They gave them useless tazers and took away their batons. If the cop had a baton he could have beat some sense into the kid. As it stands now it's tazers or bullets. When the first line doesn't work, the second line comes into play.
You are absolutely correct about that. And a baton can keep an aggressive person at bay even without striking him in the torso. But the powers that be have declared batons to be evil (the Rodney King video had something to do with that, if I recall correctly). So as you noted, it's usually now either taser or gun.
But I do wonder, did the cop in this case attempt to use pepper spray?