NSW Cop accused of excessive force

A 53-year-old woman was caught speeding by a highway patrolman who followed her and then confronted her face-to-face. A video taken from a police car in May last year in Sydney’s south-west shows Amal Hanna being clocked for doing 74km/h in a 50km/h zone. A policeman allegedly appeared to get physical in the video as Amal tells him she is having an asthma attack. “That’s because you were driving like an idiot,” the policeman is heard to have said. He radios for an ambulance then orders her to get off her mobile phone. As Amal gets increasingly distressed, the senior constable appears to be increasingly determined to enforce his order. Amal saw the tape for the first time last month when she contested her speeding fine in court. At that hearing, the senior constable involved stated he chased Amal as she skidded and veered along the wrong side of the road, cornering without indicators, all in a desperate bid to outrun him. The video shows the police car was in pursuit for just 27 seconds. The physical altercation that followed lasted a full minute. “He just tells me ‘you’re under arrest’ and he did all what he did to me,” Amal said. David Burnie from the NSW Council of Civil Liberties watched the video. “The mobile phone is not a lethal weapon, it’s not a threatening situation for him,” he said. “He really seems to make an issue out of the phone and the physical reaction to that issue just seems to me not be justified.” Amal just wants someone to take responsibility. “I …