...from last March:

Federal Appeals Court: Seattle Police OK To Taser Pregnant Woman

Source: Associated Press

(03-26) 13:24 PDT Seattle (AP) --

A federal appeals court says three Seattle police officers were justified when they used a stun gun on a pregnant mother who refused to sign a traffic ticket.

Malaika Brooks was driving her son to school in 2004 when she was stopped for doing 32 mph in a school zone. Rather than give her the ticket and let her go on her way, the officers arrested her. They used a Taser three times when she refused to get out of her car.

A panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 Friday that the officers were justified in using force because of the threat that Brooks could have picked up her car keys off the floor, started the car and driven away erratically.

The dissenting judge called the ruling "off-the-wall," and said the police officers had no authority to arrest Brooks — let alone the authority to use a Taser on a nonthreatening woman who was seven months pregnant.

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Increasingly the cops act like this. I blame part of it on the fact that many vets returning from Iraq and the many, many tours there are first draft picks when the local Police does their hiring.

A person simply cannot spend four or five years busting in people's doors, ordering everyone to the floor, no complaints or we shoot, and then get re-integrated back into society by being police.

Not all of this abuse can be blamed on returning war veterens of course, but far too many people are attracted to law enforcement because they are attracted to the gun, the badge, and the power to assert that authority and more often than not to abuse it.