University of Florida Taser incident

On September 17, 2007, U.S. Senator John Kerry addressed a Constitution Day forum at the University of Florida in Gainesville, which was organized by the ACCENT Speakers Bureau, an agency of the university's student government. Initially allowed to ask questions after the close of the question period, Andrew Meyer, a 21-year-old fourth-year undergraduate mass communication student, asked a question and was forcibly pulled away from the microphone. He was immediately restrained and forcibly removed and was subsequently arrested by university police. During his arrest, Meyer struggled and screamed for help. While six officers held Meyer down, one of the officers drive-stunned him with a Taser following Meyer's shouted plea to the police, "Don't tase me, bro!"

Several videos of the episode were posted on the Web, with one version reaching 7 million views on YouTube. The New Oxford American Dictionary listed tase or taze as one of the words of the year for 2007, popularized by the widespread use of the phrase "Don't tase me, bro!" Meyer registered the phrase as a trademark in September 2007.

Andrew William Meyer (born September 15, 1986) was, at the time of the incident, an undergraduate student majoring in television journalism at the University of Florida. Born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, he attended Cypress Bay High School in Weston, Florida, where he worked at the school newspaper, The Circuit, and was a member of the National Honor Society. At the University of Florida, Meyer worked as a columnist for the college paper Independent Florida Alligator. Meyer has stated that he writes "mostly whimsical nonsense columns about nothing in particular, yet occasionally finds [himself] angry enough to rain down fire and brimstone on an unsuspecting politician or celebrity."

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