Naked Neo-Hippie Gets Tased by the Police

A naked neo-hippie, dubbed as the "Naked Wizard" online and in the online mainstream media, was tased by three overweight law enforcement officers at the Coachella Music & Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Fields in Indigo, California on April 17. The man, identified as 23-year-old Johnathan Fredrick Felch of San Luis Obispo, was asked repeatedly by the cops to put his clothes back on but refused to comply.

In a video that's currently being widely circulated on the Internet, the three cops attempt to talk Felch into putting back on his clothes. When the officers throw a robe to Felch, he tosses it away from him, indicating his unwillingness to get dressed.

Here's the video for those who want to see it on here. WARNING: Those who are offended by nudity and strong language should not watch this video, as it does contain those things:

Naked Wizard Tased By Reality from Tracy Anderson on Vimeo.

After Felch refuses to obey the officers, the ugliness of the situation begins to rear its head. The officers, dismayed that he wouldn't abide by their requests, pin him to the ground. One of them is shown pushing his knee into the man's stomach, resulting in him to break free of their grasp and get away from them.

Then one of the cops (who happens to be from Banning) pulls out his taser gun and accosts the man with the weapon. Felch continues to struggle to get away from the cops, but they proceed to keep tasing him several times (one in the chest, another on the back of the neck, and the other in the throat) before they arrest him and place him into custody. Obviously, Felch was under duress just as the statist thugs were cuffing him in broad daylight.

The onlookers who were concertgoers observing the assault were booing the entire time. In fact, one of them can be heard as saying, "This is fucking ridiculous."

It's been said that the man was inebriated and yet deserved to be taken down by the police. One commenter of the video on Vimeo, who claims to be from Portugal, says:

[R]ight on. I'm from Portugal and actually watched this live on TV when it happened. justice was served.

but in this case I think the crowd would have been shot at, americans are too easy on the trigger. and the guy had it coming...police brutality was wrong, but he was warned several times.

How can anyone support this vile paradigm -- the idea that the cops "ought to be" revered and looked upon as heros -- when the police state can come knocking on their door? If the police demand that you obey them and you refuse to cooperate and they tase you, will you stick to your story that the life of the cops are important and not the life of a non-violent criminal like Johnathan Felch?

[Hat tip to Karen DeCoster for first mentioning this on her blog.]

[Cross-posted at the Freeman Chronicles.]