Mark Lewis took this video in Acacia Park Saturday. His notes are below.

Police shot this man with a Taser in the park Saturday, July 12, while I was taping the IVAW Tower Guard action nearby. There had been a fight and one man was arrested earlier and you can see the paramedics attending to a woman on the ground behind the police, who was involved in the earlier fight.

This man was arguing with them about something and so one cop held him while the other shot him from about three feet, and they arrested him. He had stopped resisting and was talking to them, and had both arms behind his back at that point and the arrest and handcuffs could have been applied without this.

The waist-level attempted tackle from behind was poorly executed and did not pen his arms, so the cop could have been injured as a result. He could have also been shot with the Taser.

I don’t know what the argument was about and I don’t know what the guy did, but this is punitive use of a Taser to me, and not needed by the four cops that could have arrested this man without that level of violence. It is certainly NOT minimum force, which is the department requirement.