Free Republic

Johnson was taken into custody. Once at the substation, police say Johnson became combative. He was reportedly banging his head on a table and screaming profanities. Police say that he was heavily intoxicated and has a history of biting off extremities. He later told police that he went to the gas station to buy beer and a five-pack of tobacco cigars. He said they were out of the five-pack so he wanted the woman to sell him five singles for the price of a five-pack. He claimed that the woman started “mouthing off.” Johnson said he then began talking to...

The safety of Tasers, the electric pistols that are widely used by police, is under new scrutiny after a study by a Wisconsin scientist showed that shocks from the guns cause the hearts of healthy pigs to stop beating. The finding contradicts previous studies that showed that Taser shocks did not cause heart disturbances in pigs, whose hearts are similar to those in humans. John G. Webster, a professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Wisconsin who conducted the new study, said the earlier studies contained serious errors because they did not account for the fact that pigs have...