I'll be the contrarian here...
The Taser was sold as the "less lethal" alternative to firearms or police batons. LEOs can stop a guy without having to kill or maim him.
I find it highly unlikely that guy would have been shot or pounded for this infraction prior to the introduction to Tasers.
It was absolutely excessive force. Many people have died as a result of taser shocks. It is not intended to be a convenient form of crowd control for the police. There are too many police who feel they can use the taser without any attempt to restrain the person physically. This won’t be a joke when the Obama-bots start using tasers on Tea Party members they decide are “unruly”.