When Cops Treat Tasers Like A Flyswatter

Well, here's a tale to extend the "Don't Tase Me, Bro!" discussion where Brattleboro, Vermont police felt justified in using tasers on two peaceful demonstrators. I just don't get how using electric shock which, contrary to the Nut Lobby, HAS been implicated in LOTS of deaths and injuries, was a) necessary here b) useful here and c) not immediately seen, before use, as being excessive to the point of being criminal (not to mention heinous).

I'll concede that, unfortunately, stun guns may have some place in security, both personal and professional. But its use has become totally indiscriminate which ultimately will put the people who choose to overuse it perhaps in more danger of being shot before they can shock someone.

Prescriptions: Just Between You, Your Doctor, AND Your State Police

As Julie at DailyKos points out from an article posted yesterday at Green Mountain Daily, the Vermont state police wants prescription drug records on citizens (not those suspected of committing crimes but information about anyone who takes drugs the police find "interesting" - full-scale data-mining of which any fascist police state would be damned proud).

Excuse me, is there a constitutional lawyer reading here who might be willing to help me start a class action suit? I won't stand for this, so I certainly won't sit back.

This isn't some "silly trip down the rabbit hole" - this is yet another bad butcher job on the U.S. Constitution, the Vermont government, and individual privacy. If they are allowed to do it here in Vermont, they WILL do it where you live, too. And imagine the myriad ways they can abuse it and "lose" it to data insecurity.