The sight and sound of someone screaming in pain as a cop shoots 50,000 volts into him, well, it Tasers my soul.

Now I have a new trauma: the sight and silence of hundreds of students at the University of Florida sitting quietly and obediently last week as a young man was wrestled to the floor by a gang of cops, handcuffed and then repeatedly given agonizing zaps that made eerie clicking sounds. The student had no gun, only a loud voice. For this, he was tortured with a hand-held cattle prod?

Only one young woman approached the lynching and screamed at the police to stop. I don't know who she is, but I salute her. In fact, I'll adopt her if it turns out she's orphaned and having trouble paying her tuition fees.

I can cope with the speaker, John Kerry, not racing down from the podium to rescue the young man. That's Kerry. But he released a statement in which he expressed hope "that neither the student nor any of the police were injured." What a coward. As anyone watching on YouTube could see, the police didn't even scuff their jackboots.

Uniformed thugs

If you're a senator and married to fantastic Heinz ketchup wealth, you don't have to grovel to uniformed thugs. So why does he volunteer?

But the sedentary, nay inert, group that watched the student screaming, oh my. For all that liberals like me deplore human aggression, it's worse to watch human passivity and cowardice. One of the things I like about Americans in general is their loudness in expressing their wants. They don't sneer like the French or apologize like Canadians. They're honest about it. So what has happened?

In 1963, Mary McCarthy wrote a novel called The Group about eight Vassar graduates. So acute was McCarthy in her painting of collective female cruelty that I have deplored single-sex gatherings ever since. Groups behave worse than individuals do. In the Tasering video, they egged each other into inertia.

There is something truly terrible about a group watching an individual being seized, harmed and dragged away. It's very Lord of the Flies. It's very Nineteen Eighty-Four with Winston Smith's ultimate humiliation, finally telling his torturers, "Do it to Julia! Not me!"

It doesn't help that the student, Andrew Meyer, is Jewish. For those who wonder how Germans stood by watching, some curious, some laughing, while Jews were stripped and humiliated in the street on Kristallnacht, while Jews were forced to eat grass, while their shop windows were broken and their goods stolen — this is how it goes. As long as it's happening to someone else, there will always be citizens, safe and secure at that moment, watching calmly from the sidelines.

Blame the victim

After the incident became public, there was a wave of blaming the victim. Meyer was loud and obnoxious, and deserved what he got. (In fact, Meyer is a good writer. His blog is quite intelligent, as these things go.) The lovely Bill O'Reilly called Meyer a wimp, although my understanding is that all humans, including O'Reilly, react identically to electric shock. Their muscles contract instantaneously and they collapse in pain.

That O'Reilly, always so blasé about the pain of others, so sensitive when it comes to his multiple humiliations. But many of us are like that.

Next month, Dr. Jack Kevorkian will be speaking at the University of Florida. One shudders to think what campus police will do to anyone who interrupts him.

As anyone who gives and attends public lectures knows, there are always audience members at Question Time who hog the microphone, who don't ask a question but deliver a statement of their own beliefs at great length, who mumble and miss the point. This is a given at public events. When it happens, I remain polite and answer as best I can.

I don't have the man electrically shocked, mainly because this is the type of person most likely to buy my book at the end of the reading. But also, it's just not done, in the same way that one does not use the same toothpick to repeatedly dip one's shrimp in communal sauce; it's not hygienic. It may be thrifty, it may even be harmless, but it is beyond the pale.

These are the rules of socializing en masse.

Wrong message

Two years ago, Britain's New Labour Party manhandled one of their own delegates, an 82-year-old Holocaust survivor, out of a meeting for heckling. In the U.S., people are barred from political meetings for printing the wrong message on their T-shirt, or having the wrong bumper sticker on their car. In Canada, your fellow demonstrators with rocks in their hands may well be undercover cops who didn't think to change their damning jackboots when they went into disguise.

Surely it is time to remember that free speech is free speech; that people are allowed to behave badly, even grotesquely, in public as long as they obey the law. But then I was born snarky, always poised to disagree with groupthink. Indeed, I spend a good deal of time disagreeing with myself and deploring my bad attitude.

Would people race to help me if I were in Meyer's situation? I think not. Perhaps the University of Florida should offer a class in The Mechanics of the Group, with reference to Kitty Genovese and Emmett Till. If you don't know these names, Google them and be harrowed.

Which makes me wonder, what is YouTube for? Now that I can no longer watch Steve Carell in Produce Pete skits from The Daily Show, YouTube is good for horror and shame.

This Week

I re-read Decca: The Letters of Jessica Mitford, ed. Peter Y. Sussman, to prepare myself for the newly published Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters, edited by the accomplished Charlotte Mosley. The Mitfords rode madly off in six directions as the Second World War began. Two became Nazis, Decca a Communist, Debo a duchess, Nancy a francophile novelist and snob, and Pam a lesbian farmer. But the lesson of the Mitfords (bar the Nazi ones, who were fanatically humourless) is that political disagreement is not relevant to all human relations. Life is at base extremely funny. Laughter is all.

Letters

I applaud Heather for pointing out this outrageous over reaction by campus police, who should not be armed with tazers.

I am sickened and ashamed of my 'fellow' Canadians who have posted in support of these thugs. No wonder we are still killing innocent people in Afghanistan.

The German people of the 1930's were not monsters, not different from you and I. They watched complacently as their country slipped into fascism and tyranny. As do now the people of the United States.

– Roger Johnson | Victoria, BC

Thank you Heather once again. For me the most chilling and revolting aspect of the episode was neither that John Kerry nor police would react as they did, but that other students would sit by and watch.

I am reminded of the Milgram experiments on the "Perils of Obedience." His experiments begain in 1961 and explored "how much pain an ordinary citizen would inflict on another erson simply because he wa ordered to by an experimental scientist. Student volunteers from Yale were asked to administer increasingly severe levels of shock in response to questions asked of a person they could not see but could hear screaming. Sixty-five percent of those involved administered a 450 volt shock because they were asked to by someone in authority.

Yes, the young man resisted but there was no cause to use that level of force simply because it was available. Unfortunately, as we live in a world defined by fear and perpetual war, justifying increasing levels of state violence such incidents will become more common.

– Sandra Malasky | Peterborough, Ontario

Your contention that, "people are allowed to behave badly, even grotesquely, in pulic as long as they obey the law," does not make sense, at least not in Canada. Section 175 of the Criminal Code of Canada makes certain types of unruly public behavior a criminal offence. I would guess that American law has similar provisions.

The tasering of Mr. Meyer was unfortunate. However, after both verbal intervention and an attempt at the physical restraint and removal of Mr. Meyer apparently failed those officers who were responsible for the safety and security of the hundreds of people attending the meeting were left with little choice but to up the level of force used. Perhaps pepper spray might have been a better option in this case.

Your contention that Mr. Meyer was unarmed is probably correct but did the law enforcement officers who were responsible for security at the event know he was unarmed? Could they afford to take a chance that he wasn't? In view of tragic occurences like the Virginia Tech and Columbine shootings I don't think that police and security officers can afford to take chances in terms of either their safety or public safety.

This does not necessarily impinge of the right of free speech. With respect to Mr. Meyer, he can hold his own public meeting to air his opinions. He can hold a press conference about his tasering. He can probably wear a sandwich board and preach his views on public sidewalks provided that he does so in an orderly fashion. He can tell his views to anyone who will listen and he can continue blogging.

Maybe the U. of Florida will invite Mr. Meyer as a guest speaker. If that happens I hope the venue will be free from disruptions so that he may exercise his right to free speech uninterupted.

– Terry | Calgary

The Tasing of the student in Florida is not as black and white as the opportunistically bias YouTube suggests. This student has been accused of deliberately putting on a show for YouTube and his own notoriety. It has been reported that as soon as the camera stopped rolling, he calmed down and apologized to the officers. I think if you watch the clip on YouTube again (not surprisingly filmed by a friend of the student) you will notice that he constantly struggled against the officers, and refused to comply with their requests after they gave him numerous opportunities to leave peacefully.

This incident did not happen in a small community in the South Shore of Nova Scotia. It happened in Florida where there are numerous instances of Police officers getting KILLED or severely injured at common traffic stops and other seemingly routine minor circumstances. These men and women are there to protect a public that sometimes has no respect for them. I don't believe they should risk their own safety due to some kid who was there not practicing his right to free speech but, instead thinks it’s all a game and is looking for a path to infamy.

– Kris Morgan | Bridgewater, N.S.

Heather Mallik's column today is an interesting study on mob behaviour. In a truly stressful situation, such as the subject 9of her report, it would appear that a cognitive shift occurs.

A small child talking to his grandmother on the phone will hold up three fingers in front of the receiver to illustrate the festive occasion. It appears that within his cognitive framework, everyone can see him.

Adults in a mob believe no one can see them. A mob setting provides its membership with a sebse if annonymity

– Brian Borley | Saskatoon

I too saw the video of the incident. Being arrested for speaking your mind was indeed a bit scary. However, once the decision to arrest someone is made and that person resists, the police had the authority to use as much force as is reasonably necessary. Looking at the video the man was actively resisting to point of being combative therefore the taser was used.

Some other techniques that are available to the police would require a much more physical approach with a good chance that both the person involved and the police getting hurt. Being tasered is no fun, but once someone makes the decision to resist an arrest to the point of being combative then you may get something that isn't pretty to watch.

Whether the arrest was "lawful" can be hammered out in the courts, but once placed under arrest you must comply or face the consequences.

– Jody Allison | Halifax

I strenuously disagree with much of Heather Mallick's commentary. Should he have been shut down by the campus police in the first place? Maybe, maybe not. It would appear from the video that he could've been shouting for a considerable length of time.

Yes, he was Tasered while handcuffed but he was still being very uncooperative, struggling and resisting arrest. What else would you have the police do? Use their clubs? I have no sympathy for him.

Now as far as the "sedentary" students go? They were certainly not that. From what I could see they were shifting around on thier seats. But once the police start the arresting procedure, no matter how you disagree with it, you do not want to interfere with them. That will get you into a lot of trouble and rightfully so.

– Tony Toews | Edmonton

I am absolutely disgusted with Mrs. Mallicks Column regarding the use of tasers by “Uniformed thugs”. The men and women who have the thankless jobs of the law enforcment community very literaly risk their lives everyday to protect those who cannot.

Most of whom have legal obligations to Serve and Protect, even when not officially on duty. These men and women who serve their comunities also have lives, families and most importantly emotions. They are not robots, and because of the nature of their employment they are always judged at a higher standard than all other citizens.

A car accident involving a citizen employed in the private sector is rarely news worthy, however an acident involving an off duty Police officer is most definitely. I wonder if at any point during her career, or lifetime for that matter, somone has ever intentionally degraded and/or assaulted her purely because of the nature of her employment. For police officers this unfortunatley is a fact of life and occurs on a daily basis. In some instances a Use of Force is required regretably.

When a civilian is given a lawful order by a police officer they are required by law to comply, whether it suits them or not. For members of the Police service to simply ignore this would completely undermine their authority and negate the effectivness of having a police presence in the community in the first place.

The use of a taser is a Lesser use of Force, although it may be visually disturbing to those who witness it, what are the alternatives Clubs, Firearms..? Or would Mrs. Mallick prefer a state of lawlessness and have them stand by and do nothing to enforce the laws which have been put in place to protect people just like her.

– John Doe | Calgary

I quite enjoyed Heather Malick's column on the tasering of a college student that was thankfully taped and distributed on the web. Without it being shown on Youtube and other sites, this monstrous act would be covered up by law officials responsible for the Gestapo tactics used by the security for John Kerry.

Heather pointed out something that I had been mulling over in my mind for the week since I've seen the video. The audiences weak response, passively looking on while police brutality was being used on a person with a loud voice and interesting words.

I recently saw the movie Across the Universe which takes place in New York during the Vietnam war. In that movie, protesters are vocal and don't seem like the kind of people who would take seeing a student being brutalized like that. Now it seems the students of today who are faced with another long foreign conflict in Iraq are too paralyzed with apathy to stand up for what is right.

Let's hope some justice arises out of this spectacle. I hope that student presses charges against the people responsible for his suffering. I think John Kerry should go out and meet this guy and answer his questions, particularly since he was once an Anti-Vietnam war protester himself.

– Asif Khan | Surrey, B.C.

Don't Taser me??? That has got to be the dumbest article I have read in a long time. The officers exercised a great deal of restraint and patience. They gave the individual plenty of opportunity to cooperate and comply with their requests.

Pointing out that the individual in question is a Jew is irrelevant. The officers would not have known or cared about that. All they saw was an obnoxious, disruptive, uncooperative individual who manipulated and monopolized the event for his own publicity.

He is just lucky that I was not on shift otherwise that taser would have ended up down his throat.

– Mirko Filipovic | Victoria, B.C.

While I find that I agree with what you've written in most of your columns, in this instance I must at least partially disagree. It's not that I believe in the need to suppress dissent or even punish rudeness, well maybe that deserves another look at another time. I also don't believe the 'victim' here is a wimp, in fact I believe he was pretty smart and pretty gutsy and he is a big winner here.

I have viewed the video a number of times, not because I enjoyed it but because I was trying to understand what was happening. At first I was aghast that such a thing could happen at what should have been a pretty low-key event. Mr. Kerry should not really be a person of much controversy these days and I don't think the University of Florida is known as being a particularly radical university so what was going on here?

After a few viewings, I came to the conclusion that what happened was pretty much what this student wanted to happen. He did have a number of opportunities to quiet down and back off, but he even broke away from the police to continue his outburst. It seemed clear to me that he was deliberately trying to provoke as extreme a reaction as possible. Did he plan on being tasered? Perhaps not, but he clearly wanted something more dramatic than to be led away shouting because, as I said, he physically broke away from the police at one point. Is there anyone who doesn’t think doing that will escalate a situation?

Having said this, however, I don't think he should have been tasered. Even though don't see him as any sort of victim in this. If the police and/or the people in charge of the event had been smarter or more experienced I think they should have and could have found a better way to deal with this, but I don't know either the people or their procedures. Maybe this is their standard operating procedure, in which case they do have a serious problem, I suspect it was a serious mistake not a matter of policy.

I also think that Mr. Kerry should have tried a little harder to intervene. I don't think he should necessarily have leaped to the rescue, but it didn't sound to me like he was making much of an effort to demand that the police stop either. He had a chance to look like he was trying to save the day and true to form he equivocated.

– Larry | Ottawa, Ont