When Imam Morales went off his meds and got crazy, standing naked on a fire escape in Bed-Sty, then moving to the top of one of the ubiquitous roll-up gates that protect store-fronts from the natives, New York’s Finest were pressed to employ ever tool at their command.  The tool of choice?  The Taser.

According to the New York Times, Morales’ mother tried to persuade the cops to let her calm her son down, as he stood there swinging a fluorescent bulb to keep the cops away.  She was told “it was now a police matter,” six very dangerous words.

For about 30 minutes, Mr. Morales yelled that he did not want anyone touching him, and the police yelled back that they wanted him to come down, witnesses said. Then, an officer approached the man on his perch and fired the Taser at him.

New York is a very fast paced city.  They gave Morales 30 minutes.  Seriously, how much longer could they be expected to dedicate to this one naked man, when there were fresh donuts to be had, not to mention a union-dictated meal break?

So Morales fell on his head and died.  It’s not like the cops shot him.  That would have been deadly force.  This outcome, well, just happened.  Hey, stercus accidit.

City Councilman Peter Vallone, chair of the public safety committee, offered a curious view of events:

“My first take is that while I’m sure there are no experts out there on how to handle a crazy naked man with a weapon on top of a ledge, I’m also sure this wasn’t the right way, ” Mr. Vallone said on Wednesday evening.

But ever the politician, Vallone concluded:

“A situation like that is never going to end in a good way,” Mr. Vallone said after watching the video. “The most important thing is that no innocent bystanders or police got hurt. But clearly, it could have been handled better.”

Why is that, Mr. Vallone?  Why is the most important thing that no police got hurt?  Obviously, the welfare of a police officer exceeds the life of a resident.  Is it that a police officer getting hurt is so significant, or the life of a citizen in the City of New York is so inconsequential?

This is a video of the incident, with commentary by a New York Post reporter, who clearly shows that he’s utterly clueless when it comes to reciting facts accurately.  But in New York, no one expects much of the Post.

It was only a matter of time before Tasers started making news in New York.  After all, we have far more cops than anywhere else on earth, and that means far more poorly trained, poorly paid, tired, annoyed, people with access to Tasers than anywhere else.  Now that Sergeants carry Tasers on their belts as part of the standard uniform, it’s New York’s turn to show the many stupid tricks police can perform with a Taser.

But nowhere does anyone offer a suggestion as to why, after 30 minutes, did the Emergency Services cops, supposedly the elite of the force, decide that enough was enough, and it was time to pull out the Taser and put an end to this.

“His mother called 911,” said Sharonnie Perry, a community advocate who lives down the street. “She called for assistance and the assistance she got was her son being killed.”

Problem solved, New York style.