Trigger-happy cop tasers driver

INVESTIGATIONS into a US state trooper who tasered a motorist for refusing to sign a speeding ticket have widened after a video of the incident was posted on YouTube. The Utah Highway Patrol said the video, taken from Trooper John Gardner's parol car, showed him tasering Jared Massey when he started walking away after refusing to sign the ticket, Associated Press reported. The video was posted on YouTube after it was released to Mr Massey under a public records request.

"We definitely have received a lot of feedback on it - calls and emails," Utah Patrol spokesman Trooper Cameron Roden said. Trooper Roden told Associated Press that he didn't know what was "happening in Trooper Gardner's mind". "We have an internal investigation going on ... with it coming out on YouTube, we have expedited the investigation".

He said signing a speeding ticket was not an admission of guilt. Troopers can use a Taser if someone is a threat to themselves, or others, and other means of control are unreasonable, he said.

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Call to sack Australian jail staff over brutal assault

AT least three prison officers involved in the alleged savage assault of a remand inmate should be sacked, the state watchdog has said. Graphic footage of prison officers allegedly assaulting the inmate was tabled in State Parliament by State Ombudsman George Brouwer today. At least three Melbourne Custody Centre (MCC) staff may be charged over the incident. Victoria Police is investigating what Mr Brouwer described as ``serious mistreatment involving an excessive use of force'' against the prisoner.

Mr Brouwer today took the unusual step of using State Parliament to make public the CCTV footage of the June 13 incident. It shows a seemingly compliant prisoner in the early stages of being strip searched. One MCC staff member lunged at the prisoner and grabbed him around the throat as a second officer helped wrestle him to the ground. Several other officers entered the room seconds later and a female officer allegedly punched the already restrained prisoner. A fellow officer who witnessed the incident was extremely critical of the female officer, who was the partner of one of the two male officers holding the prisoner down. ``She was like a whirlwind,'' the officer said. ``She just flew over the top of the guys and just took over. ``What I saw floored me.'' Another witness said the woman punched or slapped the prisoner in the face and said ``how does that feel'' and ``that's coming from a woman''.

Mr Brouwer's report was also very critical of MCC facilities and its treatment of prisoners. The MCC is run by private contractors, the GEO Group Australia, on behalf of Victoria Police and is in the basement below the Melbourne Magistrates' Court. It is the main reception point for people arrested by police and handles more than 11,000 prisoners a year. Mr Brouwer said unless there were major reforms the custody centre would fail to meet its obligations when Victoria's Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities comes into effect next year.

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