Taser Abuse

Some cops down under are apparently a bit Taser-happy.

POLICE are investigating claims an officer tasered a handcuffed man three times in the Cleveland watchhouse last year to "shut him up".

Last August, police arrested concreter Nathan Brown, 23, near the Alexandra Hills Hotel and locked him in a cell at the Cleveland watchhouse.

Mr Brown pleaded guilty to assault, assaulting police and being a public nuisance. However, he has claimed in a signed statement believed to have been given to investigators that he was tasered three times while handcuffed in the watchhouse.

Apparently his sister complained to the police that her brother had been punched when he was arrested and so they locked her up too. When Mr Brown began to shout to complain about her treatment he was "given the treatment".

Mr Brown's father Bryan, who has given statements to investigating officers, said about a week after the alleged incident he spoke to the officer who tasered his son.

The officer said "it shut him up, didn't it?", and hung up, he said.

That says it all really, doesn't it?