I’m hoping a good portion of you have heard about the University of Florida student who was tasered by police while asking US Senator John Kerry questions at a “town hall” event.

This is someone’s personal camera–a bit shakey–but it is full length:

“If you let me go, I’ll walk out of here.”

Here is someone else’s shot, less shakey:

Here is MSNBC’s coverage:

This student was never told why he was being taken by force by police.

Kerry’s official response:

“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 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 responding 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.”

Why can’t we talk with our representatives?