Should the city have to pay this??
Oakland City Councilwoman Desley Brooks’ shoving of Black Panther leader Elaine Brown at a barbecue restaurant in Jack London Square might cost $3 million to Oakland taxpayers.
Their fight was over city funding for a Brown-linked housing and commercial development project.
Brooks had pledged to kill the funding and the war of words ended when Brooks shoved Brown (who was 72 at the time) over a set of fixed chairs at Everett and Jones Barbeque. Ms. Brown hit her head on a table and landed on the floor on her back.
The jury in Brown’s civil case concluded that Brooks had been acting within her capacity as an Oakland official when she shoved the ex-Panther and caused the injuries.