I'm sorry you tazed me.

A couple of folks sent me the link to the NYT story of Andrew Meyer's apology ( All Scores Settled in Dont Tase Me, Bro Affair). Here's an excerpt:

If Mr. Meyer was introduced to the world as an instant political martyr, his words today are a complete capitulation. “It was my actions that forced the officers there into a position where they needed to take action,” he said in the letter to the police department.

A segment of Meyer's apology is particularly disturbing:

In society, as in life, there are consequences for not following the rules. In this instance, not following the rules has imposed consequences for many people other than myself, people who have seen their school, and perhaps their degree, tarnished in the eyes of others through no fault of their own.

Perhaps we should read it completely literally. What did he learn? That asking questions is disruptive. That politician's speech should not be countered or disturbed. That school spirit and conformity to a very narrow notion of reputation matters more than challenging the official story of the 2004 election. That not playing by the rules can get you tazed and that this is your fault. That the police are always right. And that if you speak out you invite punishment.

He mentions the eyes of others. Who are these others and what do they see? Do they all see things the same way? Are they wearing blinders?

Fortunately, a number of the commenters on the thread attached to the report recognize the apology as a symptom of the larger conformist, even fascistic, character of the contemporary US (the same climate in which a university audience will cheer as someone is dragged off and tazed):

mb writes:

This is insane. I saw that video, and the guy did nothing more than demonstrate an acceptable level of outrage at both Kerry’s capitulation and the campus cops’ mounting aggression toward him. His apology takes the focus away from the real issue: the deputization of campus cops (and other poorly trained private security) to make use of “non-lethal” weapons in the service of social control and the trampling of free speech in the public and quasi-public sphere. STAND UP PEOPLE!

and frank writes:

To be honest, I don’t understand why this young man is apologizing. I saw the disturbing YouTube video of a young man being tasered for asking a question. This is America?

Christopher Martin writes:

I feel like I’ve been tased. So, what exactly did Meyer do wrong? Speak out too loudly and too long at a public forum? The thing is, he wasn’t violent, just loud and perhaps a bit obnoxious. So, you walk the guy out the door. Instead, a crowd of police walked him to the door, pinned him on the floor, and then tasered him. Who the heck should be apologizing in this situation??? And why are tasers considered a legimate response in a situation in which no one is physically threatened?

Finally, from NotJamesFrey:

And, to paraphrase the Bard: “Tickle us, do we not laugh? Prick us, do we not bleed?  Tase us, do we not apologize?”

Addendum: Roger Whitson (a grad student in Florida) provided a link to the above photo in the comments.

Comments

[badiouian]

I think the answer to "dont tase me bro" is, "where are the protesters?"
A speaker like Kerry should, after all, be prepared for anything up to and including bomb throwers. Televangelists, Hitler, and others who need to speak in public know how to deal, at the very least, with hecklers.
Yet we see that Kerry had nary a clue how to defuse the situation. I think the reason why is the same malaise Jody pointed to in a recent post: there are no protesters.
Whatever the reasons, we expect political discourse to tug the strings of profound apathy-- not to excite passions or hecklers or bomb throwers.

[Jodi]

B--that's a good point. We no longer even expect anything other than apathy. So, we can't deal with disagreement or with challenges or with anything that breaks out of our expected scenario (and I am very much including myself in this we--much to my regret, I fear that I have less and less a capacity to handle contingency, disagreement, etc if it is outside of terms I've established. I need to work on this).

[badiouian]

Someone should revise the Laclau point of society as made up of antagonisms into a society made up of apathies. I think Zizek is working in this direction, but his outright rejection of the FF school doesnt let him say what needs to be said!

[Roger Whitson]

Jodi,
I'm a grad student from Florida, and I completely agree. Here's a link to the school's newspaper featuring an article on the Meyer apology.

http://www.alligator.org/articles/2007/10/30/news/campus/meyer.txt

The picture is particularly disturbing, showing a befuddled Meyer sitting docile in a chair, looking very much like he was intimidated into apologizing by his lawyer towering above him. The angle is really bizzare, and foregrounds Meyer's submission.

[echeneida]

Ugh, whatever. I agree that these thugs should have their "non-lethal" toys taken from them but the liberal sentiment that has anyone rallying around this kid's case was always ridiculous. He's a smartass fratty white boy who had been wasting everyone's time with his conspiracy-theory idiocies longer than the cameras show. Of course nobody seems to question that he was being a dipshit, insisting rather on the liberal-idealist "argument" that it doesn't matter, that he had a Right to act like a moron for as long as he wanted -- Jodi, you've banned people from commenting here when they've been insistently stupid, right? In mEaTsPaCe it's trickier, especially when you're dealing with a grown man who is bawling and squirming like a four year-old.

They shouldn't have used tasers, shouldn't even have had tasers, and I'd like it if this case led to a real movement to get the fucking things banned, but if it isn't, maybe that's because the media spectacle you're taking part in is focused on a case that couldn't have sold more hilarious catch-phrase bumper-stickers if it was staged, rather than, say, that of an elderly black woman who was tortured to death.

http://www.local6.com/news/14147512/detail.html