On Feb. 6, 2002, I was arrested for carrying a sign and standing well outside the entrance to a fund-raising party in Evansville featuring Dick Cheney. He was in town to raise money for soon-to-be-private citizen John Hostettler, our congressman at the time.

My sign was simple. "Cheney — 19th Century Energy Man" was apparently too provocative for the Evansville Police officer in charge that day who ordered me arrested.

I was first charged with disorderly conduct, but I was certainly not disorderly. I had to spend a couple of hours in jail — until Cheney left town — and then released, being told to return to court the next morning to be arraigned.

At the arraignment, I was told my charges had been upped to "resisting law enforcement," which was getting close to a felony. The prosecutor told the judge that the reason for my arrest was that I was a "threat" to Cheney, and she allowed the charges to move forward.

Long story, short. The charges were later dropped, and I sued the police under provisions of both the First and Fourth Amendments of the Constitution of the United States of America.

I won after some protracted legal proceedings and was handsomely rewarded for my time in jail and the hassle I endured. The federal judge in the case, a Republican, spanked the police in finding for me in my suit.

I came out of this situation basically unharmed but somewhat reluctant to do any sort of protest toward the policies of the Bush Administration. Yes, I hate to admit it, but I was chilled, even though I had always been willing to exercise my rights as a citizen in the United States.

That brings me to today. I just watched a video of what certainly appears to be a horrible abuse of police power at UCLA.

Watching this video made me sick. I felt the pain of the man who was abused. It had to do with a taser used on a man on the UCLA campus.

His pain as they tased him more than once is abundantly evident in the video, which was shot by another student with his cell phone camera.

It reminded me of a situation in Bloomington a couple of years ago when a man was tased repeatedly and ended up dying as he lay incapacitated on the jail floor.

It really does not matter who you are or if you know your rights, we have now gotten to the point where this guy could have been any American citizen who has the audacity to question police authority.

Hopefully, the newly elected Congress will begin to reign in the powers police presume they have to inflict pain on citizens at will.

Once someone suggested that I was courageous for standing up to the powers that be and questioning their authority. I responded, "It should never require an act of courage to exercise your rights as a citizen of the United States of America. Indeed, it should be your duty."

John Blair can be reached at Ecoserve1@aol.com.

Editor's note: The Bloomington tasing incident John Blair refers to the death of Lawrence County resident James Borden. The jailer charged in the incident, David Shaw, pleaded guilty Nov. 15 to a felony charge of criminal recklessness. He received a 1 1/2-year, suspended jail term.