For a few years now, 40-year-old Shequita Walker has sat on a metal folding chair on a vacant lot next to her Atlanta, Ga. apartment complex waiting for the ice cream truck. But on April 20, all she ate was dirt. Shequita, who's disabled (she suffers from severe joint pain and has a limited range of motion), says Officer Kenneth Thomas injured her, charged her with disorderly conduct and put her in jail. It all began when the ticket happy cop asked Shequita to move, but after she told him she was well within her rights to sit on the vacant lot, he grabbed her wrist and twisted her arm, causing her to fall to the concrete. (As you can see in these photos taken by a passerby.) With the help of another officer, Shequita was moved to the backseat of the patrol car, but she was taken via ambulance to a local hospital where she was treated for a shoulder injury sustained when she hit the ground. Immediately after she was released from the hospital, she was arrested and spent the night in jail on a disorderly conduct charge. The case against her was dropped. While her lawyer admits Shequita "gave [the officer] defiance and some attitude," she didn't deserve to be assaulted and as a result "she suffered and she deserves some compensation." Now, Shequita is suing the police department and the city of Atlanta.
source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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