As well as being an exceptional musician, 2Pac (real name Tupac Shakur) also had an excellent moral compass and always pushed for social change and justice for those the system had wronged. As such, it is unsurprising that in 1993, the emcee intervened in an incident involving police brutality.
In 1991, Shakur himself was beaten by two police officers in Oakland after he was caught jaywalking in the city’s downtown area. After getting berated by officers Alex Boyovic and Kevin Rogers, the lyricist was tackled to the ground, choked and had his head slammed on the sidewalk.
The West Coast legend addressed the incident on his project 2Pacalypse Now in the song ‘Trapped’ on which he raps, “Can barely walk the city streets / Without a cop harassin’ me, searching me, then askin’ my identity / Hands up, throw me up against the wall, didn’t do a thing at all / I’m telling you one day these suckers gotta fall / Cuffed up, throw me on the concrete.”
Two years after the album’s release, on a Halloween night in 1993, 2Pac found himself defending an African-American driver whom two police officers in Atlanta were mishandling and assaulting. As a son of two Black Panthers, Shakur was highly militant in his stance on anti-racism and, as such, had no qualms about using firearms against racially abusive cops.
On October 30th, 1993, 2Pac performed his sophomore project, Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z, at Clark Atlanta University. However, after the show, while in a convoy of cars heading back to the Sheridan Hotel, 2Pac saw two white men beating a Black individual in the middle of the road.
The All Eyez On Me star attempted to interject physically, but when one of them pulled his gun, he shot first in self-defence. However, not knowing they were off-duty police in plain clothes, the following day, Shakur was arrested and charged with two counts of aggravated assault.
In an interview, E.D.I Mean of the Outlawz recalled, “It looked like a fight. And as we got closer, we seen it was two white guys jumping a Black dude, and immediately Pac just jumped out of the car. They kicking this dude’s ass, they working him over and giving him the business. Whenever he jumped out, everyone was gonna jump out that’s just how it went. By the time we get there, there’s a gun out”
The police officers, Mark and Scott Whitwell, were brothers. However, in court, it came to the surface that they were drunk at the time of the incident. It was also confirmed that the brothers had had been carrying guns stolen from a Henry County police evidence locker. The charges were eventually dropped.
You can hear two Outlawz members describe the scene in the video below.
