Yesterday morning a coworker informed me of the tasering incident at the University of Florida where John Kerry was giving a speech. The video was horrifying--I understand that we can all disagree on the parameters of civil discourse, procedural ethics, and whether or not this is a free speech issue, but I was most disturbed that four police officers pinned down a young man and proceeded to taser him after he pleaded for them not to.
I'm not writing this diary to discuss the incident per se, but because I'm shocked that I can't find a single prominent left blogger (I've checked Kos, Think Progress, Crooks and Liars, and obviously Open Left...not exhaustive, i know, but they're my regular rounds) taking this issue on. Doesn't this open up an opportunity to discuss the boundaries of the police state, not to mention some very important ethical issues? Am I alone in thinking that the blogosphere is in a bind--they don't want to discuss tasering because it might require a sharp criticism of Kerry's (essentially) nonresponse to the situation? Are liberal bloggers afraid to talk about tasering?
Even Tucker Carlson is condemning this for God's sake.
Why won't Kerry call for the cops to be fired for using excessive force? Of course I don't consider Kerry responsible for the tasering, but he has the power to rectify this situation somewhat but he doesn't have the will to do it. He's a classic "lame liberal" right now.
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