by
Tommaso
Boddi/Getty
Images)
Some
cases
go
to
trial
on
a
foundation
of
strong
evidence.
The
Ohio
police’s
defamation
suit
against
Afroman
was
not
one
of
those
cases.
The
case
was
dumb
from
the
start;
a
bunch
of
eggshell
ego-ed
officers
on
a
raid
for
drugs
and
human
trafficking
victims
ransacked
a
rappers
home.
I
mean
that
literally
—
their
property
damage
includes
breaking
down
doors,
breaking
the
gate
to
his
home,
and
stealing
several
thousand
dollars
in
cash.
All
of
this
was
caught
on
Afroman’s
home
cameras
before
one
of
the
officers
cut
the
line
to
his
home
safety
system.
The
goofy
rapper
responded
in
the
way
you
should
expect:
goofy
rapping.
Using
the
footage
he
obtained
from
the
botched
raid,
Afroman
make
joyful
ear
worms
about
an
officer
looking
very
hard
at
a
slice
of
lemon
pound
cake,
along
with
Venmo
requests
to
cover
the
property
damage.
Oh.
He
also
called
one
of
the
officers
a
lesbian
and
another
officer
a
son
of
a
bitch:
Not
the
kindest
words
to
hear,
but
nowhere
near
as
bad
as
guns
being
drawn
on
you
and
your
children
in
your
own
home
for
no
good
reason.
Three
years
of
legal
back
and
forth
culminated
in
a
trial
where
the
officers
asked
the
jury
to
make
Afroman
pay
out
~$4M
to
cover
the
cost
of
their
hurt
feefees.
And
thank
God
—
the
jury
didn’t
give
them
a
damned
thing.
While
Afroman
displayed
heroic
levels
of
restraint
in
the
courtroom,
he
started
celebrating
as
soon
as
he
stepped
outside.
AP
News
has
coverage:
The
Grammy-nominated
rapper
Afroman
won
a
defamation
lawsuit
filed
by
seven
Ohio
sheriff’s
deputies
who
sued
him
over
music
videos
in
which
he
used
home
security
footage
to
mock
their
raid
of
his
home.“We
did
it,
America!
Yeah,
we
did
it!
Freedom
of
speech!
Right
on!
Right
on!”
the
51-year-old
rapper,
born
Joseph
Foreman,
shouted
outside
the
courthouse
after
the
Wednesday
evening
verdict.
Here
are
the
sounds
of
victory:
And
while
the
biggest
win
is
for
freedom
of
speech,
the
second
biggest
win
has
to
be
for
comedy:
An
officer
bumbling
through
answering
if
Afroman
had
sex
with
his
wife
takes
the
cake,
but
the
actual
cake-centered
questioning
isn’t
too
far
behind:
Once
you
look
past
the
obvious
mockery
that
wasn’t
supposed
to
be
mistaken
for
statements
of
fact
because
rap
lyrics
should
not
be
taken
as
serious
evidence,
you
have
to
respect
how
much
of
Afroman’s
insults
appear
to
be
true:
Happy
for
you,
Afroman!
Hopefully
all
of
the
publicity
from
these
dumbasses
will
bump
up
the
viewer
count
of
your
music
videos
mocking
them.
Gotta
pay
for
that
property
damage
somehow!
And
if
any
of
you
fans
take
it
upon
yourselves
to
make
fun
of
the
department,
make
sure
you
direct
it
to
the
right
one:
Chris
Williams
became
a
social
media
manager
and
assistant
editor
for
Above
the
Law
in
June
2021.
Prior
to
joining
the
staff,
he
moonlighted
as
a
minor
Memelord™
in
the
Facebook
group Law
School
Memes
for
Edgy
T14s
.
He
endured
Missouri
long
enough
to
graduate
from
Washington
University
in
St.
Louis
School
of
Law.
He
is
a
former
boat
builder
who
is
learning
to
swim
and
is
interested
in
rhetoric,
Spinozists
and
humor.
Getting
back
in
to
cycling
wouldn’t
hurt
either.
You
can
reach
him
by
email
at [email protected]
and
by
tweet
at @WritesForRent.