The Hammond Indiana Police Department are under the microscope after a video showing them breaking a window and Tasing an unarmed Black man were released.
The incident took place on September 24 when Hammond police pulled over Lisa Mahone, 47, and her passenger, Jamal Jones, for not wearing seat belts. According to their lawsuit, Mahone tried to explain to officers that she was rushing to a nearby hospital to visit her dying mother. Mahone did not balk at the charges, but the suit alleges that the officers used aggressive force in the interaction.
In the backseat, Malone’s 14-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter were in the back. The son began videotaping the affair after things got heated. The Hammond police also reportedly videotaped the ordeal but have not released their footage to the public but used it to back up their claims that officers acted within the law.
**BEWARE: Video is graphic**
The Hammond Police Department issued a statement, saying the officers thought that the “occupants of the vehicle may have possessed a weapon, and seeing the passenger repeatedly reach towards the rear seats of the vehicle, the first officer then broke the passenger side window of the vehicle and the passenger was removed from the vehicle and was placed under arrest.”
