When Bears running back Cedric Benson claimed that he wasn’t drunk while boating and that he generally was mistreated by police who took him into custody over the weekend, we were reminded of the fact that every guy (and gal) sitting in a jail cell throughout the United States will insist that he (or she) didn’t do it.

But a passenger on Benson’s boat is backing up his version of the events.

Elizabeth Cartwright (CARTWRIGHT!) told the Chicago Tribune that, in her opinion, Benson wasn’t drunk.  She also said that the police beat Benson up.

“I called my dad and told him, ‘Call 911, my black friend is getting beaten up by police on Lake Travis,” Cartwright said.

(As an aside, “my black friend”?  Seriously?  First of all, the detail is completely irrelevant.  Second, it’s as if her goal is to at any given time have one, and only one, “black friend”.)

(UPDATE:  After further review, the detail could have been relevant, if she believed that the police were targeting Benson due to his race.  It still looks and feels odd to us that she would make that distinction.)

Cartwright also said that her fiance took “dozens” of photos that corroborate her claims.

The mere fact that all of this unfolded with multiple other people present (including Benson’s mother), and with at least of those people having a camera and using it, it’s hard for us to imagine that the police did anything improper.

Law enforcement at times isn’t pretty, and what a lay person interprets as the cops beating a guy up might in reality be nothing more than the police trying to get a situation under control.

They claim that they perceived Benson to be combative and insulting, and physically intimidating.  And so they thought that they needed to use pepper spray in order to get the situation under control.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that the cops didn’t go too far.  If Benson believes that his rights were violated, Benson has the right to pursue a legal action against the police.  In the end, it might be the only way to get the truth out about what happened to Benson when he was busted over the weekend in Texas.