Today's TASER Travesty

It wasn't enough for three Gwinnett County, Georgia police officers (a corporal and two sergeants, to boot) to regularly show up at a Waffle House restaurant and fill up with free food, in direct violation of department policy.

Nope, they had to further abuse their authority by teasing the young waiter mercilessly (all the while scarfing their ill-gotten breakfasts) by constantly threatening the poor fellow with a TASER:

"[Daniel] Wilson said the officers often pointed the red laser from their Taser at him playfully. They would do so when Wilson picked a song they didn’t like on the jukebox or when telling him not to mess up their order, Wilson said."

Yessir, it was all hilarious fun and games (at least for the cops), right up until the day that Corporal Gary Miles actually walked up behind Wilson and TASED him for real, for no apparent reason whatsoever other than to get some sick kicks:

"Then on Feb. 16, Wilson was chatting with [the two sergeants] when Miles sidled up behind him. Without saying a word, Miles zapped him with the Taser, Wilson said."

The two superior officers, instead of being horrified and immediately reporting Miles for his action, merely laughed it up along with the corporal. Wilson sought an apology from Miles a few days later; instead of being remorseful or apologetic, here's what the good corporal had to say for himself, according to the waiter:

“Who says I did it by accident?”

Fortunately for the other law-abiding residents of Gwinnett County, Miles has been fired and charged with "misdemeanor battery and violating his oath as an officer". Sergeants Christopher Parry and Joseph Parkerson were allowed to resign in disgrace before they got pink-slipped, but the local prosecutor hasn't ruled out charging them in the incident as well.

Wilson has filed a lawsuit against the department seeking damages, and as part of that legal action his attorney seeks to

"bar Gwinnett police from carrying Tasers until their policy and training is evaluated".

That sounds quite reasonable to us, based on the fact that three of their command officers felt that the "less than lethal" defense weapon was issued to them to be used as some sort of souped-up joy buzzer.