Andrew Meyer, 21, spent a night in jail before his release Tuesday morning on his own recognizance. He had no comment when he left, and his attorney, Robert Griscti, did not return messages seeking comment.

East Lansing police Lt. Kevin Daley said police have the primary responsibility of maintaining order at a safe location for speech and protest.

“Crowd control is our main job,” Daley said. “Demonstrators have the right to demonstrate, but they have to do it within the confines of what we allow. Many times, that’s very tough.”

Videos of the incident show officers pulling Meyer away from the microphone after he asks Kerry about impeaching President Bush and whether he and Bush were both members of the secret society Skull and Bones at Yale University.

University spokesman Steve Orlando said Meyer was asked to leave the microphone after his allotted time. Meyer can be seen refusing to walk away and getting upset that the microphone was cut off.

As two officers take Meyer by the arms, Kerry, D-Mass., can be heard saying, “That’s all right, let me answer his question.”

Audience members applaud, and Meyer struggles for several seconds as up to four officers try to remove him from the room. Meyer screams for help and tries to break away from officers, then is forced to the ground while officers order him to stop resisting.

As Kerry tells the audience he will answer the student’s “very important question,” Meyer yells at the officers to release him, crying out, “Don’t tase me, bro,” just before he is shocked by the Taser. He is then led from the room, screaming, “What did I do?”

Meyer was arrested on charges of resisting an officer and disturbing the peace, according to Alachua County jail records, but the State Attorney’s Office had yet to make the formal charging decision. Police recommended charges of resisting arrest with violence, a felony, and disturbing the peace and interfering with school administrative functions, a misdemeanor.

In a statement issued Tuesday, Kerry said he regretted that a healthy discussion was interrupted and that he had never had a dialogue end in 37 years of public appearances.

Daley said measures taken to keep a crowd under control vary depending on the rowdiness of protesters.

“If an individual was so unruly that he could not be removed without individuals being hurt, we would deploy whatever means necessary to ensure safety of all individuals,” he said.

The use of a Taser, though not out of the question, is strictly a defensive method, Daley said.

Scott Hendrickson, president of the MSU College Democrats, said his organization follows guidelines stated in the student activities handbook when inviting speakers to campus.

“There has to be a security plan that has to be drawn for MSU police and the Student Activities Security Team,” Hendrickson said.

Ben Morlock, chairman of MSU College Republicans, said the level of necessary security can often be predicted by the amount of protest at prior speaking engagements.

“Whenever you’re dealing with anything political, there are going to be factions that disagree with your views,” Morlock said.

“Some events require less security than others. I base it on the reaction that that person has received at other universities.”