This is just so ridiculous, it's gotta be read to be believed.
An innocent blind man was shot in the back with a 50,000-volt Taser by police after they mistook his white stick for a samurai sword.
Colin Farmer, 61, was hit after reports of a man walking through Chorley, Lancashire, early on Friday evening, with a sword. He said he initially thought he was being attacked by hooligans when he was struck by the Taser.
Farmer, who used to run an architects' practice, was on his way to meet friends at 5.45pm and was walking in Peter Street near a restaurant. "I was just walking along and I heard some men shouting really angrily and thought I'm going to get mugged. I didn't know any police were here.
"The Taser hit me in the back and it started sending all these thousands of volts through me and I was terrified.
I mean I had two strokes already caused by stress. (lol) I dropped the stick involuntarily and I collapsed on the floor face down."
Chief superintendent Stuart Williams, from Lancashire Police, said: "It then became apparent this man was not the person we were looking for and officers attended to him straight away. (They kicked him)
(A 27-year-old man carrying a samurai sword was later helped across the street by the police.)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/oct/17/police-taser-blind-man-stick