Apparently It's National Excessive Force Month

Wow.

First we had this make national news.

Now it's this:

Details.

And - here's a third September police taser story:

Autistic Teen Tasered in Calif.

TUSTIN, Calif. (AP) — Sheriff's officials defended their use of a Taser stun gun to subdue an autistic teenager who left a social services center where he was being treated.

"It was necessary," sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino said in defense of the use of a Taser stun gun to subdue 15-year-old Taylor Karras.

He said the teen was running in and out of traffic and is lucky to be alive.

"If that were your son, would you want him Tased or hit by a car?" Amormino asked.

The teenager bolted from a social services center in Westminster on Monday and had walked 15 miles when sheriff's deputies received a call of someone running in and out of traffic on busy Newport Avenue. Sheriff's Lt. Larry Jones said a deputy fired the Taser after a second car had to swerve.

The teen was home with his parents Tuesday, uninjured and no charges were filed. But his parents said they believed deputies overreacted.

"They should have been on alert that there was a missing autistic teenager in the area," William Karras said.

It's stuff like this that makes me dramatically more worried about my fourth amendment and related rights being violated by some over-the-line local cop than anything the Bush administration has been doing to fight terror.

(Ultimately, I wish neither would happen - but given a choice would you rather be tasered by a local cop or have your international phone calls to suspected terrorists listened to? I know my preference.)