A young manrecently filed a civil rights lawsuit against officers of the Redwood City Police Department. The teen, Marcelo Perez, said the officers used a taser on him and then allegedlytaunted him in a 2010 incident in downtown Redwood City, Palo Alto Daily News reported.

According to the lawsuit, Perez went into a Safeway store to use the restroom on September 25, 2010. He was accompanied by a friend, who stole a bottle of alcohol as they left the store, the Daily News reported. Employees followed the friend who they say they saw steal the alcohol.

Perez walked in a different direction, away from the store to a nearby sushi restaurant to meet his mother for dinner, the article stated. While en route, Perez was approached by two officers, at which time Perez reached into his cell phone to call his mother. One of the officers pulled out a taser gun, telling Perez to raise his hands. Perez,who was17 at the time of the incident, was forced to the ground, the lawsuit stated. The officers then fired the taser at Perez, pushed his head into the sidewalk and injured his shoulder, the Daily News reported.

Perez was taken to the hospital for evaluation after his mother arrived on scene demanding the officer's badge numbers. Attorneys involved in the lawsuit filed in federal court called the incident a "straight-up excessive force case."

"The officers did not need to tase him," the lawyer told the news source.

While there are cases where officers need to use force, this was not one of the them, the lawyer said. Perez was initially charged with theft, criminal conspiracy, battery on a police officer and resisting arrest. However, the charges were later dropped, the article stated.

Group fights against tasers
The American Civil Liberties Union is currently fighting another police force in California to keeptasers out of the hands of officers. In San Francisco, the mayor has proposed issuing tasers along withother conductive energy devices to officers. The ACLU recently sent a letter opposing that decision, the San Francisco Bay View reported.

Other community members have also spoken in opposition to the idea of having the police force armed with tasers. They say it could put the weapons into the hands of already "trigger-happy" police officer who use excessive force, the Bay View reported.