Unsurprisingly, Google News headlines today were topped by the story of a student tasered at a Kerry speech at the University of Florida. The best account I found of the events so far was that on the WaPo blog, and the story is a bit more telling, if still somewhat unsettling:

When his diatribe on secret societies, Iran and a mysterious "yellow book" ran over the one-minute mark, his microphone was cut off.

...

Officers approached him several times to wrap it up, but he declined. University Police then proceeded to remove him from the auditorium.

I'm sure a million bloggers are venting their rage right now at the flagrant violation of the speaker's rights, while others are writing this off as a lone nut who didn't know when to stop. Both of which seem fair reactions. What interests me is Kerry's conduct throughout the incident, which to my sensibilities comes up morally short.

Kerry remained stoically focused on answering the young man's questions (the ones to him, not the ones he asked the police). Even as Meyer's shrieks grew in urgency, the Massachusetts senator reflected calmly on the importance of not contesting the results of the 2004 election.

What strikes me about this reaction is that Kerry is taking pains to validate the student's question in spite of the disregard for decorum - an attempt which would be noble if the circumstances were general antagonism from the rest of the audience. But in a situation where police are becoming involved, to the degree of using (admittedly fairly mild) force against a student, Kerry should have used his position as speaker to address that - unless of course he thought the use of force appropriate, but that would seem to contradict his attempt to legitimate the question asked. It may be that I'm thinking about this too much in terms of Erving Goffman's Frame Analysis, as I often do with all aspects of everyday life these days, but it's rather as if Kerry had no way of dealing with the frame violation by the police (and I think it's safe to say that even in a heated university event police activity will usually constitute a frame violation) except by attempting to accept the student's dissent within the bounds of the frame, and was sadly ineffectual in doing so. But I suppose that's what you get for being the outspoken nut at a Kerry speech.

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