US rapper Afroman has defeated seven sheriff\u2019s deputies in a court case after they sued him for releasing songs and videos that mocked them and a raid they carried out on his home.<\/p>\n
The officers broke down the musician\u2019s door in 2022 as part of a drug and kidnapping investigation, but the raid didn\u2019t lead to any charges.<\/p>\n
Afroman, best known for his 2000 hit \u2018Because I Got High\u2019, responded by using home security footage in viral videos that ridiculed the deputies.<\/p>\n
His video for the song \u2018Lemon Pound Cake\u2019 was inspired by a deputy apparently eyeing a cake in his kitchen, while another video attributed personal and sexual transgressions to the officers.<\/p>\n
They sued him for defamation, but a jury has sided with the colourful rapper after a three-day trial.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did it America! Yeah! We did it! Freedom of speech!\u201d Afroman yelled outside the Ohio court, surrounded by supporters, in a clip posted on social media after the verdict.<\/p>\n
Real name Joseph Foreman, the musician gave evidence wearing a red, white and blue US flag-themed suit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole raid was a mistake,\u201d he told the court. \u201cAll of this is their fault.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they hadn\u2019t wrongly raided my house, there would be no lawsuit. I would not know their names. They wouldn\u2019t be on my home surveillance system, and there would be no songs, nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Attempt to silence criticism<\/strong><\/p>\n The deputies requested $3.9m (KSh. 502M) damages for \u201chumiliation, ridicule, mental distress, embarrassment and loss of reputation\u201d.<\/p>\n Afroman released songs, including one that featured graphic and unfounded suggestions about Deputy Lisa Phillips\u2019 sexuality.<\/p>\n Sgt Randy Walters said his child had been humiliated at school over Afroman\u2019s posts and had come home afterwards in tears.<\/p>\n The deputies\u2019 lawyer, Robert Klingler, told the court the rapper had \u201cperpetuated lies intentionally\u201d about his clients.<\/p>\n \u201cEven if somebody does something to you that hurts you, that you think is wrong \u2013 like a search warrant execution that you think is unfair \u2013 that doesn\u2019t justify telling intentional lies designed to hurt people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Afroman released an entire album in 2023 about the incident, calling it \u2018Lemon Pound Cake\u2019, while its title song also took aim at the officer who, the lyrics said, \u201cgot the munchies because he got high\u201d.<\/p>\n That song has had 3.6 million views on YouTube, while another parody track titled \u2018Will You Help Me Repair My Door\u2019 has had more than nine million.<\/p>\n The rapper told jurors he had a constitutional right to make artistic and critical content about government officials.<\/p>\n His lawyer, David Osborne, argued that public officials could not use the courts to \u201csilence\u201d criticism simply because it hurt their feelings.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sorry they feel the way they do, but there\u2019s a certain amount that you have to take as a public official; it\u2019s part of the duties of the job,\u201d Osborne said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat chilling effect does that have on the world we live in? You don\u2019t like what a public official does, and you make a joke, and you\u2019re dragged into court?\u201d<\/p>\n The post Afroman wins legal battle over songs mocking US police<\/a> appeared first on KBC Digital<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" US rapper Afroman has defeated seven sheriff\u2019s deputies in a court case after they sued him for releasing songs and videos that mocked them and a raid they carried out on his home. The officers broke down the musician\u2019s door in 2022 as part of a drug and kidnapping investigation, but the raid didn\u2019t lead […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134865\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}