Just To Be Clear

This is why it's tough to believe the police when they deny claims of abuse (with a taser or otherwise):

The protest followed a similar occupation of a cafeteria in the same building nearly four months earlier. That protest ended peacefully. This time, the university’s response was more confrontational, and the outcome violent. “The Police Department was asked to arrest individuals trespassing on the property,” said Paul J. Browne, the department’s chief spokesman, who said the operation “was done in a very organized, orderly fashion.”

But students at the scene described a tumultuous situation in which protesters were pepper-sprayed before being placed in handcuffs and loaded by police officers into the back of a white van, around 11:30 a.m.

Mr. Browne said it was “untrue that pepper spray or mace was used in effectuating the arrests” — though he later clarified that he meant the arrests inside the building.

Then there's the video:


It's hard to take something like that out of context. It's unjustifiable regardless of the complicated history behind this situation, and no matter how aggravated the cop was. It also doesn't matter how much you hate "hippies." The police don't get to abuse citizens, annoying or otherwise. Period.