Cops overuse Taser because of media hype!
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania - May 5, 2010 - Many baseball fans might agree that jerks that interrupt the game get what's coming to them. But the tasering of a seventeen-year-old Phillies fan who ran onto the field during Monday's game has at least some observers calling foul.
Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, for example, insisted, "There’s no need to use Tasers on fans that run on the field."
The fan's run was not televised but was captured in multiple videos from the audience. These quickly spread across YouTube and have been rebroadcast by many news programs.
On one typical newspaper message board, the comments ranged from, "That is the funniest picture I have seen in a long time" and "I'm 100% in favor of using a Taser on these yahoos" to "You guys ought to be embarrased [sic] to put even your screen name by those words."
An article in the Christian Science Monitor is now suggesting that overhyped fears of violence against police may be partly to blame for the public's casual acceptance of the police officer's action.
