Digby of Hullabaloo quoting The Daytona Beach News:
Can running your mouth off at a police officer during a confrontation in a crowded store get you blasted with a Taser?Sounds ok until you read further.
It happened last month when a Daytona Beach police officer stunned a yoga instructor. The officer used her Taser when the teacher refused to pipe down inside the Best Buy store on West International Speedway Boulevard.
The interaction with the police was less than one minute from start to tasering....
And then there is this: (my bold)
A News-Journal review of all Taser incidents by Daytona Beach police in November shows officers used the weapons 10 times. Beeland's was the only incident that did not involve violence or a fleeing criminal suspect.It's so quick just to taser somebody into submission and then figure out what the problem is. Why on earth do police need any training at all?
Officials with the ACLU and Amnesty International USA say other tactics should have been used, especially because Beeland was not acting violently or threatening the officer in any way.
"In my view, a Taser should be used only as an alternative to a gun," said Glenn Katon, director of the Central Region of the ACLU in Orlando. "Is yelling (at an officer) enough resistance to cause someone to be Tasered?
"People are getting killed with Tasers," he said.
Taser use has become so commonplace, Katon said, that officers no longer employ other training tactics they've learned to subdue people.
"I certainly don't want to see an officer get hurt, but a cop should have enough training to be able to use something other than a Taser to calm someone down," Katon said.
Could it be this policewoman went to the Blackwater camp for training?
