“It was my duty”: when Tom Waits sued the police for $7,500
Tom Waits is one of the best examples of a musician with a keen eye for the world around him. His music traverses multiple genres and focuses on the real world, the underbelly of society, and the people you meet on the street. He has always formed a connection with his audience, and it’s that connection that keeps his music just as relevant today as ever.
Like a lot of folk music at the time, Waits provided a voice for those who otherwise wouldn’t be able to speak up for themselves. He could talk about the everyday struggles that people went through, making them feel not only seen but seen in the most beautiful way.
As someone often seen sticking up for those who might not have stuck up for themselves, it’s hardly a surprise that Waits went all out when he was the victim of criminal injustice. One evening in LA, Waits and his friend Chuck E Weiss were eating at a restaurant called Duke’s in West Hollywood.
While enjoying their meal, the two saw an altercation between some other musicians and some deputy sheriffs. Waits wasn’t a fan of what he saw, but he also wasn’t in a position to intervene either. Instead, as he left the restaurant, he decided to make his disapproval known by saluting the police officers in what he described as “An uncitizenlike Bronx cheer.” Before Waits knew it, he was wrestled to the ground by the police.
”[They] spread-eagled my client, threw a couple of rabbit punches and held a gun to the side of his head before handcuffing him and taking him to jail,” said Wait’s lawyer, Terry Steinhart. They filed a lawsuit against the police, saying that they used excessive force and unlawfully arrested him. The charges against him never stuck, and Waits succeeded in his case against the law.
“I was picked up at a restaurant by three cops and accused of challenging to fight, fighting in a public place, being drunk in public,” he recounted shortly after his case had settled, “It was insulting and embarrassing, so I felt it was my duty to make sure the record reflected the truth of the matter. It dragged on for five years before I got my day in court, with a little arbitration hearing, and I finally got my small settlement.”
It’s clear that Waits wasn’t worried about the actual settlement. He only managed to make $7,500 from the case, and given that it was filed in 1977 when Waits was going through a relatively prosperous period, the money wouldn’t have made a big difference to him. There are a lot of stories about rock stars getting in trouble with the law, and most of the time, it is driven by drugs, alcohol and ego, but in this case, Waits was wrongly arrested. Something that not many musicians can say: He fought the law, and the law lost.
