In light of the well diaried and well reported Andrew Meyers incident I think some of us need a reminder of who we are and what we stand for.
Andrew Meyers appears to be a jerk. Perhaps he's a practical joker who has an excessive craving for attention. Maybe he's a Republican, maybe he's a Democrat. I don't care.
He's rude and obnoxious. He cut a line to ask a question. He rambled on. He was inconsiderate. He was ill mannered.
If he was being disruptive, the police can ask him to leave. If he poses a threat then you use the least amount of force necessary (Often that's no force) to deal with the situation. But a couple of Florida officers overreacted. (Then again this is the same state where 5 year olds get arrested in kindergarten class.) This overreaction is a fireable offense and criminal charges should be considered against the Taser users.
The misuse and overuse of force by a small number of cops (I think it's fair to point out that 90-95% of cops go through their entire careers without ever physically overreacting to a situation) is a serious problem in this country. We've seen people Tasered for talking in a library and getting salad at Chucky Cheese.
The reality is that there are a small number of people who have badges and positions of law enforcement in this country who are dirty rotten scoundrels, criminals with badges, lying scumbags who should be in jail instead of given the power of the state to put others in jail. (Examples that come to mind are Jena 6 prosecutor Reed Walters, the two Asheville cops who openly hate free speech, the UCLA library cop, etc...) This is an indictment of a small number of people in law enforcement NOT the great majority who have a tough job and do it well under difficult circumstances. These small number of rogues are a disgrace to good police officers everywhere. Until we put these small number of bastards in jail for their crimes, incidents of abuse by law enforcement officials will only continue to occur. And think, for every one incident of abuse and misuse of power by a police officer, how many hundreds if not thousands occur that we never learn about?
The issue here is whether the police overreacted by Tasering Andrew Meyers. Clearly they have. Meyers may be all the nasty adjectives his detractors and critics claim he is but that didn't give the police the right to Taser him. Being a jerk is not a crime. Or at least it shouldn't be.