Just four weeks after about 300 protesters stormed UF's police department to speak out against UPD's Sept. 17 Tasering of Andrew Meyer, a panel to discuss appropriate police practices sat waiting for feedback.
Although the room could hold more than 100 people, only 15 attended the first public forum of the panel Monday night, called for by UF President Bernie Machen.
"This room should be full of people," said Joe Courter, a 56-year-old Gainesville resident who attended the Kerry speech and the Monday discussion.
"It's a bad start to the process," Courter said.
Courter, the only person who signed up to comment before the panel, said he has attended more than 100 speeches organized by Accent, the student-run speakers bureau that organized the Kerry speech in September.
He has never seen an event get so out of hand or police act so out of line, he said.
There are more appropriate, less violent ways to silence a disruptive audience member, he said.
"If a person is demanding to be heard, two people could escort the person outside, as opposed to six people in a rugby scrum," Courter said.
Jocelyn Steinberg, a UF law student who volunteered to comment during the panel discussion, said heated inquires during a speech's question-and-answer session improve the quality of the learning experience.
"Yeah, it's unruly, but sometimes a little emotion and a little being argumentative and upset is part of being at a public university," Steinberg said.
Four more people offered their observations and opinions about the incident, while Kim Tanzer, the panel's chairwoman, repeatedly reminded the speakers to focus on solutions for future events.
Machen has charged the panel with a broad investigation into UF's free-speech practices and security policies, not to rehash Meyer's ordeal, Tanzer said.
She was a little surprised at the forum's scarce attendance, but she said she was not disappointed.
The panel's job is to give people the opportunity to share their ideas, and it has kept up its end of the bargain.
"Our job as faculty is to help you become engaged citizens in every way," Tanzer said.
"It would be too bad if we went through this whole process to have students speak their minds and no students come to speak their minds," she added.
Still, she said she believes students and community members were adequately notified about the panel.
UF sent out an e-mail to all its students reminding them about the event and sent news releases to various news outlets, hoping for a mention, she said.
"I don't know what else we can do," Tanzer said. "Rent an airplane to fly over the football game?"
