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Tupac & Police



Legal issues


Even as he garnered attention as a rapper and actor, Shakur gained notoriety for his conflicts with the law. In October 1991, he filed a $10 million civil suit against the law enforcement of the Oakland Police Department, alleging they brutally beat him for jaywalking.[24]



In 1992, a Texas state trooper was killed by a teenager who was listening to 2Pacalypse Now which included songs about killing police. This caused a swirl of media controversy. Dan Quayle, the Vice President of the United States at the time, demanded that the album be withdrawn from music stores and media across the country; Interscope refused.[24] Shakur claimed his first album was aimed at the problems facing young black males, but it was criticized for its graphic language and images of violence by and against law enforcement. Quayle publicly denounced the album as having "no place in our society".[25]



In October 1993, in Atlanta, two brothers and off-duty police officers, Mark and Scott Whitwell, were with their wives celebrating Mrs. Whitwell's recent passing of the state bar examination. As they crossed the street, a car with Shakur inside passed by them or "almost struck them", after which the Whitwells began an altercation with the driver, Shakur and the other passengers, which was then joined by a second passing car. One officer was shot in the buttocks, and the other in the leg, back, or abdomen, according to varying news reports. There were no other injuries, but Mark Whitwell was charged with firing at Shakur's car and later lying to the police during the investigation, and Shakur with the shooting, until prosecutors decided to drop all charges against all parties.[26][27]



In December 1993, Shakur and others were charged with sexually abusing a woman in a hotel room. According to the complaint, Shakur sodomized the woman and then encouraged his friends to sexually abuse her. Shakur vehemently denied the charges. According to Shakur, he had prior relations days earlier with the woman; she performed oral sex on him on a club dance floor and the two later had consensual sex in his hotel room. The allegations were made after she revisited his hotel room for the second time where she engaged in sexual activity with his friends and alleged that Shakur and his entourage had mass raped her, saying to him while leaving, "Why you let them do this to me?"[28][29] Shakur stated he had fallen asleep shortly after she arrived and later awoke to her accusations and legal threats. In the ensuing trial Shakur was convicted of sexual abuse. In sentencing Shakur to one-and-a-half years in a correctional facility, the judge described the crime as "an act of brutal violence against a helpless woman".[30]



In 1994, he was convicted of attacking a former employer while on a music video set. He was sentenced to fifteen days in jail with additional days on a highway work crew, community service, and a $2,000 fine. Later that year he began dating Madonna, who wanted to have his child; the two would continue to date until friends of Shakur encouraged him to end the relationship.[31] In 1995, a wrongful death suit was brought against Shakur for a 1992 shooting that killed Qa'id Walker-Teal, a six-year old of Marin City. The child had been the victim of a stray bullet in a shootout between Shakur's entourage and a rival group, though the ballistics tests proved the bullet was not from Shakur or any members of his entourage's guns. Criminal charges were not sought, and Shakur settled with the family for an amount estimated between $300,000 and $500,000.[32][33] After serving part of his sentence upon a conviction, he was released on bail pending his appeal. On April 5, 1996, a judge sentenced him to serve 120 days in jail for violating terms of probation.[34]



November 1994 shooting



On the night of November 30, 1994, the day before the verdict in his sexual abuse trial was to be announced, Shakur was shot five times and robbed after entering the lobby of Quad Recording Studios in Manhattan by two armed men in army fatigues. He would later accuse Sean Combs,[35] Andre Harrell, and Biggie Smalls whom he saw after the shooting of setting him up. Shakur also suspected his close friend and associate, Randy "Stretch" Walker, of being involved in the attempt. According to the doctors at Bellevue Hospital, where he was admitted immediately following the incident, Shakur had received five bullet wounds; twice in the head, twice in the groin and once through the arm and thigh. He checked out of the hospital, against doctor's orders, three hours after surgery. In the day that followed, Shakur entered the courthouse in a wheelchair and was found guilty of three counts of molestation, but innocent of six others, including sodomy. On February 6, 1995, he was sentenced to one-and-a-half to four-and-a-half years in prison on a sexual assault charge.[36]



On November 30, 1995, exactly one year to the day of the shooting, Stretch was killed in an execution-style murder in Queens.



On March 27, 2008, the LA Times issued an apology to Combs for blaming him for having a role in the '94 attack on Shakur. The article stated that Shakur was led to the studio by Biggie's associates to gun him down to make favor with Biggie. The newspaper relied on forged documents that The Smoking Gun proved to be faked.[37] Combs stated that he is disgusted with the LA Times for printing the story.[38][39][40][41]



Prison sentence



Shakur began serving his prison sentence at Clinton Correctional Facility on February 14, 1995. Shortly afterwards, he released his multi-platinum album Me Against the World. Shakur is the only artist ever to have an album at number one on the Billboard 200 while serving a prison sentence. The album made its debut on the Billboard 200 and stayed at the top of the charts for five weeks. The record album sold 240,000 copies in its first week, setting a record for highest first week sales for a solo male rap artist at the time.[42] He married his long-time girlfriend, Keisha Morris, while serving his sentence; the couple later divorced.[43] While imprisoned, Shakur read many books by Niccolo Machiavelli, Sun Tzu's The Art of War and other works of political philosophy and strategy.[44] He also wrote a screenplay titled Live 2 Tell while incarcerated, a story about an adolescent who becomes a drug baron.[45]



In October 1995, Shakur's case was on appeal but due to all of his legal fees he could not raise the $1.4 million bail. After serving eleven months of his one-and-a-half year to four-and-a-half year sentence,[46] Shakur was released from the penitentiary due in large part to the help and influence of Suge Knight, the CEO of Death Row Records. Knight posted $1.4 million bail pending appeal of the conviction, in exchange for which Shakur was obligated to release three albums for the Death Row label.[47]



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Tupac Criminal Record



Jaywalking Oakland, CA (1991)



Resisting Arrest Oakland, CA (1991)



Assault off-duty police officers Mark and Scott Whitwell, Atlanta, GA, charges dropped (31-Oct-1993)



Battery Allen Hughes (Mar-1994)



Unlawful Possession of a Firearm Los Angeles, CA (May-1994)



Drug Possession: Marijuana Los Angeles, CA (May-1994)



Sexual Battery 18-Nov-1993 (sexual abuse, convicted)



Sodomy 18-Nov-1993 (acquitted)



Unlawful Possession of a Firearm 18-Nov-1993 (acquitted)



Assault 1994



Inmate: Los Angeles County Jail (Mar-1994)



Inmate: Rikers Island (1995)