We have ways of making you talk

The Toronto Star reports that the officer involved here has pleaded guilty to uttering threats. How about armed assault? Abuse of authority? People swept up by the Toronto Police at the G8/G20 were charged with more serious crimes for a whole lot less. If soap bubbles can be considered assault, then how is this revolting threat of torture with a deadly weapon not aggravated assault?
We keep being told that Tasers are supposed to be a non-lethal alternative to guns, but again and again, we see stories of them being used as compliance weapons or torture tools.
As for the officer in question, he will be sentenced in June. Until then, he is on paid suspension and departmental disciplinary measures will not be decided until after the sentencing. As far as I'm concerned, the conviction should see him automatically dismissed from the police force and barred from doing any kind of security work.
The one bright spot I see in this case is that this gross misconduct came to light because another officer who was reviewing the in-car videos on another matter reported the offending officer to the department's professional standards branch, which handed the file over to the courts. Its about time the police started putting professional standards and proper respect for the law ahead of the unofficial thin-blue-line omerta that allows so much abuse to go on.
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The end of an comedic era and a new SLOTM

"Oh, somewhere in this favored land Alberta,

the sun is shiningwhere the crooks are not too bright;

the band is the moronic miscreants are playing somewhere,

and somewhere hearts are light boneheads fight

And somewhere men are laughing drunks are driving,

and somewhere children shout beef jerky thieves are unperturbed

But there is no joy in Mudville  It could be in Ponoka

- mighty Casey Constable Enns has stuck out been transferred"

Despite the taser troopers now being rightfully pilloried in the press and blogosphere, The Woodshed salutes our newest Spiritual Leader of the Moment: The Mountie behind the what has been the most reliable nonpolitical entertainment on the internets the past few years - RCMP Constable Douglas Enns, late of the Ponoka, Alberta RCMP detachment and author of the best written, funniest small town police blotter ever (and I speak as someone who covered cops in small towns for small newspapers for way too many years). For those looking for a primer on snark as it is writ, look no further than back issues of the Ponoka News. Literature and Ponoka's loss is law enforcement and St. Albert's gain. 

with a special tip of the Smoky-the-Bear Stetson to Cowboys for Social Responsibility for bring the good Constable's work to us for these last few years.