A typical force continuum looks like:
1. Officer presence - officer shows up and the misbehavior stops
2. Verbal commands - officer yells at the perp and takes control of the situation
3. Empty hand control - guiding, holding, restraining, up to kicking/punching the suspect
4. Pepper spray, baton, taser
5. Less lethal - beanbag guns and such
6. Deadly force
What we are seeing lately is that many officers, especially smaller/weaker/female/cowardly/lazy officers, skip #3 entirely and deploy the taser. Often the motive cited is a fear of engaging in a physical confrontation with the suspect, an unfounded fear that the suspect could pull out a concealed weapon, etc. They use the taser in situations where they would never even consider using OC spray or the baton, and this unprovoked escalation in force is troubling. Individuals who get the “jitters” easily and are prone to overreaction do not belong in law enforcement.
Cases have also been reported where the taser is used to punish mere passive noncompliance, rather than active resistance. This hardly seems reasonable, as the device temporarily paralyzes the suspect’s central nervous system and he is likely to have trouble moving at that point. Tasers are best used to neutralize a threatening situation, not to inflict punishment on a subject who is already under control.
The taser-related deaths are a bit of a red herring. As you have mentioned, most of these suspects were under the influence of narcotics and most likely gave police a very good reason to deploy the weapon. The real abuses, while still somewhat rare, ironically almost never result in mortality.