Neither one handled this well. Generally it's a good idea to keep your mouth shut during something like this -- when the cop asks him how fast he was going, and he says "68" (thinking he was in a 65-mph zone, I gather), I already knew it was going to go badly. (beyond knowing that the guy was going to get tazed that is) However, generally you keep your mouth shut so you don't self-incriminate yourself - not because you're afraid of getting tazed. So, while I myself would never have acted like this, I still wouldn't want to get pulled over by a cop who's so ready to respond like this.
compare with the video here, eh (most ppl have probably seen this before):
no tazer here
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I'm not sure of the stats so I'd be curious how often the questionable use of the Taser in by young, inexperienced officers.
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I don't know if you're referring to this incident, but most of the news accounts say this officer is a 14-yr veteran.
And the wife was 7 months pregnant, so probably a good thing she didn't 'get tazed as well'.
And, it's apparently not illegal to refuse to sign the ticket in Utah. Refusing can get you arrested, but that's not mandatory. Apparently there's a checkbox right on the ticket where the officer can indicate "refused to sign".
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Salt Lake civil rights attorney Brian Barnard agreed police do have the right to arrest a driver who does not sign a speeding ticket.
Refusing to sign a ticket is not a crime under Utah state law. Signing a citation but then failing to show up in court, however, is a class B misdemeanor.
Another option if a driver refuses to sign a ticket is for the officer to "put it in the car in a professional manner and leave it at that," Roden said.
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http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/1,5143,695230005,00.html