouts of “What have I done?” and “Why am I being arrested?” These questions were well within his rights to know. However, resisting arrest was not. Multiple times he tried to break free and run from the arms of the police. Surprisingly, the authorities could not keep a hold on him despite their superior numbers. It finally took more than four police officers to subdue the unruly and shouting Meyer.
Even on the ground, Meyer was able to give the police trouble. Multiple videos showed the police telling him to calm down while he screamed for help. When that did not work, they threatened to taser him. He tried to break free. The cops tasered him when he did not show signs of cooperating, inducing a scream of pain from Meyers and thus swaying the opinions of onlookers.
Up until this point the general consensus was for the cops removing an unruly student that cut in line at a school forum. However, the second the police used a justified means of subduing an agitator that had forcibly attempted to flee, opinions changed. The campus police were suddenly the evildoers in this situation, much to the glee of YouTube and television stations around America.
The question in this case is not whether the cops were justified in their actions or not. They were following the format of how to use the weapons and authority the people gave them. The question is whether Andrew Meyer would have gotten more public sympathy if he hadn’t offered resistance, and instead used passive resistance against being arrested for unnamed charges.
Instead of shouting and trying to escape, what if Meyer had calmly looked at the lead officer and asked why he was being arrested? What if he had just tried to stand his ground at the microphone without running away or fighting back, letting the officers forcibly take him away? This would have sent a much stronger message of what was really transpiring at this event.
There is a time and a place for action when authority does not fulfill its duty to protect its citizens. Shouting and resisting police in a campus forum is not it. That’s just being an attention whore.