On December 28, 2009, the 9th Circuit (US District Court – Southern California) issued an opinion in the case of Carl Bryan v. Brian McPherson; Coronado Police Department; and City of Coronado, No. 08-55622 (DC No. 3:06-CV-01487-LAB CAB) finding a police officer used excessive force when Tasering a young man who was stopped for not wearing a seatbelt. The officer, without warning, Tasered the unarmed young man in the back from 15 – 25 feet away. As I’m sure you are aware there have been a number of cases in the recent press regarding police officers Tasering everyone from little girls to tiny Grandmas. Finally, a court recognizes that police officers can’t Taser someone out of anger – there has to be an actual threat to the officer. Hopefully, police departments across the nation will take note of this finding of excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment.
Police – take note: you can no longer Taser anyone you want
December 31, 2009 by kimberlyhouser
In the eyes of the law 
Sure they will…LOL.
99.9% of police don’t….
Actually, the statistics I reviewed (already a few years old) indicated that 12,000 out of 17,500 law enforcement agencies do use tasers. That is well above 0.1 %. Please see http://www.taser.com/legal/Pages/Default.aspx for more information.
Cops act as if they are above the law and they project themselves as “god-like” beings. This type of intimidation and provoking seen by the cops today reminds me of soviet Russia or Nazi Germany. What ever happened to innocent until proven guilty?
Kim, the police are only going to start paying attn when we end access via respondeat superior to our own deep pockets–and they find themselves the only ones on the hook for what they do..
This case sickens me. How in the world did he think that was ethical, constitutional, or even legal? And how can you not care!? Its sad that any person that has that much anger and is that power hungry can be in a position of high authority… with a taser. A huge detail is that is was from behind. The young man, I’m sure, had no idea it was coming, and it was for a seatbelt violation! You mentioned a while back in class that a police officer had tasered an elderly woman for ‘sassing off’. That’s just unbelievable. At least the court ruled correctly this time. I hope that man lost his job.