Andrew Meyer and the Trouble with Tasers

If you haven't seen the YouTube video of University of Florida student Andrew Meyer getting Tasered by university police, then you've missed the last week's biggest news.

The short version is: First, he asked a long, dull, and annoying question to John Kerry. He continued being obnoxious after his microphone was turned off and university police dragged him away. He struggled with police for a while, even after they threatened to shock him with a Taser. After his now-famous "Don't Tase me, bro!" plea, they Tasered him. [Source]

Several controversies have sprung up from this incident: were the police wrong or did they handle it well? If they were wrong, was it brutality or were they incompetent? Were his First Amendment rights infringed? Should university security guards have have police powers or should they "leave it to the professionals"?

Personally, I think it's significant because it shows how the Internet has changed the way news affects people.

When I first read the above-linked article, I thought it was shocking that a student would get Tasered for asking a question. Then I read the part about his prankster history and understood that for him it was probably just a joke gone bad.

When I saw the YouTube video, it solidified my feeling that the university police handled it fine.

Then, when I saw the "remixed" version and the "Don't Tase me, bro" T-shirt, I had to laugh -- in the span of thirty minutes, my opinion of Andrew Meyer went had gone from student martyr to an object of ridicule to farce.

Welcome to the 21st century.