Let's Taser the Realtors

It's pretty cheesy to post stuff like this, but, from today's Rocky Mountain News: Settlement reached with man Tasered in restaurant:

A 29-year-old father who was Tasered by a stun gun in an Aurora Chuck E Cheese restaurant pleaded no contest today to disturbing the peace. [. . .]

The plea was the result of a settlement deal reached with the city, which has agreed to pay his attorney's fees and medical costs. The city also pledged to have the case reviewed by a Use of Force Board, which is still in the planning stages.

Aurora police were called to the restaurant Feb. 27 after employees accused [Danon] Gale, who was at the establishment with his young children, of stealing salad.

Investigators have since determined that Gale had paid for the salad bar, according to a statement released by the city today.

When Aurora police asked the father to step outside, he refused. Police have said previously that he could not produce a receipt and became belligerent. Police alleged that Gale shoved one of the officers — an accusation that some witnesses have refuted — prompting police to to use a Taser on him twice. [. . .]

For some reason the word use here interests me more than the fact that some poor schlub was Tasered in front of his kids at a Chuck E Cheese. For example:

"Taser" looks stupid capitalized (scroll down to "Current trademarks that are often used generically"). Like the capitalization of "Realtor," it's just not right.

"Refuted" is used as a synonym for "contradicted," a peeve I've petted heavily in recent years. It is not.

There's no period after the "E" in "Chuck E Cheese," an obvious and pathetic attempt to draw a parallel to Harry S Truman. Almost everyone else uses a period.

Any minute now the "Ballad of the People's Heroic Salad Stealer" (in Korean) will be posted at the Maoist Internationalist Movement site.

Update: Why aren't Chuck E Cheese's roving cartoon characters trained in cooling out obstreperous dads? Sometimes a gentle sapping by a giant rabbit is simply the right thing to do. No fuss, no muss, no screamin' kiddies.

Update II: Here are a couple of blogs that mentioned the original story.