Question: Can the police, in general, be trusted [with tasers]?

Answer:

OTTAWA - Stacy Bonds, a young black makeup artist with no criminal history was arrested by Ottawa police, apparently for asking why police had stopped her for questioning. A video of her treatment in police custody is now available on the Citizen’s website, OttawaCitizen.com.

The facts of Bonds’s treatment bear repeating. She was walking on Rideau Street in downtown Ottawa. She was neither drunk nor behaving inappropriately. The police stopped her and asked her name; she provided it. After checking her name and finding nothing, the police told her she could go on her way. Bonds, as is her perfect right, asked why she had been stopped in the first place.

In response, the police arrested her for public intoxication and handcuffed her. As Ontario Court Judge Richard Lajoie later held, Bonds was not drunk. Once Bonds was taken to Ottawa Police headquarters, the judge noted that she was anything but "violent or aggressive." As can be clearly seen in the video, Bonds is much smaller than the police who confronted her.

In spite of the lack of violence or aggression, Bonds was assaulted by police. Judge Lajoie found she was the victim of "two extremely violent knee hits in the back ... and has her hair pulled back and her face shoved forward." ... [LINK]

Note the classic "cover charge" (later tossed by the judge, by the way).

Note that the actions of these out-of-control and violent police were not unique, but are obviously  institutionalized (read that again, it's very important) None of the other officers present intervened, not one. This is self-evidently SOP (Standard Operating Procedure), and the police officers involved saw nothing wrong with their actions and/or they comfortably assumed that they can get away with it (choose your poison).

These officers may be fired or charged. But someone has to point out the obvious conclusion that this event is most likely the tip of a very large iceberg.

It is crystal clear that the police, as a community (in general), have regressed to a point of organizational immaturity such that they simply cannot be trusted.

Certainly not with tasers (instruments of torture). Might as well give toddlers a cigarette lighter. Same thing exactly.

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This story has nothing to do with tasers.

This story has everything to do with tasers.

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UPDATE: Actually there is a more-direct connection... See [TNT].