Eustis, Florida Officer Dan Nesmith was the life of the party when he tasered a 15-year-old boy for fun as the crowd cheered. He then reportedly returned to drinking with the kids, including possible underaged drinkers. He is now a party animal and an ex-cop.
It appears that tasers are the new twisters on the drunk teen scene.
One of the biggest problems holding “taser-for-fun-parties” is to videotape them so that they can be used at your termination hearing. For the video, click here.
Of course, Nesmith is not alone among officers and citizens who view tasers as fun to use on cows or each other.
On the video, Nesmith says “You’re gonna get five seconds. You will have two marks. These will be signature marks.” A signature move indeed.
For the full story, click here.
Buddha,
Will you please stop with this erudition! It’s brilliance is making me feel insecure in that I keep thinking “I wish I would have expressed my thoughts that way.”
I’m gonna have to agree with you here, Buddha. Well put. Carry on.
When one does not know how to start, inaction may be the best course. For one who does not know how to start does not know how to finish. Wise generals know the battle is won before the first step is taken.
Jill/Mike,
I share your trepidation. But the 9000# Gorilla in the room that the war-mongers don’t see is mathematical. At the simplest level of analysis, 5% cannot stop 95%. I hate to use pre-revolutionary France as my example again, but the cake eating crowd apparently hasn’t learned their lesson. This will be resolved and in the favor of the ideals this country was founded upon. The true American spirit is less about geographic location than it is about truth, liberty and justice for all. As V might say, “Mr. Cready, behind this mask is an idea and ideas are bulletproof.” How bloody it gets is the question. That is in large part left to the stupidity and shortsightedness of the fascists. I can foresee a day when corporate offices and gated communities are leveled by angry mobs and I can foresee a day when accountability and law mean something again. But one may not happen without the other. In the words of our greatest President (IMHO), that one, the gentleman from Virginia Thomas Jefferson, “Of liberty I would say that, in the whole plenitude of its extent, it is unobstructed action according to our will. But rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add ‘within the limits of the law,’ because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual.” This election is about nothing less than deciding the nature of the American law. One decision leads to a path of possible substantive positive change. The other leads to a bad endings for the cake eaters and a lot of tears. I, for one, take the phrase “and justice for all” very seriously. I don’t think I’m alone. The Rubicon has not been crossed, but I can see the water’s glint and hear the rushing rapids from here. Obama is our last best hope to avoid serious domestic trouble.
OMG. I don’t even know where to begin …
Jill,
I am fearful too. My anxiety level has been rising about this election and it won’t subside unless November 5th comes and we then
have a President Obama. Sad to say though, if that is the case I still won’t be at ease until the inaugural.
Mike,
I agree with what you said about LBJ. What is distrubing right now is: 1. Iran is suddenly put back on the front burner in the news. Why now, what changed from a week or two ago? 2. cheny has been itching to bomb Iran from before 2000. He only chose Iraq because it looked weak. 3. During the bailout the president and some members of Congress really pumped that story, even claiming that the govt might have to declare martial law and that there’d be blood in the streets if it didn’t pass. They did this because they knew fear would get them what they wanted. A letter from my Congresswoman, Marcy Kaptur, who vigorously opposed the bail out stated: “The bailout bill was rammed through Congess in a climate of fear.”
When the Republican guy’s behind, this administration goes code orange to red. They have done this with the willing participation of Democrats who are afraid of looking weak, instead of actually being strong enough to oppose disaster after disaster visited upon this nation.
That’s what worries me. It’s worked before and we must not let it work again.
Jill,
My wife and I watched a PBS American Masters about LBJ last night. Whatever you think of LBJ he would have succeeded in turning this country around in a way that would have been a second coming of FDR and what tragedies that might have avoided. However, he became caught up in Viet Nam, another unneeded war and it destroyed him and his Great Society plans. Assuming BO gets elected we can see how the “elite, Serious People” are already working to limit his options. Iran is yet another “bogeyman” presented by the Military-Industrial Complex to siphon off our resources and line their pockets. I say this as a strong supporter of Israel because the chimera of Israel’s safety has been brought into this false discussion. The truth is that Iran would like nothing more than normalization of relations with the US and while I am against all nuclear proliferation, the fact of Pakistan and N.Korea having nuclear capabilities is far more of a problem.
Here’s an election stategy. This time I hope neither Congress nor the public buys this bullshit. It is well past time for Americans to believe a war with Iran makes any sense and could bring something other than ruin. It is not patriotic, it is idiotic.
“Two former Senators — conservative Democrat Chuck Robb and conservative Republican Dan Coats (that’s what “bipartisan” means) — have a jointly authored Op-Ed in The Washington Post today decreeing what the U.S. must do towards Iran. The essence: Iran must be prevented, using any means necessary, from not only obtaining nuclear weapons, but also denied even “the ability to quickly assemble a nuclear weapon,” which means “the complete cessation of enrichment activities inside Iran,” even for civilian purposes.” today’s glenn greenwald column
rafflaw,
I think your idea is great also. I doubt any arrest would “move forward” but hounding these people whenever they appear in public or at private functions makes a statement. Code pink showed a lot of courage with this action.
50,000 Gomer Pyle’s yelling, “Citizen’s arrest, Citizen’s arrest!”
Raff,
I like it. Stunning in both simplicity and probable effectiveness. Pure numbers.
Jill,Mike and Buddha, I agree that it is a crime that Rove was not charged along with “Scooter” Libby, not to mention the crimes that he has committed on the various election trails. I do like the citizen’s arrest idea. Maybe if we had about 50,000 citizens at Rove’s next apeech we could all convince Mr. Rove that it is time to turn himself in for his crimes.
Yes. If things don’t start to change soon, more and more direct citizen action will be an inevitability. When and if that time comes, the GOP and the lobbyists will certainly bear the brunt of the crowd’s fury. The key here is will they try to interfere with the elections AGAIN. That is a recipe for revolution and seeing Washington in flames. If the GOP sucks it up and sacrifices the guilty up to a reformulated and impartial DOJ and the punishment treasonous traitors deserve, not only will violence be averted, but the GOP may actually be able to survive in some smaller, less dangerous form. My hope is that human nature and the law of political self-preservation will result in the second outcome. In a revolution, a lot of innocent people will be harmed. That is never a good thing.
Mike,
Everything you said is true. What I also find tragic about this story is it has come to making a citizen’s arrest. No one in Congress or at DOJ has stepped forward to take correct legal action. An attempt at a citizens arrest shows just how far we are from the rule of law. In Ann Arbor I saw people protesting with signs saying: Impeach, Indict, Imprison. We should have been on step 1 and 2 a long time ago. No legal authorities are acting on behalf of the Constitution or the citizens.
Jill,
Your link is part of the continuum of injustice visited upon our country by the Conservative Movement, as is the tasering Cop story. I find it so interesting that Rove was a speaker at a Mortgage Brokers Convention, which kind of highlights the criminality under which this whole group has been operating. Hopefully, some day soon Mr. Rove will face a real arrest and trial for the treason he has aided and abetted.
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/104051/karl_rove_nearly_handcuffed_by_activist_who_tried_to_put_him_under_citizen%27s_arrest_for_%27treason%27/
This kind of goes with a “police theme”. Members of code pink tried to make a citizens arrest of Karl Rove for treason and contempt of Congress.