Tasered University Student at Kerry Speech... Publicity Stunt Gone Wrong?

[Dien Rice]

I was shocked (as many others) at the video footage of the tasing of the university student at the University of Florida, for asking a very long-winded question...

You can see footage of it here (from different angles, since there was more than one camera)...

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/tudent...erry_0917.html

However, now I've read that...

He then turned to a woman and said "Are you taping this? Do you have this? You ready?" the report said.

Clarissa Jessup, who contributed I-Report video of the incident to CNN, said Meyer gave her his camera and asked her to shoot video of him posing his questions to Kerry.

and

Meyer was carrying a business card advertising "TheAndrewMeyer.com 'Speak My Mind,' " the police report said.

The Web site features videos of Meyer taking part in several practical jokes. It also includes a "disorganized diatribe" that criticizes the war in Iraq and the media.

This suggests that this started out as a "publicity stunt" designed to promote his website - which probably went further than he expected!

I guess it's it shows you should be aware of the risks you might take with poorly-planned publicity stunts...

Food for thought...

- Dien

This may be a problem at many political rallies. At one of the Bush rallies, a couple were ushered away by the Secred Service for wearing t-shirts that said Bush with a circle and slash through it. The couple has just settled for a couple hundred thousand dollars in a lawsuit for this case.