Patterico's Pontifications

10/30/2007

“Don’t Tase Me” Student Apologizes (Updated)

Filed under: Crime — DRJ @ 12:21 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Andrew “Don’t Tase Me, Bro” Meyer has apologized and will avoid jail:

“The Andrew Meyer seen in YouTube clips does not apologize. He rants at Senator John Kerry, struggles with police officers trying to escort him out of the room, implores them to “don’t tase me, bro,” and, quite disturbingly, wails in pain as they do it anyway.

But his lawyer, Robert Griscti, told the University of Florida campus newspaper that Mr. Meyer began drafting apologies immediately after his release on Sept. 18. Indeed, Mr. Meyer penned three separate apologies (available here) as part of a deal to avoid criminal charges, The Gaineseville [sic] Sun reports.

The saga ends with Mr. Meyer voluntarily taking an 18-month leave of absence from college and agreeing “to perform certain actions including making a donation to the American Cancer Society or performing community service,” the paper said.”

Meyer apologized to his school, all Americans, and specifically to the police officers who had already been cleared of wrongdoing:

“It was my actions that forced the officers there into a position where they needed to take action,” he said in the letter to the police department.”

Meyer will avoid jail time as a result of these actions.

I hope he stays contrite for a long, long time but I have my doubts.

— DRJ

Update 1: From Andrew’s lawyer’s website –

“Andrew is a good and decent young man. He is a student, and he has shown his capacity for learning. I submit to you that he deserves great credit for taking the high road and focusing on the future. He will address the issues he is concerned about at his website link.

For Andrew Meyer, the future is now. It is the presidential election of 2008. As his lawyer, I hope for Andrew that the legacy of his story will be realized by Americans of whatever belief voting their conscience in 2008 and helping to insure that their countrymen can and will do the same.”

Update 2: I’ve read Andrew Meyer’s letters that can be accessed at his lawyer’s website for this case (use the menu on the left side). I am impressed with Meyer’s letters but his lawyer’s comments are strangely at odds with Meyer’s expression of remorse. I hope Meyer’s comments say more about his attitude than his lawyer’s statements.

11 Responses to ““Don’t Tase Me” Student Apologizes (Updated)”

  1. The TV news report I saw on the matter said that he was receiving an 18 month probation, imply that he was being treated like a non violent first offender (ie, if he successfully completes probation, the offense will be expunged). The deal was made with the local prosecutor’s office. The TV report made no reference to a leave of absence from the school

    kishnevi (806949)

  2. I get it. The real world is not in fact present on college campuses in the USA. A half roomful of disturbers of the peace, or disorderly conducting protesters shut down Horowitz at his paid speech auditorium on the Islamo-Fascist Awareness Week college tour. Not a one of them was arrested, either. This punk is, but then let go.
    So what we have is the fake society of the campus, where if you are a liberal blowhard nutcase with absent manners in public, you get a big fat pass even with video and sound archiving your would be illegal in the real world misdeeds.
    I guess I don’t quite understand the forgiveness quotient. I’m sure many conservatives will nod in approval, accepting the apology and feeling justice has been done. Like they did with the skumbag Calvin the Arrogant green zone bully. Gosh if it’s a good apology, all is well…
    Somehow my book says they didn’t change one iota, the good apology is mandatory even with full on punishment, and then the perp will be watched without a single ideation that anything at all has changed, because it has not.
    I love it when they come up with ” This person has already suffered enough “.
    Somehow I think that person hasn’t really begun to suffer what he should for what he did. When they scream aloud, “What are you doing ! Ouch ! What have I done ?! Yow! What did I do wrong!! Don’t tase me bro …” – as they are hauled away, it never follows that they learned their lesson by begging off after the fact.
    Please, teacher, turn around so I can replace the apple I smashed on Sarah’s head then smeared all over the chalkboard that the janitor cleaned off with overtime pay yesterday. I know it’s a sour crabapple but you like those kind, don’t you.”
    The teacher turns around, Johnny jams the crabapple on the spike that holds detention slips, gives the back of the teach the finger, drools on the desk, then runs back to sit down.
    The teach turns around, smiles, and thanks the class for their honesty.

    SiliconDoc (da9276)

  3. Did you read Meyer’s statement, where he blames growing up in a polarized left vs right environment for his actions ?
    Another non-apology apology, with the full blown Fruedian mental training excuse. I saw this my whole life, so in my idiocy decided to act this way. I was the only one in the whole auditorium that did it, but heck the left vs right society made me think this is what I’m supposed to do…
    BLAH BLAH BLAH….
    ” It’s not my fault, you all taught me to behave this way.”
    Lucky for this young man I wasn’t the judge. It would be lecture time, then hammer time.
    ” Mr. M. , isn’t it true that everyone else in that room that grew up in this fractured society didn’t misbehave as you did ? They got the same lessons, what is your specific criminal reaction problem ? ”
    ” Uhh,, umm… I just .. uhh… ”
    WHAM !

    SiliconDoc (da9276)

  4. An explanation is not necessarily an excuse, SiliconDoc.

    His lawyer is paid to shill for him in that way, even if some think it contradicts his own personal statements.

    chaos (aad1e2)

  5. I hope Meyer’s comments say more about his attitude than his lawyer’s statements.

    I try to not listen when the lawyers strt talking…

    *Someone taps him on the shoulder and whispers in his ear*

    What? Patterico is a whatnow?

    *More whispering*

    Oh son of a *commenter banned*

    🙂

    Scott Jacobs (a1de9d)

  6. SiliconDoc #3,

    Do you have link for that? I read Meyer’s statement and apology letters but I didn’t see what you describe.

    DRJ (5c60fb)

  7. ” Since High School, I have been concerned about the direction of our country. Because of the world we live in, the polarized environment in America that I have grwon up in, I felt that being adamant and confrontational about my beliefs was the right way to effect change.”

    Can it really get any clearer than that?
    In what world is that not some cryaby Fruedian excuse. Yes, we know, your mind was discomboobled by the terribly divisive environment you grew up in, and so you decided to be agressive… worried about how divisive things are… you decided to ratchet up that divisiveness, to “effect change”.. because “you thought you had to”.. such bad lessons that were given to you…
    Oh he’s not done…

    ” The polarized environment that underlies my concerns still exists. The United States has been divided. The country has been split into “left vs right”, “red vs blue”, red state vs blue state”, “Republicans vs Democrats”. All of this is false division….

    So, his “statement” is no apology, really, it is another chance for him to whine about how and why he was caught up in the misjudgement forced upon him, and how he sees the political landscape, and how he calls for the people to activate on his stances. ( parts I left out are calls to action)

    SiliconDoc (da9276)

  8. SiliconDoc,

    I guess it just depends on how you look at it. When I read the first paragraph you quoted, including the last sentence that you omitted, I get a different message:

    ”Since High School, I have been concerned about the direction of our country. Because of the world we live in, the polarized environment in America that I have grwon up in, I felt that being adamant and confrontational about my beliefs was the right way to effect change. I was wrong.

    DRJ (5c60fb)

  9. So he was raised in a loud and strident political environment… so… he believed that being loud and strident about politics is the way to be.

    That doesn’t sound like Freudian nonsense. It’s not even very Freudian.

    SiliconDoc, you do know that a disproportionate amount of child molesters are people who were themselves molested as children? People are shaped to some degree by the environment they grew up in.

    chaos (9c54c6)

  10. A non-apology is like Kerry’s “I’m sorry you misunderstood me” riff.

    This is an actual apology. It may or may not be sincere, but it is an apology.

    Which is more than the gang of 87 (Duke Rape Hoax) has done.

    LarryD (feb78b)


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