Federal Court Clamps Down on Tasers

This is certainly long overdue. The 9th Circuit Court just ruled "a California police officer can be held liable for injuries suffered by an unarmed man he Tasered during a traffic stop."

Michael Gennaco, an expert in police conduct issues who has conducted internal reviews of Taser use for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and other agencies, said the ruling by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals prohibits officers from deploying Tasers in a host of scenarios and largely limits their use to situations in which a person poses an obvious danger.

It's not like it's never warranted, but clearly there have been way too many trigger happy cops in the last decade who taser out of mere spite rather than imminent danger. If this holds, maybe we won't be seeing any more tasering of kids, the wheelchair bound, senior citizens and people having health related seizures among other ridiculous uses of the weapon. Holding law enforcement accountable for unneccesary injuries would be a welcome change.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]