Between the tasering last year at UCLA and the one this week at UF, I have developed an irrational fear of getting tasered. However, what’s worse is my fear that when I get tasered (an event which I now deem inevitable), you, my peers, will not help me. Instead, you will videotape me as I cry out in pain and scream for help.
I am sure that by now, a substantial number of you have seen the video of the UF student at a John Kerry Q & A session getting tasered by campus security, or at least you’ve read about it. As the student was restrained by campus police, dragged to the back of the auditorium, pushed to the ground and then tasered before being arrested, almost the entirety of the student-comprised auditorium watched from their seats without doing a thing, with the exception of three students. They videotaped it.
That’s where you come in.
At most, taking one video of my tasering makes sense. That video can be brought to the media and the story will get publicized. Then attention will be brought to the mishandling of violent implements on college campuses. Then, the video can then get millions of hits on YouTube and lots of blog articles so on, and hopefully the video can serve as exhibit A in the trial against the security officials who tasered me. However, three videos are just ridiculous. That’s at least two too many.
The Bystander Effect is a psychological principle describing the phenomenon that the higher the number of people around when an emergency takes place (for example, you are being assaulted, you’ve fallen or you’re being tasered), the less likely it is that someone will help. This disturbing but prevalent diffusion of responsibility accounts for the inaction of every UF student seated in the audience and the fact that when the UCLA student got tasered in a largely empty library, several students got up and tried to help the student.
So don’t videotape me when I’m tasered. If you see someone pulling out his or her camera phone, you don’t need to pull out yours. Let’s just settle that right now. Help me instead. I promise that I’ll do the same for you when you get tasered.
If this all sounds like I’m making light of police brutality, this is not my intention. I have an honest and self-admittedly irrational fear of getting roughed up while everyone watches, and the only way I feel I can be assured of my safety is by addressing my concern in a public forum and by calling upon my peers for help. This plea for help also extends to non-tasering situations. If it’s safe or plausible to help me, please do so. And if it’s safe or plausible to help you, I’ll do the same.
Also, while I’m here (in this Wespeak), allow me to say this: I don’t think it’s right that so many students are calling out one another on complaining about the new prices of campus dining or on how Usdan looks and works. That’s OK. It’s not spoiled whining. We’re concerned about workers’ rights, food prices, and Wesleyan’s look and feel. The sadness I feel when I enter Usdan Corporations Headquarters is palpable. I paid $7 for a tortilla filled with three vegetable slices today. I still can’t find the stairs to go downstairs and get my package. I miss Vegan Café.
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