do i smell a gawker shirt? "Don't taser me, bro." in the yellow tag, anthropomorphized and tazing a black outline of a woman?

@MATTBROWN: Cool, I want one!!!!!

Taze first, ask questions later. Nice.

My parents are elderly, so they give me their credit/debit cards quite often to make purchases for them. I guess I'm at risk for getting tazed because my name's not on their cards. But then again, I wouldn't make too much of a fuss if someone questioned me, I'd just make the purchase with my own card (which irritates the 'rents, but whatevs.)

I could imagine it being her boyfriends or parents credit card and when she got denied it made her feel offended. Though, whatever she did after that to get tasered it more then likely her fault.

@mattbrown: I would totally buy that! And plus, I have to wonder, are tasings (is that correct?) suddenly a lot more frequent, or is it just getting reported a lot more because it's weirdly amusing (or is that just me?)

Need input......information.

The point of the taser and like weapons is to offer a non lethal alternative to the gun. THE GUN. Taser use has gotten out of control in my opinion.

OMG a stressed out shopper, lets tase them! Sickening.

Probably also a better alternative to the 'billy-club' to the head or whatever.

But then I've never had either, so what do I know?

I would like to add taser protection on my american express credit cards.

@Kezzerxir: Hard to tell. Cops seem to like to tase people at the slightest provocation, including refusing to sign your speeding ticket.

@DallasDMD: There is an extensive process when you "taze" someone. Whenever I see them do it on COPS, they always notify dispatch for a shift supervisor to come out. I do think that Tazers are replacing OC spray, which has many negative side effects, like widespread dispersal, as well as the cops who have to drive in the car with the suspect. I'm guessing if you compared OC sprays on suspects to Tazer useage over a period, it would be equal. ALSO, just the tazer warning seems to calm some people down. Except John Kerry event attendees.

@GitEmSteveDave: Depends on the jurisdiction. Some are much more responsible than others. There are plenty of videos where cops use their tasers irresponsibly.

Not against tasers, just against these cowboy cops.

Don't know anything about the story to really comment, but the liberal use of tasers, especially on a female, raises my suspicion just a tad.

The continued use of tasers by cops at the slightest noncompliance by a citizen is becoming quite alarming in this country. Cops seem to LOVE their new toy & are too willing you use them for the smallest reasons. Did you know... you could be tasered for not complying with an officer's legal order? Even if you are showing no threatening signs of behavior? Remember back when they swabbed pepper spray in the eyes of protesters who had chained themself inside an office (they later used a full spray in the eyes).... well... today... they can tase you for that.

IMO using a taser for "pain compliance" for nontheatening civil disobediance... is just wrong.

Think I read just recently that the UN has ruled the use of a taser as torture.

I can only hope stories about people being tasered for absurd reasons continue to be spread across news mediums, as this sort of vile behavior needs to be stopped. Have we become so disconnected from social interaction that authorities don't know how to handle erratic behavior without physical harm? Let's think back to a time before tasers became almost second nature: how would this situation have been handled then? Why can't we handle it that way, then?

@Kezzerxir:

Yea I tend to agree with you although we really need more information. Gotta wonder what she did to get the cops to taser her though.

Maybe it'd be simpler to just issue cops cattle prods. That way, they could zap people into "compliance" without as much of that pesky "following on the ground because of lost muscle tone".

Regardless of weather this one particular person should have been tasered or not the Police have become a little too zap-happy recently.

To be honest if I were a cop I'd be the exact same way though, or worse. It's so funny the way they twitch.

Maybe we just haven't tasered a guy packing a gun who fights back and kills someone, huh maybe that? Maybe the shot kills a child and the tape shows the man had a reasonable fear for his life maybe ya think huh?

This is practice in case they invoke martial law.

Tasers should be for when you can't subdue a suspect. You telling me that multiple cops can't put one ordinary woman on the ground and cuff her? What about that "Don't tase me, bro!" guy -- there were like six cops on him and they still couldn't control him without the electricity? Seriously, just knock him down, put a knee on his head, and cuff him.

A couple years ago, before the taser thing got big, there was a story about a guy who had a heart attack and died after being tased. Thing is, he weighed about 400 pounds and was out of his skull on PCP -- the dashboard cam shows him tossing cops around like ragdolls, taking direct blows to the skull and not even feeling it. THAT is when you need a taser. Some lady throwing a tantrum? Just grab her and cuff her, already.

have we totally forgotten about mace? or pepper spray?

@CumaeanSibyl: That is exactly what I've been saying all along. They need to reform when tazing is used. Like you said about the kid in Florida, there were 6 cops on top of him. I'm pretty sure he wasn't going anywhere. Whoever tazed him should be fired and thrown in jail for assault. Cops have been arresting suspects without tazers since the beginning of time so why change now.

Not enough information on this one to pass judgment on whether it was excessive or not.

@surewriting: Pepper spray has not been forgotten. But the problem with mace and pepper spray is that the intended target is not the only victim when someone is maced. Everybody around the suspect gets a healthy dose of the stuff as well.

Mace has been proven to have caused asthma attacks that led to respiratory failure. At least when a tazer becomes lethal, it affects one suspect. When the spray becomes lethal, it affects innocent bystanders.

I had a boneheaded cop mace a girl in a 12 x 12 room we used as an EMS treatment facility at a venue. It didn't help the two asthmatics that were already receiving nebulizer treatments. It would have been much better if she had tased the girl.

The other thing to remember is that tasers are "less lethal" not "safe." If it was "safe," people would use it on their kids.

@Papa Midnight: There really is very little information, you're right. I do think tasing has become the lazy cops' option though. It's at least as dangerous as a batton. I don't think they should be banned, but more stringent rules should be put in place.

And THIS is the exact reason that I don't want to use my friend's card when she offers it to me to use when I pick up food and what not.

There is also the fact that Tasers seem to have a much higher kill rate than OC spray.

I'm somewhat curious about this as Best Buy is about the only place left on earth that doesn't want ID with every damn credit card purchase.

Where is the story? What conclusions can we come to with such little information?

As someone who has $1300 in pending fraudulent charges at Circuit City on my Amex, as well as a few hundred dollars of other random assorted charges pushed through in the last few days (partially thanks to the "helpful" Amex rep who refused to cancel my card [for my convenience] when I first called last week about the first charge which I assume was a test), I say-- taze 'em!

:P (Yes, I am bitter tonight)

Happening in my own backyard, this is kind of funny. Our new police chief is a take no bull**** kind of character. While that's good for the bad crimes (murder, rape, robbery), it brings the hammer down hard on other stuff, like traffic violations and petty larceny. In other words, i'm not suprised by this at all. Normally I'm a pretty "stand up for my rights" kind of person, but in this town, I know that would likely put me at the business end of a taser shock.

[blogs.orlandosentinel.com]
(Said Police Chief taking a taser in a demonstration)

QUIT FUCKING TAZING PEOPLE!!!

At least she wasn't naked, deaf and in her own bathroom. [www.kwch.com]

the reason they taze people is not because they can't restrain people, its because they do not want other people or officers to get hurt. some nice lady may have a concealed weapon, a knife, a gun, etc. they may cause harm to themselves and/or officers. its to protect the saftey of everyone.

@pine22: And yet, if you bother reading, tazers have been shown to kill people. (I think there was around 200 deaths; it's been a while since I read it.)

Tazing people should only be done when there is a very obvious threat, not in such a stupid case like this.

Sheesh.

I bought a Tazer at Best Buy. It didn't work and they refused to take it back, said it had already been used!

I witnessed a woman trying to buy something with a friend's credit card, and when the clerk refused she threw a fit. People must be idiots to think a clerk is going to let someone use any random credit card they present.

@ninjatales: This is a standard feature with the Centurion card.

When I read the opening blurb, I thought she got tasered automatically when she used someone else's card.

I thought "Geez, those VISA people are going a little too far."

I don't like this new "tasering" thing. I'm a big fan of just using good old bullets instead

While I do agree that they do taze far too often for far too trivial things, without a story here we have no idea if this was a reasonable solution or not. Working in retail, I have had to deny many customers because their name was not on the credit card they wished to use. Almost all of them blow up at me, cursing wildly, many threatening me bodily harm if I do not accept their card (which is not theirs).

Sorry. At the moment the customer starts threatening the cashiers, I think it might just be time to consider their use. People are freaking insane these days. I prefer to take no chances.

Then again, if this lady was just throwing a fit, that is no provocation to using the tazer. I somehow feel that she did something to provoke it, though.

Thing is, subduing an uncooperative subject can also lead to the death of the subject along with a much greater risk of serious injuries.

Some of the anti-taser crowd can be a lot like the anti-nuclear energy crowd. Yes, both technologies have flaws but these people ignore the fact that all the alternatives are worse.

Some. The complaint against tasers that I hold to is that by making it so easy to use it has become a first, not final, option for far too many officers.

On this specific situation I'm on the fence. A touch of schadenfreude in hearing about what is _likely_ another histrionic-fit-throwing self-entitled ugly-American consumer (note: I'm American also) getting tasered down for _likely_ being a typical asshat.

So. meh. At least until further information is revealed.

Twenty years ago my mom was mugged. Several days later, they tried to use her checks and ID to buy stuff. I have no problem with them getting tasered. None at all.

@Xkeeper: It's tough for non police officers to judge when something is a "stupid case". The worst and most dangerous calls police can get are domestic disturbance calls. You would think two cops and two people would be easy, but irrational people are capable of irrational acts. We don't know the facts. And I will be the first to admit that they were wrong if after obtaining all of the facts, a review board finds the officer(s) in the wrong. The main problem is that in our society of information now, a minority of cases where something may have been done wrong, out of the vast number that were done right, is the focal point.

I find it hilarious that people are advocating physically restraining people as opposed to using a taser. If you hit someone in the chest, or apply force at the right moment, you can stop the heart instantly. Little leaguers now have chest pads to stop such things from happening anymore. Plus, you do not want to be that close to a "suspect" when trying to subdue. If at the "Don't Tase Me Bro" event, if the guy had just relaxed, it would never have gone as far as it did. They warned him, but he didn't comply. But I really would have hated to seen what would have happened if they broke out the OC spray. You would have had people dropping left and right and suing.

There is a reason that a taser has the reach it does. It's ~14 feet. That is the circle of danger posed by a person who may have a weapon. 99.97% of cops aren't out there to hurt people. They are there to protect the public+the criminals, enforce the law, and most important, get home safely at night.

Also, does anyone notice it doesn't say POLICE tased the lady. Maybe it was Best Buy Security, or someone else. And was it a Taser, or a stun gun?

2007 the year of the tazer.

This one is hard to tell, did she totally go ballistic or were the cops being jerks. The police seem to be a total game of roulette. You never know if the one that shows up will be a rational person or a cowboy cop that is more of a problem that whatever disturbance they are showing up for.

Dear Best Buy- Please Taze anyone who is not me and shows up with my credit card.

A friend of mine had his debit card number and pin somehow stolen and someone travelled all the wayup the east coast from Florida to Maryland stopping at Best Buys every 200 miles or so to buy laptops and video games. Took him months to get it sorted.

I find it interesting that they only went to Best Buy's. They must have a reputation for being sloppy on verification.

They need to start making these.
[gizmodo.com]

@ALGORMORTIS Actually stores are not allowed to ask you for ID for credit card purchases, its specifically in the merchant agreement. The only time they may ask you for ID is if you attempt to use an unsigned card. When you are asked for ID when making a credit card purchase you should inform them that is against the merchant agreement with Visa, MC, Amex etc and if they refuse your sale you will report them to Visa etc. Merchants that get reported for doing this are fined $1000s or they will have their merchant status revoked and not be able to take payments.

The issue with best buy is they only care if you use another persons card and sign your OWN name. Back when I was younger I went to best buy to buy 2 $5 pc power supply Y cables and my father had given me his credit card, I signed for it using my name (same last name) as I do anytime i've ever used it. After the sale was completed the clerk threw a fit saying I can't do that, so i said fine run it through again and I'll sign his name. Needless to say she didn't like that much either. It resulted in me having to rip the card out of her managers hands telling them all to fuck off and never ever shopping at that best buy again. Only in retrospect should I have taken my merchandise and card and left and ignored her all together. Sadly I can't go back and fix that. Atleast I had a satisfying exit.

And this crap that cops can taser people that COULD POTENTIALLY hurt them is just absurd. You're a cop because you were a high school bully and enjoy feeling important because you can't have a real job and like bossing people around while you hide behind your bullet proof vest and gun. Do you're job, arrest a person. Taser them if they assault you without a weapon.

My question about tasers on whether they are deadly weapons or not, if a suspect pulled out a taser would the cop get their's or would they pull out their gun? we all know the answer.

A friend of mine told me the other day that he has a cousin who is a cop and his favorite thing to do is point his taser at my friend and press the trigger far enough that it's on the verge of lighting up to shoot him.

Yes I know not all cops are like this, but there's certainly enough of the crazy ones who are enjoying their toys wayyyy too much.

Interesting is the use of the phrase "gotten excited", vs "threatening" which is what they typically use. I think that's pretty telling. I'd guess they just didn't like a loud customer.

I wonder if this is how Best Buy is going to cover criticism of it's poor practices now? Just taser people and take them to a back room? Considering the other press the company gets, it sounds about right.

in this day and age.. with video cameras everywhere.. especially in places like worst-buy.. i would imagine this person must have done more than what the title of this article would lead you to believe. Although, being a victim of fraud myself, if this was an incidence of fraud, i think getting tazored is getting off lightly.