The-Ave.US

“Lisa Mahone and her boyfriend Jamal Jones were driving on Sept. 24 in Hammond, Indiana, with Mahone’s two kids in the back seat when Mahone was stopped and ticketed for driving without wearing a seat belt. The stop was caught on cellphone camera by Mahone’s 14-year-old son,” NBC News reported today.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/tasered-passenger-my-civil-rights-were-just-thrown-out-window-n219916

She presented her driver’s license and insurance identification when requested, and told the cops they were en route to a hospital to see her dying mother, because the hospital had just phoned and told her that her mother was about to pass away.   Mahone was driving, Jones was in the passenger seat, and the children were in the rear seat.  When the cops asked Jones for his ID, “Jones told police he did not have his ID because he had recently been given a traffic ticket, according to the lawsuit. When he reached into the back seat to get the ticket, the officers drew their guns and refused to take the ticket as a form of ID,” CBS News reported.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/lawsuit-indiana-police-used-excessive-force-in-traffic-stop/

The cops then ordered Jones out of the car, but he refused, saying he feared for his safety.  Meanwhile, Mahone was on her cell phone to the 911 dispatcher, describing what was going on; suddenly one of the cops used a baton to smash the car window and shoot Jones with a Taser, and the video captures Mahone screaming.  Raw Story has the video, which was released today by the family’s attorney, here:  http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/10/watch-cops-smash-window-to-use-taser-on-passenger-during-seat-belt-traffic-stop/

The family has filed a lawsuit against the Hammond Police Department seeking damages for assault and battery, excessive force, and violating their civil rights.  A police spokesman defended the officers’ actions, saying, “”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.”  (Quote from the NBC story linked above)

This case raises all sorts of issues.  One of the things happening here is racial profiling.  The cops were white; Mahone, Jones, and their children are black.  I wonder if the cops would have treated them differently if they had been white.  It’s hard for me to believe otherwise.  While police routinely ask drivers for ID in traffic stops, but I’ve never seen a cop ask a passenger for ID.

Many poor and minority people don’t have IDs, partly because of poverty, and partly because of discrimination.  Not infrequently, their lack of ID resulted from abusive police practices.  In many minority communities run by white people, the poor people get shaken down by ticket-writing cops and money-grubbing municipal judges, then lose their driver’s licenses because they can’t pay the fines.

But having an ID also can make a black person a target of the police, as we saw in the recent case where a white cop gunned down a black driver when he reached into his car to get the driver’s license the cop had just asked him for.  For blacks, and especially black males, there’s no safe way to respond to white cops and they know this.  These cops smashed their way into Mahone’s car because Jones didn’t follow their order to get out of the car.  But for Jones, being afraid to get out of the car after the cops pulled guns on him was a perfectly natural reaction.  Given how many white cops treat black people in this country, he had every reason to fear what they might do, and would’ve been crazy not to.

There is a broader issue here of general police violence.  America hasn’t become more violent; crime statistics show violent crime rates dropping.  But America’s cops are more violent.  They’re now routinely using force in situations where it was never used in the past.  They now smash car windows and tase people with little or no provocation.  They even shoot at cars with kids in them.  What we’re witnessing is an epidemic of police violence, and a changed police culture that fosters and abets it.  Videos show cops slugging people who are handcuffed and on the ground, and attacking bystanders who are taking videos.

America’s cops are out of control.  They’re waging war against the people they’re supposed to serve and protect.  There’s something terribly wrong with our country when law-abiding citizens fear the police more than criminals.  Until we get that under control, no one is safe.