Now, let me get this straight.
Someone calls police on Friday night and complains about the noise level of the music at a local club that is well-known for featuring live bands. The club’s crowd is comprised mostly of college kids.
An officer responds and, when the band doesn’t reduce its noise level to the officer’s satisfaction, the officer climbs onstage, shines a flashlight in the lead singer’s face and yells “Stop!”
What happened next is subject to conflicting accounts. However, it appears to be undisputed that the lead singer said something and then the officer grabbed him by the neck and forced him to the ground. A melee involving the officer and several members of the audience broke out, prompting the officer to Taser the lead singer, a 14-year-old audience member and a University of Houston sociology student doing a “field paper on the music scene.” At least four people were arrested, the bass player’s guitar got smashed and six HPD squad cars ended up at the scene.
The lead singer, who was not one of those arrested, commented afterward to a Houston Chronicle reporter that the officer was “out of control.” “He was extremely violent form the start,” said the lead singer. “It was frightening.”
On the other hand, a police spokesman told the Chronicle that the officer’s approach “was commendable” and that it was “fortunate that he used a Taser instead of a weapon.”
“Fortunate that he used a Taser instead of a weapon?” To tone down the music level at a club that is in the business of playing loud music?
Irresponsible use of force by local police is an offshoot of the growing problem that Cato Insitute fellow Radley Balko has chronicled with regard to overuse of local police SWAT units. I guess we’re fortunate that HPD didn’t send in its SWAT team to deal with this situation, but doesn’t HPD have better things to be doing on a Friday night than Tasering a bunch of college kids who enjoy listening to loud music at a club?