George Floyd’s family announced that it has a defamation lawsuit ready against rapper Kanye West, from whom it is claiming $250 million for saying that the cause of his death was not police violence.
The lawsuit comes after Kanye West said in an interview on the podcast Drink Champs that George Floyd died from fentanyl use and not from asphyxiation caused by police officer Derek Chauvin, who put his knee on the victim’s neck for more than nine minutes, as confirmed by the autopsy and the court ruling that convicted the officer.
The rapper, who is living one of his worst moments with erratic behavior and constant provocations in the press, made his theory of conservative commentator Candace Owens, very popular in extreme right-wing forums in the United States. “Our office represents Mr. Floyd’s daughter and her mother. As you might expect, our clients are very hurt by their allegations. Mr. Floyd’s cause of death is well established through the evidence presented in court,” said a statement released by the law firm Witherspoon Law Group.
During the trial for the death of Geroge Floyd, the doctor who performed the autopsy indicated that the victim’s heart problems and his use of fentanyl were aggravating factors in the fatal outcome, although the main reason for the death was asphyxiation caused by the policeman. Chauvin, the cop who put his leg around Floyd’s neck as the man screamed that he could not breathe, was sentenced to 22 years in prison for manslaughter in June 2021 and 20 more after pleading guilty to excessive force and discrimination.
Both sentences can be served concurrently. Floyd was arrested by police on May 25, 2020, after a salesman accused him of trying to pay for a box of cigars with a counterfeit bill. His arrest and death were videotaped by several bystanders and broadcast on the Internet, sparking a historic wave of protests in the United States against police violence and discrimination under the slogan “Black Lives Matter.”
Story originally published in Spanish in Cultura Colectiva News