From the Telegraph, via Mark Reckons:

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.

The video is embedded below:

What I find intriguing is Mark’s take on the subject:

The Police officers involved have been suspended pending an investigation but frankly I am not sure what needs investigating. They terrified a confused pensioner with as far as I can tell no justification, acting like utter thugs. The man has a heart condition. We could easily have been looking at something much more serious here. Next time maybe we will. That’s why we need to try and make sure there is not a next time.

I’m not saying for a moment that police brutality is in any way acceptable, but it seems quite obvious, to me, that there definitely was a cause for chasing this gentleman and arresting him.

Not only was he not wearing a seatbelt, he also drove off when the police tried to give him a fixed penalty notice. If this is down to him being “confused”, then to be honest, I doubt he should be on the road at all: if he’d been thinking straight, surely he’d have understood that trying to give the police the slip was a bad idea.

Whilst there’s no doubt that the police were heavy-handed, and the two officers involved have, quite rightly, been suspended for smashing the car’s window and dragging the accused out, I find it very hard to feel any sympathy for Mr. Whatley.

The fact he was a “terrified pensioner” had nothing to do with it. The bottom line is that he has been charged with several driving offences and drove off from the police. The law applies to everyone, terrified pensioner or not: it is plainly obvious (to me at least) that this is hardly likely to be as black and white as either the Telegraph or Mark make it out to be.