Welcome to MyRagan Forum. Browse through any forum, sign in or register here and you'll be on your way to creating your own discussions and posting replies for the whole community to see :D
Believe it or not, some people believe the tasered University of Florida student got what he deserved. Either way, it's a PR nightmare. If you worked in the communications office at University of Florida or did PR for Sen. John Kerry how would you handle the infamous tasering incident?
(And if you don't know what I'm talking about, check out the top video under Cool Stuff on the What's Hot page.)
Check out the statement they made to us exclusively. They talked to almost no one this week: http://prnewser.wordpress.com/2007/09/20/tasers-pr-makes-statement-to-prnewsera-about-the-taser-bro/
PRNewser is the new blog from MediaBistro...send in your tips and story ideas folks! prnewser@gmail, prnewser at AIM/Gtalk/MSN/YIM, or 917-373-8803
The incident can be interpreted in a number of ways, depending on where you stand on law and order, I guess. However, viewing of several videos by an impartial and distant obserer (me, of course), suggests that the whole thing got out of hand very quickly because of the action of knuckle-headed security staff. There was a similar incident (though not a tasering, fortunately) in the UK in 2005 when an 82-year-old war veteran was thrown out of the Labour Party conference by several bulky guards. HIs sin? Shouting "nonsense" during then PM Tony Blair's speech. That was a PR disaster, and so is the current affair. OK, the student was a bit animated, but the principles of free speech and lively debate are supposed to underpin Westen society (or so it says here in my "Pocket guide to why we invade dictatorships"). If I was advising John Kerry's PR people, I'd tell them to say not very much for a while. And if I was Head of Security at the University of Florida, I'd be looking for a new job.
The University of Florida's latest statement, via its president, is here: http://www.president.ufl.edu/incident.htm. The gist of it is that there's an outside investigation under way, so they can't comment on the tasering; that U Florida respects free expression; and that it comes with responsibility, and the real tragedy is the damage to civil discourse. I'm not sure if that will be seen as sincere, or as an attempt to avoid discussing the substance of what happened and instead tacitly (but not overtly) encourage the he-got-what-he-deserved crowd. That said, the need to allow the investigation to proceed without prejudice and the university's potential vulnerability to a lawsuit are both legitimate constraints on its message.
Interestingly, there's no mention in the statement about any kind of security or safety threat, which would be the most (probably only) persuasive reason for deploying this kind of force.
That makes the situation much more difficult for Kerry's people; they don't want him to be seen as needing violent protection from aggressive questioning. At the same time, they also don't want to create an environment where it's impossible for authorities to respond to genuine threats or deal (with a much more appropriate level of intervention than appears to have been the case at Florida) with disruptions.
Kerry's statement tries to strike that balance - http://www.johnkerry.com/2007/9/18/kerry-statement-on-florida-campus-incident - and on the whole I think they hit the mark.
Sorry, but if the Taser is halted from being used it wouldn't be the Florida incident that does it. It would be the Ohio officer who was too lazy to use basic police training to subdue the drunk woman who he Tasered 7 times, including two while she was cuffed. That's bad police work. That's the black eye on public safety.
Is it even surprising that these security people might use their fists/weapons before their words?
What IS surprising is that the police don't have a training course in "How to Youtube-Proof the Scene of an Arrest BEFORE You Start Brutalising People" by now. Cynical, I know.
