Now Just Fine To Taser People In The Back In Utah

Official: Utah trooper’s use of Taser reasonable

"SALT LAKE CITY - A Utah trooper who used a Taser to subdue a stubborn motorist who was walking away from him during a traffic stop acted reasonably, state officials said Friday.

Gardner twice zapped Jared Massey with a Taser when the driver walked away and refused to sign a speeding ticket on Sept. 14. The incident was recorded on Gardner’s dashboard camera. Massey filed a public-records request and posted the video on YouTube, which said it has been viewed more than 1 million times."

So it's official. Cops, and presumably anyone else with a badge, can use a taser as an instant punishment and torture weapon on people even if the people aren't a threat to anyone. They can use it even on people walking away from them. And in this case on a guy who apparently didn't grovel sufficiently.

added - Bernie Kerik's old company isn't about to sit still and rest on their laurels. In addition to flying saucer tasers, soon we're going to feel the power of super duper tasers:

"The Taser is going wireless.
Until now, the electric-shock gun consisted of two barbed darts attached to wires that shoot out and strike the victim, immobilizing the person with 50,000 volts of electricity, causing severe pain and intense muscle contraction.
But the wires could only extend a few metres. With the new "extended range electronic projectile," or XREP, the Taser has been turned into a kind of self-contained shotgun shell and can be fired, wire-free, from a standard shotgun, which police typically have in their arsenal already.
The first electrode hooks on to the target, the second electrode falls and makes contact elsewhere on the body, completing the circuit and activating the shock. It can blast someone as far as 30 metres away, and, unlike the current stun guns, whose shock lasts five seconds, the XREP lasts 20 seconds, enough time to "take the offender into custody without risking injury to officers."