How some police treat motorists

Two stories re how some police treat motorists have caught my eye recently.

The first is from the BBC and runs thus:

'Three police officers assaulted a motorist and his teenage passenger after stopping the driver for using a mobile phone, a court has heard.

Westminster Magistrates' Court was told the Scotland Yard officers left Lee Rosier, 24, and his 14-year-old passenger with cut lips and abrasions.

Mr Rosier was driving home from a classic car rally in west London when the officers allegedly attacked him.

PC Anthony Read, 35, PC Karl Bartlett, 42, and PC Colin Nye, 37, deny assault.

The court heard the officers pulled the Cosworth car over as it approached the A40 at Hanger Lane after Mr Rosier made a phone call while driving on 1 March 2011.

One of the officers from the Met's Territorial Support Group approached the car, opened the door and pulled Mr Rosier out before head-butting him, the jury was told.

Mr Rosier said: "He drags me out. It is lucky I had enough strength to put my feet on the floor or I would have fallen on my face."

In a statement to police at the time of the alleged incident he said he was then kneed in the back and forced down to the ground.

Mr Rosier's brother Billy told the court he was travelling behind in another car when the incident happened.

"I jumped out of the car. I saw what they were doing to my brother so I started running. They had his head in the kerb and they had him in handcuffs.

"It looked to me like they had their knees in his back."'

Yes using a mobile telephone (unless handsfree) is dangerous and illegal but does it warrant being attacked?


Driving whilst not wearing a seat belt is also illegal and dangerous to oneself if in an accident but does that excuse this behaviour from members of the South Wales police?

'Footage captured on a police dashboard camera shows one officer striking the driver's seat window with a baton up to 15 times and another officer jumping on the bonnet of the car and kicking the windscreen in an apparent attempt to crack it.

Police pulled over Robert Whatley, 70, for not wearing a seat belt as he drove through country lanes in South Wales. The 8-mile chase started after officers tried to give Mr Whatley a fixed penalty notice but he drove off.'

 Yes Mr Whatley should not have driven off but did he deserve the ferocity of that attack on his car?