Andrew Meyer: "Don't Tase me, bro"

Some statements resonate. They stir emotions. They become part of the nation's collective soul.

"Don't Tread on Me!"

"Remember the Maine!"

"The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!"

"I am not a crook."

"I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky."

Will "Don't Tase me, bro," achieve that status?

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- A University of Florida student was Tasered and arrested after trying angrily and repeatedly to ask U.S. Senator John Kerry about the 2004 election and other subjects during a campus forum. Tuesday morning, a judge ordered the student released from jail on his own recognizance.

Videos of Monday's incident posted on several Web sites show officers pulling Andrew Meyer, 21, away from the microphone after he asks Kerry about impeaching President Bush and whether he and Bush were both members of the secret society Skull and Bones at Yale University.

"He apparently asked several questions — he went on for quite awhile — then he was asked to stop," university spokesman Steve Orlando said. "He had used his allotted time. His microphone was cut off, then he became upset."

As two officers take Meyer by the arms, Kerry, D-Mass., can be heard saying, "That's alright, let me answer his question." Audience members applaud, and Meyer struggles for several seconds as up to four officers try to remove him from the room.

Meyer screams for help and asks "What did I do?" as he tries to break away from officers. He is forced to the ground and officers order him to stop resisting.

As Kerry tells the audience he will answer the student's "very important question," Meyer yells at the officers to release him, crying out, "Don't Tase me, bro," just before he is shocked by the Taser. He is then led from the room, screaming, "What did I do?"

Meyer was arrested on charges of resisting an officer and disturbing the peace, according to Alachua County jail records, but the State Attorney's Office had yet to make the formal charging decision. Police recommended charges of resisting arrest with violence, a felony, and disturbing the peace and interfering with school administrative functions, a misdemeanor.

On Tuesday, Mayer [sic] was ordered released from jail on his own recognizance. Attorney Robert Griscti, who represented him, did not return messages seeking comment.

To me, it appears that Tasing Meyer was excessive.

However, if he didn't want "bro" to Tase him, he should not have resisted arrest.

Meyer had already made enough of a disturbance that he was certain to have been interviewed by media. His message was going to be heard if he had cooperated with police.

Here's Kerry's statement on the incident:

In 37 years of public appearances, through wars, protests and highly emotional events, I have never had a dialogue end this way.

I believe I could have handled the situation without interruption, but again I do not know what warnings or other exchanges transpired between the young man and the police prior to his barging to the front of the line and their intervention.

I asked the police to allow me to answer the question and was in the process of answering him when he was taken into custody.

I was not aware that a taser was used until after I left the building. I hope that neither the student nor any of the police were injured.

I regret enormously that a good healthy discussion was interrupted.

Well. Kerry's not taking sides. He's giving himself plenty of flip flop room.

It's important to remember that this happened at a John Kerry event.

George Bush has nothing to do with this.

The PATRIOT Act has nothing to do with this.