Keeping Current on Taser News

I'm starting to get numb to Taser news, yet I feel compelled to keep our readers current.

Today, we learn of Willie Lorenzo Buie, the stepfather of Boston Celtics guard Marquis Daniels, refusing to leave his seat following a disturbance during Tuesday's Game 2 of the Celtics' Eastern Conference Finals series against the Orlando Magic. When police officers attempted to remove Buie from a seating section behind one of the baskets in Orlando's Amway Arena, he reportedly said, "I'm not going, [expletive] you."

[Note to self: Dropping F-bombs on men in blue is a surefire Taser invitation.]

That same night, an intoxicated homeless man attending an Altoona Curve double-A baseball game claimed he was looking for a shortcut to the Blair County Ballpark concessions stand when he lowered himself over the center-field fence and began walking hands-in-pockets along the warning track toward right. Security officials, alerted to the intruder's presence by the Curve's radio announcer, escorted 24-year-old Tyrone Squires off the field, where he was arrested by local police and charged with criminal trespass, disorderly conduct and public drunkenness.

Unlike the Buie arrest, a Taser wasn't used to detain Squires. According to Curve general manager Rob Egan, Blair County Ballpark security personnel don't even carry the device. Still, the latest indication of just how much Tasers have entered the crowd-control lexicon came from Akron Aeros right fielder John Drennen, the closest player to Squires during his midgame stroll.

"There's no room for that," Drennen told the Altoona Mirror. "He should have gotten Tasered."