This week is interesting: usually, we have cops catch criminals at Taco Bell, not be the bad guys themselves. Yet that's exactly what happened in Oakland, where a man alleged that police officers beat him up at a Taco Bell parking lot for no reason–and is now $43,000 richer for it.
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From the San Francisco Chronicle:
The city of Oakland has agreed to pay $43,000 to settle a lawsuit
filed by a man who said police officers used excessive force while
arresting him.
Jimmy Williams, then 50, said he was beaten by officers “without any
just provocation or cause” in the parking lot of a Taco Bell restaurant
at 35th Avenue and MacArthur Boulevard about 1:30 a.m. Oct. 25, 2009.
Officers pepper-sprayed him and hit him with their batons while he
was on the ground, according to Williams' suit filed in U.S. District
Court in San Francisco.
Williams suffered a fractured hand and “severe scrapes” and bruises
on his shoulder, arms and stomach, said the suit, which sought $500,000
in damages.
