Based on previous stories, tasers don't work as efficiently on people out of their mind. Not to say that there were not other options such as falling back. The prevailance of these events, you'd think it'd be standard to have two officers on scene. Granted, even this doesn't work sometimes, see the case where the black guy that got into a car accident and was knocking loudly on doors got shot too.
Is there any evidence of racism? On the face of it, it appears to be that officers are not being trained to deal with real life situations and go for the gun way too early. Once you have the gun in your hands, you can't easily holster, so the chance of using it have greatly increased.
