Sorry for the pun... but its the best I could come up with to describe these two recent stories about Taser use.  The first is this story, describes some pretty egregious police brutality.  A man was allegedly tasered for riding a bike at an airport... with no warning, and no sound justification.  I won't try to quote out of his account because it's extremely detailed.  It is a pretty one sided account, but if true, is downright scary.  Given a case here in Wisconsin where a man died when he was shot with a Taser multiple times, it demonstrates that some police are using this weapon inappropriately.  Instead of a "less than lethal" alternative to a gun, they are being used simply as a tool to subdue, which is barbaric, very dangerous, and completely inappropriate.

Take this for example:

Police are investigating the firey death of a man who burst into flames after dousing himself in petrol and then being shot with a taser gun.

Officers used the gun after the man had poured gasoline over himself.

Juan Flores Lopez, 47, died on Tuesday at a hospital in Texas.

Police initially used pepper spray when they tried to take Lopez into custody. Then they used the Taser. Some stun guns emit an electric spark when they deliver the jolt of electricity.

They fired a Taser which emits sparks at a man covered in gasoline?!  Exactly what did they think was going to happen?!  That's like a police officer who shoots a man in order to stop him from committing suicide.