Rather than simply giving her the citation, or cuffing her, Officer Valentine proceeded to repeatedly punch Hahn in the face as shown in this video. (Warning: Potential violence trigger)

Hahn’s complaint said that “Ms. Hahn was transported to the emergency room where she was diagnosed with head and brain contusions and subsequently diagnosed with a concussion based on the Defendant Police Officer’s violence. Ms. Hahn suffers permanent memory loss and brain trauma as well as other physical and emotional injuries from the beating.”

All this because of a seatbelt violation. Here's the law, according the California penal code:

27315. (d) (1) A person shall not operate a motor vehicle on a highway unless that person and all passengers 16 years of age or over are properly restrained by a safety belt. This paragraph does not apply to the operator of a taxicab, as defined in Section 27908, when the taxicab is driven on a city street and is engaged in the transportation of a fare-paying passenger. The safety belt requirement established by this paragraph is the minimum safety standard applicable to employees being transported in a motor vehicle. This paragraph does not preempt more stringent or restrictive standards imposed by the Labor Code or another state or federal regulation regarding the transportation of employees in a motor vehicle. ... (h) Notwithstanding subdivision (a) of Section 42001, a violation of subdivision (d), (e), or (f) is an infraction punishable by a fine of not more than twenty dollars ($20) for a first offense, and a fine of not more than fifty dollars ($50) for each subsequent offense. In lieu of the fine and any penalty assessment or court costs, the court, pursuant to Section 42005, may order that a person convicted of a first offense attend a school for traffic violators or another court-approved program in which the proper use of safety belts is demonstrated.

To date, it appears that no officers were disciplined or fired as a result of this incident. But pending charges against Hahn for the classic "resisting arrest" were dropped once the district attorney was shown the video, according to the New York Daily News.

The video’s release apparently led to charges of resisting arrest and battery on a police officer against Hahn to be dropped, but the violent confrontation and falsification of police reports still merits a lawsuit, she believes.

That's right, the cops lied on their police reports just as we've seen officers do in the shooting of Tamir Rice, in the arrest of Skip Gates, and many other cases. And if not for the video they would have gotten away with it.

Hold on a sec ... let me just drop a pin.

(Ting)

Hear that? You know what you don't hear, what you're not gonna hear? You don't hear any of those "#All Lives Matter" people jumping up and screaming about how unfair and unjust it is for police to beat a woman into a concussion in front of her children, then lie about it on their police report, yet still remain on the force and not indicted for assault, battery, attempted murder, unlawful detention, false arrest, or making false statements on official documentation.

This happened two years ago.

Where are they now?

The point is that although black people are likely to encounter "uses of force" by police about three times more often according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, that doesn't mean that it doesn't ever happen to others. It does.

It may be easy for some people to imagine that 14-year-old Dejarria Becton somehow "provoked" Corporal Casebolt into running after her as she was leaving, dragging her to the ground and jumping on her back, then pulling his gun on two of her friends who were just trying to get her to calm down. Yeah, sure. Or that Barstow police were fully justified in slamming a pregnant Charlena Michelle Cooks stomach-first into the groundbecause she correctly asserted her right to refuse to provide identification. Or that Sandra Bland was just "too uppity" when she pointed out that she had changed lanes to avoid an emergency vehicle —which doesn't require you to signal first—and that her saying that she had a right to smoke in her own car was reasonable justification for tasing her and slamming her into the ground after she'd already been handcuffed. Her later death while in custody was compounded by gross negligence, at the very least.

It's not supposed to make a difference. We're supposed to have "equal justice," but somehow all those rationales become just a tiny tad more difficult to swallow when the person being brutalized by the police looks like this.