DOES HE OR DOESN'T HE - TASER AN 80 YEAR OLD WOMAN?

Today's Waterloo Region Record says that a Peel Regional Police Officer tasered an 80 year old woman as she was walking along a Mississauga, Ontario road at 3:30 am.yesterday. The title is "80 year old woman injured after struck with Taser by police". Meanwhile the on-line version of this story has added the word "alleged". Regardless the woman sufferred a fractured hip among other injuries. Apparently there were three officers involved and one can certainly understand their interest in an 80 year old walking alone at 3:30 am. in the morning. That is simply doing their duty and looking out for the safety of a vulnerable citizen. Where it goes off the rails is the fact that Ontario's Special Investigations Unit (SIU) has publicly stated that one of the officers fired his Taser and the woman, hardly surprisingly, fell to the ground. As this occurred in Mississauga it is entirely possible that the officer thought he was dealing with very elderly Mayor Hazel McCallion and was thus in fear of his life. She has been known to reduce grown men to tears. The fact that there were three police officers dealing with one elderly woman is not the issue. She may have disrespected them thus making the use of a Taser pure humanitarianism versus giving her the Sammy Yatin treatment. Clearly our police in Ontario are more than ready for Tasers to be issued as standard equipment.