GUEST COMMENTARY: Police use of force in Columbia growing more out of control

Carl Alan Giles peed in an alley. Matthew Schuckmann, in 2008, in some bushes. Peeing in public is definitely no hanging crime, but it's one transgression that the Columbia Police Department deems grave enough to use force. Schuckmann was Tasered and arrested while attempting to flee. Giles, according to eyewitness accounts, was pepper sprayed and, when on the ground and restrained by a group of officers, Tasered two times. The 27-year-old was unable to move afterward. In total, at least 10 officers were present to subdue the man. Witnesses called it an overreaction, but such police behavior has become the norm in Columbia.