NBC News – by Alastair Jamieson and Deb Huberman
A family is suing a police department after a traffic stop ended with officers smashing a car window and using a Taser. The episode was caught on cellphone camera by the driver’s 14-year-old son who was on the back seat. Lawyers for Lisa Mahone and her boyfriend Jamal Jones say excessive force was used during the Sep. 25 incident in Hammond, Indiana, which began when Mahone was stopped and ticketed for not wearing a seat belt.
In the video, officers ask Jones, who was in the passenger seat, to show his ID. However, he did not have his license on him. Officers then appear to draw guns and order him out of the car, prompting Mahone to call 911. The video shows police smashing the passenger window and using a Taser on Jones. Lawyers say two children suffered minor cuts from flying glass. The lawsuit alleges excessive force, false arrest and battery. Attorney Dana Kurtz said the lawsuit “seeks to hold police accountable to this type of unnecessary violence can stop.”
In a statement Tuesday, Hammond police said, “Police officers who make legal traffic stops are allowed to ask passengers inside of a stopped vehicle for identification and to request that they exit a stopped vehicle for the officer’s safety without a requirement of reasonable suspicion. When the passenger displayed movements inside of the stopped vehicle that included placing his hand in places where the officer could not see, officers’ concerns for their safety were heightened.”
THEY sure are trying to start that Race war. ditto for the 7 year old MURDER victim.
How can I get on that jury? You know I am going to side with the driver and passengers.
Yes. Blacks to have a hard time with police. They may feel fortunate they are Black folks. If that was a white family they would have shot the parents to death in front of the children and took the children to the quires and or the Israelis for who know what horrors. The fact of the matter is police can murder whites and nothing is ever reported on it. Blacks get offed by the cops and its a media circus and calls for the head of the cops who did it.
that is unfortunately 100% true.
we need a white version of al-sharpton – without the manipulation.
what’s mr ventura doing these days other than a tv show?