Police smash window, stun passenger

 This does seem to be excessive force for a seatbelt violation. When is the last time you were asked for ID when you were a passenger in a car where the driver was stopped for a minor traffic violation?

This is the terrifying moment police drew their guns, smashed a car window and tasered a passenger during a routine traffic stop.
Lisa Mahone, 47, was driving with her boyfriend Jamal Jones and two children, Joseph, 14, and Janiya, seven, in Hammond, Indiana, when she was pulled over for not wearing a seat belt.
Officers collected her license and insurance card, before asking to see Jones's ID, which he said he did not have because he had recently received a ticket.
(See article)

NAACP wants cops in Taser incident pulled from street

Hammond police officers Patrick Vicari and Charles Turner were named in a federal lawsuit filed in U.S. District court Monday, alleging they used excessive force when they broke a car window during a traffic stop for a seat belt violation Sept. 24

The 14-year-old boy who filmed Hammond, Indiana police breaking his mother’s car window to stun her passenger with a Taser is speaking out about the “scary” police brutality he witnessed.

What do you think about this Indiana traffic -stop case from 2009?

Court: refusal to identify law applies to passengers | The Indiana Lawyer

Although state law allows police to request identification from passengers inside a car that they’ve stopped, two Indianapolis officers shouldn’t have arrested a man for refusing to identify himself when there was no reasonable suspicion he’d done anything wrong.


The Indiana Court of Appeals addressed that issue in a six-page opinion today in Adam Starr v. State of Indiana, No. 49A04-0912-CR-677, which overturned a ruling by Marion Superior Judge David Certo.


In September 2009, officers from the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department arrested Adam Starr for refusing to identify himself, a Class C misdemeanor as defined by Indiana Code 34-28-5-3.5. Two officers pulled over a vehicle driven by Starr’s girlfriend, who’d made an illegal turn. After determining her identity, the officers questioned Starr about his identity. He denied having any ID, claimed he could not remember his Social Security umber, and said his name was “Mr. Horrell.”