[Overpaid Slacker]

Kach -
I can't speak for others here, but to the extent it was humerous, it was not out of some sadistic glee watching this guy get zapped. To the extent is was "funny" it's b/c this guy, who has resisted arrest and is obviously on the wrong end of the taser, kept saying "no"... like it's going to change anything. I mean WTF?? It's a dry, "what is wrong with this guy" laugh of disbelief, in my case.

OK, maybe there was also a little element of Nelson's "HA-Ha" that a dirtbag that would wrestle with a cop under those circumstances got taken down.

FWIW, I didn't hear begging or pleading, I heard and saw warnings by the cop, the bonehead's refusal to comply with oft repeated simple requests, resisting arrest and noncompliance with an officer of the law -- an officer who was enforcing our laws to keep this guy off the road.

I mean, what was the cop supposed to do --
"Put your hands behind your back"
"No"
"Please"
"No"
"Oh, OK, have a nice night sir, drive safe."

I think the cop acted well w/in the bounds of propriety. I can't abide the "wait 'til he's got the gun and pointed at you to react (if it's unloaded, do you have to wait for him to load it before you respond?). Less-than-lethal force (and used w/ no material permanent damage) was justified to end the situation before the cop got hurt, the guy got a weapon or got in the truck (which, as Bell rightly says, is a weapon if this guy is impaired), or either of them got hit by a passing vehicle.

Red - I didn't read the thing about the scissors, but continuing the notion in the prior paragraph, I would not ask someone to wait until they were sliced or stabbed by scissors to react. Sure, they're "only" scissors, but that means the cop's got to risk laceration, stabbing or loss of an eye b/c the weapon wielded isn't a firearm? It's only two knives hinged in the middle? That's ludicrous; not to mention the potential threat to civilians around the weapon wielder.

Assault is a crime; and in most US jurisdictions, assault is merely the reasonable apprehension of being hit/harmed; it has little to do with the "degree" of harm that would most likely result.

Though many jurisdictions have boutique names for it (menacing, reckless handling of a firearm, whatever) if I come up to you and point a shotgun (say) at your head, that's an assault crime; same if I wield scissors at you. If I do either at a cop, and get tasered, I'd feel fortunate that the PD could afford the tasers.

JP