Source: Paul Archuleta / Getty
First, let me just say Joseph Foreman aka Afroman is still HILARIOUS!
Last August, the “Because I Got High” rapper’s Adams County, Ohio, home was raided by deputies and other officers with the Adams County Sheriff’s Office, who were armed when they executed a search warrant for drugs, drug paraphernalia and evidence of kidnapping and human trafficking, none of which they found.
From Fox 19:
The suspicions turned out to be unfounded. The Adams County Prosecutor’s Office said the raid failed to turn up probative criminal evidence, according to attorney Anna Castellini. No charges were ever filed.
In a bizarre turn of events unrelated to the civil suit, the sheriff’s office appeared to come up hundreds of dollars short returning cash seized from Foreman’s property. An independent investigation by Ohio BCI resolved the matter last month, concluding deputies had miscounted the money during the raid itself.
“They come up here with AR-15, traumatize my kids, destroyed my property, kick in my door, rip up and destroy my camera system,” Afroman said in August.
So, months after the officers of the law entered the gate to his property and battered down his front door while his family was apparently home in search of drugs and kidnapping victims that were not there, Afroman used video footage of the raid taken from his security cameras and his wife’s cell phone and turned it into a couple of music videos that are just damn excellent.
One video titled “Will You Help Me Repair My Door” shows the damage the armed officers did to Afroman’s gate and front door as they forced their way into his home in search of imaginary contraband and stolen humans. In the video, Afroman asks comedically if the sheriff’s office will pay for the damage to his home, if it was really necessary for the officers to traumatize his children, and how many kidnapping victims and/or pounds of marijuana did they find in his suit pockets and CD cases, which they were seen searching on camera. He also asked why the oficers were stealing his money, which, again, they came up short on initially when it was time to return.
Anyway, seven of the deputies are suing Afroman because video footage used in the video caused them great harm and embarrassment by—*checks notes*—showing their exact behavior during the raid. The deputies who literally broke into a family’s private residence to find zero evidence of a crime also complained that showing the footage violated their right to privacy. (The cop-casity, I tell ya’.)
More from Fox 19:
Four deputies, two sergeants and a detective are claiming Foreman (a.k.a. “Afroman”) took footage of their faces obtained during the raid and used it in music videos and social media posts without their consent, a misdemeanor violation under Ohio Revised Code.
They’re also suing on civil grounds, saying Foreman’s use of their faces (i.e. personas) in the videos and social media posts resulted in their “emotional distress, embarrassment, ridicule, loss of reputation and humiliation.”
The plaintiffs say they’re entitled to all of Foreman’s profits from his use of their personas. That includes, according to the complaint, proceeds from the songs, music videos and live event tickets as well as the promotion of Foreman’s “Afroman” brand, under which he sells beer, marijuana, t-shirts and other merchandise.
They’re also asking for an injunction to take down all videos and posts containing their personas.
Cincinnati attorney Robert Klingler filed the suit in Adams County Common Pleas Court on March 13 against Foreman, his recording firm and a Texas-based media distribution company. Not every law enforcement officer involved in the raid is named as a plaintiff.
But Foreman said in a lengthy Instagram post that he’s going to fight fire with fire by countersuing “for the undeniable damage this had on my clients, family, career and property.”
At the end of the day, cops shouldn’t be able to blindly break into homes where there are children present armed to the teeth so they can ransack the home based on a warrant that seems to have gotten signed based on a hunch and a prayer rather than tangible evidence of criminal wrongdoing.
Isn’t that how Breonna Taylor got killed?
Exactly.