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George Floyd’s family considering legal action over Kanye West’s comments | Kanye West

October 17, 2022

George Floyd’s family have said they are considering taking legal action against Kanye West after the rapper alleged the 46-year-old died of drug abuse.

Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murdering Floyd in May 2020. He knelt on Floyd’s neck for about nine minutes while the unarmed black man was handcuffed and laying face down. on the ground in the street, shouting “I can’t breathe”.

West (who has legally changed his name to Ye) made the claims during an appearance on the Drink Champs podcast on Saturday while discussing a new documentary from conservative commentator Candace Owens – often alongside West during his recent series of anti-Semitic and racist comments – titled The Biggest Lie Ever Sold: George Floyd and the Rise of BLM [Black Lives Matter].

“They hit him with fentanyl, if you look at the guy’s knee wasn’t even on his neck like that,” West said on the podcast.

Civil rights attorney Lee Merritt responded to West’s requests on behalf of Floyd’s family.

“While the dead cannot be defamed, #GeorgeFloyd’s family is considering filing a lawsuit over Kanye’s misrepresentation of the circumstances of his death,” he tweeted on October 16.

“Affirming that Floyd died of fentanyl and not of criminally and civilly established brutality undermines and diminishes the Floyd family’s fight.

Floyd died from “cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement compression, restraint and compression of the neck,” according to final autopsy findings by Dr. Andrew Baker, County Chief Medical Examiner. Hennepin. Although fentanyl was found in Floyd’s system, it was not enough to be considered fatal.

Cardiologist Dr Jonathan Rich told the court during Chauvin’s trial: “I can say with a high degree of medical certainty that George Floyd did not die of a primary cardiac event, and he did not die of a drug overdose.”

West’s comments were widely condemned by fellow musicians and religious leaders.

Elsewhere in the interview, West continued to make anti-Semitic statements and said that four concerts he had scheduled at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles were canceled by the venue’s owners after he tweeted that he was “going to die with 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE” on October 9. . Twitter removed the tweet for violating platform rules.

In response, the Los Angeles Holocaust Museum invited West to visit “to understand how words can incite horrific violence and genocide”. On the podcast, West replied, “I want you to visit Planned Parenthood, it’s our holocaust museum.”

After making his remarks about Floyd, West asked the podcast hosts if they would be able to do the interview, in reference to his recent appearance on HBO’s The Shop, which was not aired due to his use of what host Maverick Carter called “hate speech”. and extremely dangerous stereotypes”. Segments of an interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson were also canned about West’s racist conspiracy theories.

West wore a hat emblazoned with ‘2024’, presumably in reference to his intentions to hold a second presidential race after his failed 2020 run, in which he appeared on just 12 state ballots and won less than 60,000 votes . The campaign allegedly violated fundraising rules.

West and Owens have been partners since around 2018 when West tweeted “I like the way Candace Owens thinks.” A black author and commentator, she became known for her criticism of Black Lives Matter and her support for Trump. Recently, the pair debuted a ‘White Lives Matter’ shirt at Paris Fashion Week.