Without more information it is hard to comment. If the police were in the right to arrest him, he was resisting, and left the officers little choice but to use more force or tase him... tasering is the least likely to cause harm to call involved. If that's what happened, too bad he died - but not the cops fault. I hope they DO investigate and keep the public informed. The more faith we lose in police the harder it is for them to do the things we want them too.
It might not be a question of whether they had the right to use potentially deadly force (which they may very well have had) but how responsibly that was done.
When you see Tasers demonstrated on TV it's always the minimum amount: one short burst. When you hear of people dying from it, it's usually from many bursts, or longer shocks, or both.
A 49-second shock would prove fatal in this case:
http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Family-of-Man-in-Taser-Death-Suing--Manufacturer-105134614.htmland yet the officer felt the need to deliver more.
Nowadays, the goal of tasers are not as an alternative to guns, but as a tool to force compliance or win a verbal argument, and if you are convulsing, you arent complying yet.
Using tasers instead of guns was a noble idea, but lack of knowledge as to it's effects, coupled with lack of good policy (and sometimes a lack of respect for people in general) has lead to the Taser becoming nothing more than an urban cattle prod.
