Afroman vs. Adams County Sheriff's Department | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: So we should talk about because this just concluded. Was

0:03 Speaker 1: it yesterday or the day before? The lawsuit against Afroman

0:07 Speaker 1: by the police who raided his home looking for apparently

0:12 Speaker 1: on a very bad tip by an unreliable informant. And

0:16 Speaker 1: this is dragged on for several years. Now. This originally

0:18 Speaker 1: happened in what twenty twenty two?

0:20 Speaker 2: Yes, and the actual rate occurred in twenty twenty two.

0:24 Speaker 1: Now, if you're not familiar, or if some of you

0:27 Speaker 1: might be somewhat familiar with Afroman, you might sort of

0:31 Speaker 1: remember him. You know, there will be varying degrees amongst

0:34 Speaker 1: our listeners in terms of how they recall Afroman or

0:38 Speaker 1: if they recall Afroman. Afroman, of course, had a huge

0:41 Speaker 1: hit in what the early two thousands, right when I

0:44 Speaker 1: got high or no, because I got high, I got high,

0:47 Speaker 1: y because I got high because I got high. Now,

0:49 Speaker 1: funny thing about that song. I never liked the song.

0:51 Speaker 1: I always thought it was annoying. But I remember defending

0:54 Speaker 1: the song though, because I would have conversations. You know,

0:57 Speaker 1: some people would say, well, I don't like that song

1:00 Speaker 1: because it glorifies drug use or whatever makes a big

1:03 Speaker 1: joke out of it. But the fact is, if you

1:05 Speaker 1: listen to the song all the way through, which was

1:07 Speaker 1: always difficult for me because I never liked it. But

1:09 Speaker 1: of course it was you can escape that it was fun. Yeah,

1:12 Speaker 1: well most people did. But if you listen to it

1:15 Speaker 1: all the way through, it really doesn't glorify getting high

1:19 Speaker 1: because by the time you get to the end of

1:21 Speaker 1: the song, by the time you get to the end

1:22 Speaker 1: of the last verse, his life is in ruins because

1:25 Speaker 1: he got high. So, if anything, so I always told people,

1:28 Speaker 1: I was like, well, you know, I don't like the song.

1:30 Speaker 1: I think it's annoying, but it is a cautionary tale

1:33 Speaker 1: if you listen to it all the way to the end.

1:34 Speaker 2: And it was back in two thousand and one that

1:36 Speaker 2: it was actually released.

1:38 Speaker 1: Two thousand and one.

1:38 Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, apparently police found it in twenty twenty two.

1:44 Speaker 1: Yeah, I just, I just but yeah, so you know,

1:49 Speaker 1: the police raided his home. I have the NPR article here,

1:53 Speaker 1: which I think is you.

1:54 Speaker 2: See, they never explained they were looking for weed. They

1:59 Speaker 2: were looking they believe he was a dealer.

2:01 Speaker 1: Well, and kidnapping.

2:02 Speaker 2: Now that one is interesting because they keep saying the

2:05 Speaker 2: word kidnapping, but I'm not sure it means what they

2:08 Speaker 2: think it means.

2:09 Speaker 1: Well, because the informant told them that he had, like people,

2:12 Speaker 1: somebody in a dungeon or something in his home. He

2:14 Speaker 1: had kidnapped somebody, this very unreliable informant who apparently just

2:18 Speaker 1: made this up.

2:18 Speaker 2: But the police were doing a very thorough search looking

2:21 Speaker 2: for that kidnapping victim in the pockets of all of

2:24 Speaker 2: Afroman's suits.

2:25 Speaker 1: Yes, yes, which he thinks about.

2:28 Speaker 2: So why do we know all of this well, because,

2:30 Speaker 2: alike a lot of people, Afroman has cameras to keep

2:34 Speaker 2: an eye on his home, and he got an alert

2:36 Speaker 2: that there was damage at his home. And then there

2:39 Speaker 2: it is on video. He's watching the police batter his

2:42 Speaker 2: door down, start trashing the house, searching for these drugs

2:48 Speaker 2: that he's dealing, and the human captives in his suits.

2:52 Speaker 1: Yeah, and there were none, and.

2:55 Speaker 2: They were so diligently looking that, as the song indicates,

2:59 Speaker 2: one of the officers stopped in the kitchen, opened up

3:03 Speaker 2: the cake, got himself a slice. You ate it?

3:07 Speaker 1: Yeah? No, in fairness to the officer, does look good,

3:10 Speaker 1: the lemon pound cake. It does look good in the video.

3:12 Speaker 2: You mama makes you something, you want it to be

3:14 Speaker 2: there when you get home.

3:15 Speaker 1: I'd be tempted, you know. And I don't even really.

3:17 Speaker 2: Eat his mama's cake, but you know I made that

3:21 Speaker 2: for him.

3:21 Speaker 1: I would certainly stop and think about it. But it

3:24 Speaker 1: is so I mean, it's it's one of those cliches.

3:26 Speaker 1: It's almost too good to be true. When you see

3:28 Speaker 1: the video and you see this big fat got the cop,

3:31 Speaker 1: you know, looking at the cake.

3:32 Speaker 2: Like holding holding a.

3:36 Speaker 1: Rifle, holding a gun, but he stops to look at

3:38 Speaker 1: the but the cake is so distracting to him. It's

3:41 Speaker 1: like the rifles down and it's so it's perfect.

3:45 Speaker 2: It's when mass lid comes off the cake.

3:47 Speaker 1: Oh good lord, it's so perfect.

3:49 Speaker 2: He finds himself a knife and slices himself a piece of.

3:53 Speaker 1: They also seized his cash, you know, while they were there,

3:55 Speaker 1: they took his money.

3:56 Speaker 2: He found five thousand dollars in a suit pocket he

3:59 Speaker 2: had forgotten he left in there from a show. It

4:02 Speaker 2: was the end of the gig. Pay yes, and jeez,

4:06 Speaker 2: I'd like to be rich enough to forget that I

4:08 Speaker 2: had five grand in the pocket. But apparently the cops

4:11 Speaker 2: found that really great. So when they took it into custody,

4:15 Speaker 2: and and of course when the case ended, when there

4:19 Speaker 2: were zero charges pressed against him because they found absolutely nothing.

4:24 Speaker 1: Right after after breaking his gate and breaking his they.

4:29 Speaker 2: Broke the gate to get into the driveway. Then they

4:31 Speaker 2: broke the door down.

4:32 Speaker 1: Yep.

4:33 Speaker 2: They trashed everything. Oh yeah, he ate up his cake.

4:37 Speaker 1: Yep. They found nothing, and they took his money and

4:42 Speaker 1: when he when he got it back, it was short

4:43 Speaker 1: four hundred dollars.

4:44 Speaker 2: Yes, exactly four hundred dollars, not three hundred and ninety

4:47 Speaker 2: eight dollars, not three hundred and fifty six dollars like

4:51 Speaker 2: you would expect if there was a miscount, because that's

4:53 Speaker 2: what they claimed. It was a miscount of exactly four

4:57 Speaker 2: hundred dollars missing from the fire. Ok.

5:00 Speaker 1: Yeah, so I guess they did a little a little

5:02 Speaker 1: bit of that civil asset forfeiture were apparently We've.

5:06 Speaker 2: Talked about that before. But the thing about this case though,

5:09 Speaker 2: I mean, we joke about it, but it's horrible what

5:12 Speaker 2: he went through, what his family went through. You know,

5:16 Speaker 2: the security that you feel in your home is ruined

5:18 Speaker 2: when somebody breaks your door down and the destruction of

5:21 Speaker 2: things all for for literally.

5:23 Speaker 1: Nothing, nothing.

5:24 Speaker 2: He had nothing. They found zero weed. Listen to me,

5:28 Speaker 2: I said, they found zero weed and no human beings

5:33 Speaker 2: or tiny humans hiding in the closet in his jacket pockets.

5:37 Speaker 2: But the more important issue about this that that we

5:40 Speaker 2: want to well well is if this case had gone

5:45 Speaker 2: the wrong way, it would have taken a lot out

5:47 Speaker 2: of the music industry and the video industry.

5:50 Speaker 1: Well, we have to explain why the why the police

5:52 Speaker 1: were suing him. So they were suing him because he

5:54 Speaker 1: had got that part. He made a series of funny

5:56 Speaker 1: songs and videos because he had all this footage.

6:00 Speaker 2: Yeah, he used the footage from his house.

6:01 Speaker 1: From from his own home, from his own surveillance frollance

6:04 Speaker 1: camera to make to make fun of the cops.

6:06 Speaker 2: Yep, he made as you heard when we started the

6:09 Speaker 2: Lemon pound Cake song.

6:10 Speaker 1: Yeah, and they so they sued him over it, and.

6:13 Speaker 2: They sued him for for violating their privacy and defamation

6:19 Speaker 2: and defamation we're embarrassing them.

6:22 Speaker 1: Or definition of character as a certain idiot likes to say,

6:27 Speaker 1: but yes, defamation of this.

6:28 Speaker 2: There were actual tears on the sand. And the interesting

6:34 Speaker 2: thing about this is, I don't know, do you have

6:36 Speaker 2: that clip actually of Afroman on the.

6:40 Speaker 1: Uh not that clip specifically.

6:42 Speaker 2: Okay, So the interesting thing about all of this is

6:46 Speaker 2: Afroman was extremely intelligent with every word he said, yes

6:52 Speaker 2: and when he was cross examined by this because they

6:55 Speaker 2: tried to sue him for millions of dollars. They wanted

6:58 Speaker 2: millions of dollars because he made these videos songs. No,

7:03 Speaker 2: each person had a different amount.

7:05 Speaker 1: I thought it was four million or that was the total.

7:08 Speaker 2: I think it was more than that because I think

7:10 Speaker 2: I thought there was one that was looking for fifteen

7:12 Speaker 2: or something or one or I might be wrong. But

7:15 Speaker 2: each each one of the suing parties, which were each

7:19 Speaker 2: of the cops and one of them's wife, I think,

7:24 Speaker 2: but I'm not positive on the wife part. That that

7:28 Speaker 2: when the when the when the lawyer would try and

7:30 Speaker 2: catch him up on the stand and be like, well,

7:32 Speaker 2: you're seeing how upset these people are after what you've

7:36 Speaker 2: done to them. And he's like, oh, I didn't do anything,

7:40 Speaker 2: after a man kept saying I did nothing. They did

7:44 Speaker 2: all of this to themselves. We wouldn't be here today

7:48 Speaker 2: if they hadn't broken down my door, trashed my gate,

7:54 Speaker 2: trashed my home, eight from my kitchen, took stole money

7:59 Speaker 2: out of my house. We wouldn't be here if they

8:04 Speaker 2: hadn't put themselves on my camera, we wouldn't be here.

8:08 Speaker 1: Okay, I found the clip here.

8:10 Speaker 2: Let me clip is better than the way I'm pronounced

8:12 Speaker 2: saying it here we go said, I.

8:13 Speaker 3: Got freedom of speech after they run around my house

8:16 Speaker 3: with guns and kick down my door. I got the

8:19 Speaker 3: right to kick a can in my backyard. Use my

8:21 Speaker 3: freedom of speech. Turn my bad times into a good time. Yes,

8:25 Speaker 3: I do. And I think I'm a sport for dealing

8:28 Speaker 3: so because I don't go to their house, kick down

8:31 Speaker 3: their doors, flip them off on their surveillance cameras, then

8:35 Speaker 3: try to play the victim and sue them.

8:37 Speaker 2: I got fart.

8:39 Speaker 4: You were at Lisa Phillips's deposition, correct, Yes, sir, in

8:42 Speaker 4: your lawyer's office, Yes, sir, same office where you film

8:46 Speaker 4: part of that video last Friday.

8:47 Speaker 3: Yes, sir.

8:50 Speaker 4: And you saw how upset she was when she was

8:53 Speaker 4: answering your lawyer's questions about how this had affected her right, yes, yes,

8:59 Speaker 4: And all your attorney say, should we do we need

9:03 Speaker 4: to take a break? Yes, And you saw her say no,

9:06 Speaker 4: let's get let's go on and get this over with. Yes, sir,

9:08 Speaker 4: you saw all that. Yes, you knew she was upset,

9:13 Speaker 4: just like she.

9:13 Speaker 3: Knew I was upset when she was standing in front

9:15 Speaker 3: of my kids with AR fifteen, with her hand around

9:17 Speaker 3: the trigger, ready to shoot me, just like she knew.

9:20 Speaker 3: I was upset when she cut my cameras. But I'm

9:22 Speaker 3: not a person she is. So I'm sorry for being

9:24 Speaker 3: a victim. Let's talk about the predators. Okay.

9:27 Speaker 4: So you saw all that, You saw how upset she was.

9:30 Speaker 4: You heard the testimony about her children, You heard the

9:33 Speaker 4: testimony at the depositions about Randy Newland's daughter who came

9:38 Speaker 4: home upset. You heard all that, but you're still posting

9:41 Speaker 4: stuff about it.

9:42 Speaker 3: Yeah, because I understand it was Randy's fault and all

9:44 Speaker 3: of their fault for coming to my house in the

9:46 Speaker 3: first place. So if they hadn't came to my house,

9:49 Speaker 3: their children wouldn't be saying nothing. None of this would

9:51 Speaker 3: be going home if they had a did their research

9:55 Speaker 3: and did things right. So all of this is their fault,

9:59 Speaker 3: and now they want to assume me for their mistake.

10:04 Speaker 4: Is there anything that could change your mind about what

10:07 Speaker 4: you're doing to these deputies?

10:09 Speaker 3: Is there anything that can change my mind about the

10:11 Speaker 3: fact that they shouldn't have been at my house in

10:13 Speaker 3: the first place. Is there anything that can change my

10:16 Speaker 3: mind about how my money shouldn't have been touched in

10:18 Speaker 3: the first place.

10:19 Speaker 4: No, that's all the questions I have. Thank you.

10:25 Speaker 2: That's that lawyer write down, doesn't he.

10:27 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, he's very smart, very articulate. He knew exactly

10:32 Speaker 1: how to handle that. Very impressive.

10:34 Speaker 2: I forgot about the part where they had flipped off

10:37 Speaker 2: the camera before they disconnected the camera.

10:39 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, they flip off the camera, they disconnect the camera.

10:42 Speaker 1: They're making faces about it like they think it's all

10:45 Speaker 1: like they treat it like it's all a big joke. Yeah,

10:47 Speaker 1: that's the thing too. They're having fun during their little raid.

10:52 Speaker 2: And they're expecting that they're going to walk into this

10:54 Speaker 2: black man home who's a rapper and saying about pot

10:58 Speaker 2: and find all kinds of drugs, right, you know, he

11:02 Speaker 2: must be a drug dealer. And I still don't understand

11:05 Speaker 2: the kidnapping thing. I don't think anybody will because they

11:07 Speaker 2: never really expounded upon it. You know, they really didn't.

11:11 Speaker 2: They didn't go anywhere with it because they didn't have

11:13 Speaker 2: any evidence. They literally walked out of that house with nothing.

11:16 Speaker 2: Bump gus. They found nothing to implicate him and anything whatsoever. Right,

11:22 Speaker 2: and there wasn't an I'm sorry, No, there wasn't. I'll

11:25 Speaker 2: let us help you fix the gate.

11:27 Speaker 1: And that's something right, and that's why he made that

11:30 Speaker 1: song will you help me fix my gate?

11:32 Speaker 2: Yeah?

11:33 Speaker 1: Or will you help me fix my doors? Actually the

11:35 Speaker 1: title and something people should probably who might not realize too,

11:40 Speaker 1: is that that's actually pretty typical from what I understand,

11:43 Speaker 1: if the police show up. You know, there's this stories

11:45 Speaker 1: you don't even have to look that hard, where you know,

11:47 Speaker 1: maybe the police get a bad tip, or maybe they

11:49 Speaker 1: show up. They accidentally show up at the wrong house.

11:51 Speaker 2: That's happened many times.

11:52 Speaker 1: And you know what if that happens and they show

11:55 Speaker 1: up and they wreck your home and it turns out, oops,

11:58 Speaker 1: we made a mistake, the address wrong, you know what

12:01 Speaker 1: they do for you then? Nothing? Yeah, that's just like

12:04 Speaker 1: a standard thing in American law enforcement. If the cops

12:07 Speaker 1: make a mistake and wreck your world, what will they

12:10 Speaker 1: do to make it right? Nothing?

12:12 Speaker 2: They don't care. Was it last year or the year before?

12:16 Speaker 2: We saw the story with the elderly lady like one

12:18 Speaker 2: hundred years old with her walker and she's like pushing

12:21 Speaker 2: her walker into the cops, going get out, get out,

12:24 Speaker 2: of my house, get out. Yeah, she was the wrong

12:26 Speaker 2: addressed person. Yeah, and she died. She had a heart

12:28 Speaker 2: attack and died within like a day of that issue.

12:31 Speaker 1: And they don't care. And look, I'm not somebody who

12:34 Speaker 1: is and.

12:34 Speaker 2: They don't care because of immunities.

12:36 Speaker 1: Yeah, good qualified immunity and all that. And look, I'm

12:39 Speaker 1: not anybody who knows me knows I'm not somebody who's

12:41 Speaker 1: reflexively anti law enforcement. I think they're you know, I

12:44 Speaker 1: always say, celebrate the heroes, but condemn the villains. Just

12:48 Speaker 1: like any profession, you've got good ones and bad ones.

12:50 Speaker 1: You've got Look, you've got people, You've got people in

12:53 Speaker 1: law enforcement out there every day putting themselves in jeopardy,

12:57 Speaker 1: you know, doing great work, important work. And I love

13:01 Speaker 1: the heroes, but I hate the villains. And the cops

13:04 Speaker 1: who did this to Afroman clearly are villains. Yeah. They

13:08 Speaker 1: they wreck his home, they don't do anything to make

13:11 Speaker 1: it right, and then they sue him for doing something

13:14 Speaker 1: that we talk about all the time on the show.

13:17 Speaker 1: When you when you take bad things that happen to you,

13:19 Speaker 1: traumatic events, and this seems like something that would be

13:22 Speaker 1: pretty traumatic for anyone to go through when you take

13:25 Speaker 1: bad things, negative things, and you create art out of it. Yep,

13:28 Speaker 1: taking something bad and then creating something positive from that,

13:32 Speaker 1: that's the best therapy that there is, right to actually

13:34 Speaker 1: create art that not only helps you process what's happened

13:38 Speaker 1: to you, but can help others too, who can then

13:40 Speaker 1: relate to the art that you've created and enjoy that art.

13:43 Speaker 1: And that is exactly what Afroman did. He took something

13:46 Speaker 1: horrible that happened to him and to his family and

13:49 Speaker 1: to his home and his own home, in his own home,

13:51 Speaker 1: on his own camera and created art. Yes, and and

13:55 Speaker 1: the you know these these poor police who you know,

13:57 Speaker 1: they're so big and tough when they're they're doing their

14:00 Speaker 1: little raid, but then they get their feelings hurt. All

14:04 Speaker 1: their feelings are so hurt when people laugh and make

14:06 Speaker 1: fun of them.

14:07 Speaker 2: Nobody would have been laughing and making fun of They've

14:09 Speaker 2: done their jobs correctly.

14:10 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, right.

14:11 Speaker 2: So he's right about that, in the bigger issue being

14:15 Speaker 2: that if artists, if he had lost and artists would

14:19 Speaker 2: be judged on talking about the moments in their life

14:23 Speaker 2: that have been traumatic, you are shutting down music entirely

14:28 Speaker 2: right now. At the mosaic Ar Collective, I am a

14:30 Speaker 2: piece hanging called the cell and that comes out of

14:33 Speaker 2: a dark space, and that is a piece of art

14:37 Speaker 2: that other people relate to, and they talk to me

14:40 Speaker 2: about their stories and how they've related to that piece,

14:44 Speaker 2: because that's what art is. It's a relationship with the artist.

14:48 Speaker 2: When you listen to music, whether it's something funny that

14:51 Speaker 2: makes you laugh, or it's something serious about a death,

14:56 Speaker 2: something you connect into. So he's expressing trauma that occurred

15:01 Speaker 2: in a fun way in a way that we can

15:04 Speaker 2: relate to, and being file about it, being funny about it. Yeah,

15:09 Speaker 2: he's not saying go out and do harm to people. No,

15:11 Speaker 2: he's not being violent in language at all. He's literally

15:15 Speaker 2: taking something bad and making it funny and sharing it

15:18 Speaker 2: with us and sharing that in a way that you

15:21 Speaker 2: can laugh at it with him.

15:22 Speaker 1: And it's and it's the truth. Nothing he said was false, right,

15:27 Speaker 1: And nothing in these videos that he makes is false.

15:29 Speaker 1: It's all from his security footage from his own home.

15:32 Speaker 2: And that would be the if you're going to go

15:34 Speaker 2: after somebody for saying something about you, it's got to

15:37 Speaker 2: be untrue. If it's true, what are you doing it? Doesn't?

15:42 Speaker 2: You know? Truth is truth? You know if he if

15:46 Speaker 2: he was making songs calling them everything under the sun

15:49 Speaker 2: that was not real, then maybe they then they got

15:53 Speaker 2: a leg to stand on. Then that's deformation the character.

15:55 Speaker 2: If I say you're a thief, Oh, Matt, I'm faming

16:00 Speaker 2: your character. Now. If you got arrested for thievery, and

16:04 Speaker 2: I said, and you got convicted of it, I said, oh,

16:08 Speaker 2: he got convicted of thiever. You're a thief. You can't

16:10 Speaker 2: sue me for deformation because it's true. Nothing he said

16:14 Speaker 2: wasn't true. And that's something he actually said on the stand.

16:17 Speaker 2: It was a three day trial. I watched not all

16:20 Speaker 2: of it, but I watched a decent portion of it.

16:23 Speaker 2: But I will say the thing that I was most

16:25 Speaker 2: impressed by was every single time they tried to catch

16:30 Speaker 2: Afromon up to try and make him the bad guy

16:33 Speaker 2: doing something to them, he answered as clearly, as concisely

16:38 Speaker 2: as we heard in.

16:39 Speaker 1: What you play, very very smart guy.

16:41 Speaker 2: And he kept saying in it because it's truth. He

16:44 Speaker 2: kept saying it and sticking to his truth. Every single time.

16:47 Speaker 2: I didn't do anything to anyone. They did it to themselves.

16:52 Speaker 2: They put themselves in my home. They chose to not

16:57 Speaker 2: go through my home the way they're supposed to go

16:59 Speaker 2: through my home. Yeah, you're not supposed to raid the kitchen.

17:02 Speaker 2: I don't think that's part of your job. Sorry. If

17:06 Speaker 2: you're hunger, you get a snack, bring it with you. Yeah,

17:09 Speaker 2: that's not how it's supposed to work.

17:10 Speaker 1: I mean, the pound cake does look good.

17:12 Speaker 2: It did look good. I do like lemon pound cake.

17:15 Speaker 1: We should I want to look at the actually, well

17:19 Speaker 1: let's look at the NPR article. I do want to

17:20 Speaker 1: go through this. One's pretty thorough. I just I want

17:23 Speaker 1: to go through this and just make sure we didn't

17:24 Speaker 1: miss any important details because this all did just just conclude. Oh,

17:28 Speaker 1: by the way, too, shout out to my friend Mark

17:30 Speaker 1: Castick if he's listening or if he hears this later.

17:33 Speaker 1: He did update his profile picture. He's got a picture

17:36 Speaker 1: of him with Afroman, because I think he had interviewed

17:39 Speaker 1: him at some point and he just updated his profile

17:42 Speaker 1: picture on Facebook. But that's pretty cool Mark. So NPR

17:46 Speaker 1: dot org. This is from This is from NPR dot

17:49 Speaker 1: org from two days ago. Afroman prevails in cops music

17:53 Speaker 1: video defamation suit after a brief but viral trial. So

17:58 Speaker 1: it says here Afroman was just trying to turn lemons

18:01 Speaker 1: into lemon pound cake when he started making music videos

18:04 Speaker 1: and social media posts mocking law enforcement officers who conducted

18:08 Speaker 1: a heavy handed raid on his Ohio home. Home surveillance

18:12 Speaker 1: video of the August twenty twenty two raids shows half

18:15 Speaker 1: a dozen gun wielding law enforcement officers from the Adams

18:21 Speaker 1: County Sheriff's Office deputies kicking down his door, combing through

18:24 Speaker 1: a CD collection, going through his suit pockets, flipping through

18:29 Speaker 1: a wad of cash, and in one case, briefly getting

18:32 Speaker 1: distracted by a cake dish on the kitchen counter. The

18:36 Speaker 1: search on suspicion of drug trafficking and kidnapping didn't yield

18:40 Speaker 1: any evidence or charges against the rapper, whose legal name

18:44 Speaker 1: is Joseph Foreman, but he saw officers broke his ohbody says.

18:48 Speaker 1: Officers broke his gate and security surveillance wiring, took four

18:52 Speaker 1: hundred dollars in cash and frightened his family. He wasn't

18:56 Speaker 1: home at the time, but his wife and kids, then

18:58 Speaker 1: ten and twelve, were present. Oh my god, Yeah, they

19:02 Speaker 1: were whole. Yeah. Can you imagine ten and twelve year

19:05 Speaker 1: old kids?

19:05 Speaker 2: Well, like he said, and you imagine how upset my

19:09 Speaker 2: kids were when you were pointing guns in their faces yep, yep,

19:12 Speaker 2: because he was trying to make him feel guilty because

19:17 Speaker 2: one of the cops got so upset that they might

19:20 Speaker 2: have had to take a break during their deposition.

19:22 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, the scops are sociopaths.

19:26 Speaker 2: You didn't care how upset I was when you poot

19:28 Speaker 2: guns in my filed in face.

19:29 Speaker 1: Right, And they don't care. They absolutely do not.

19:32 Speaker 2: Care because what they do is allowable. It's this immunity

19:35 Speaker 2: of I can get away with anything I want to

19:37 Speaker 2: get away with and it doesn't matter.

19:38 Speaker 4: Right.

19:38 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely they.

19:40 Speaker 2: And it shouldn't be that way. They should be accountable.

19:43 Speaker 2: They should have to fix damage that they create, of course, yeah,

19:46 Speaker 2: especially when it's wrong. And I'd like to know how

19:48 Speaker 2: they got the search warn't what was the evidence?

19:53 Speaker 1: Well yeah, he addresses that. In one of the songs.

19:55 Speaker 1: He names the judge who signed the warrant.

19:57 Speaker 2: No, no, but what was the evidence that they gave

20:00 Speaker 2: this judge for the third.

20:01 Speaker 1: The informant that just made this stuff up and told them.

20:04 Speaker 2: That's all it was.

20:05 Speaker 1: That's all it was. That's all it took.

20:08 Speaker 2: Yep, all it took. Yeah, Well that is how it

20:10 Speaker 2: takes sometimes just somebody saying something wrong.

20:14 Speaker 1: It says lying, it says your Afroman told NPR in

20:17 Speaker 1: twenty twenty three, quote, I asked myself, as a powerless

20:20 Speaker 1: black man in America, what can I do to the

20:23 Speaker 1: cops that kicked my door in, tried to kill me

20:26 Speaker 1: in front of my kids, stole my money, and disconnected

20:29 Speaker 1: my cameras. And the only thing I could come up

20:32 Speaker 1: with was make a funny rap song about them, use

20:34 Speaker 1: the money to pay for the damages they did, and

20:37 Speaker 1: move on. Unquote. The rapper, best known for early hits

20:42 Speaker 1: like Because I Got High and Crazy Rap I Don't

20:45 Speaker 1: Even Remember that one, made waves again with the twenty

20:49 Speaker 1: twenty three release of Lemon Pound Cake. It's fourteen songs

20:52 Speaker 1: have titles like the Police Raid, why are you disconnecting

20:56 Speaker 1: my video camera? And will you help me repair my door?

20:59 Speaker 1: Featuring home surveillance footage in the music videos. He also

21:02 Speaker 1: posted memes and sold merchandise satirizing the incident and people involved.

21:07 Speaker 1: Common themes ranged from poking fun at the deputy's appearances,

21:11 Speaker 1: comparing them to family guys Peter Griffin and Quasimodo from

21:15 Speaker 1: the Hunchback of Notre Dame, two more serious allegations of

21:18 Speaker 1: extra amrital affairs and a word I'm not going to

21:23 Speaker 1: say that starts with a P amongst department members. Afroman

21:27 Speaker 1: called the approach quote the smartest, most peaceful solution unquote,

21:32 Speaker 1: but the sheriff's deputies disagreed. The seven law enforcement officers

21:36 Speaker 1: sued him in twenty twenty three for defamation and invasion

21:39 Speaker 1: of privacy, saying his unauthorized use of their likenesses hurt

21:45 Speaker 1: their reputations and made it harder to do their jobs.

21:49 Speaker 1: They sought the contents removal and three point nine million

21:53 Speaker 1: dollars in damages. So about that four million? Yeah, that

21:57 Speaker 1: didn't stop Afroman from releasing in He's seeing Lee personal

22:01 Speaker 1: songs about the deputies deputies involved, including one ahead of

22:06 Speaker 1: his trial this week called the batter Ram Hymn of

22:09 Speaker 1: the Police Whistleblower, which I am going to play and

22:12 Speaker 1: edited version at the end of the segment. But that

22:16 Speaker 1: contains well. By the way, you have to see the video,

22:20 Speaker 1: he's marching solemnly in an American flagsuit, the same one

22:23 Speaker 1: he wore at the trial. If you haven't seen it,

22:25 Speaker 1: you got to see the suit he's wearing but he

22:26 Speaker 1: also wears it in the video, and it's got lyrics

22:28 Speaker 1: like they vandalized my property, my money came up short,

22:31 Speaker 1: they disconnect my cameras because they are a poor sport.

22:36 Speaker 1: They're the predators and the victims, and they're suing me

22:39 Speaker 1: in court. My proof's on the internet. The three day

22:43 Speaker 1: trial focused on heavy topics like policing and free speech,

22:47 Speaker 1: though there was no shortage of viral sitcom esque exchanges.

22:52 Speaker 1: On Wednesday, after less than a day of deliberations, the

22:55 Speaker 1: jury sided squarely with the rapper, Thank goodness. Afroman told

23:02 Speaker 1: reporters outside the court, dressed in his American flag pattern

23:05 Speaker 1: suit tye and aviators topped with a white fur coat,

23:11 Speaker 1: he said, quote, I didn't win. America won. America still

23:15 Speaker 1: has freedom of speech. It's still for the people, by

23:18 Speaker 1: the people. Unquote. The deputy's lawyer, Robert Klingler. I guess

23:23 Speaker 1: they so this was a joint suit. They all had.

23:26 Speaker 1: One lawyer told NPR that they brought the case in

23:28 Speaker 1: hopes of putting false accusations behind them. He said they

23:32 Speaker 1: would quote review the verdict and consider any appropriate next

23:36 Speaker 1: steps unquote, thus implying they're going to try to appeal it.

23:40 Speaker 1: Both sides clearly felt wronged by the other, but the

23:42 Speaker 1: primary question before the jury was whether Afroman's response to

23:46 Speaker 1: the raid counted as protected free speech. He and the

23:50 Speaker 1: lawyer argued it did. He and his lawyer argued it did.

23:54 Speaker 1: The rapper said, from the stand quote, I got the right.

23:57 Speaker 1: We actually I'm not going to read that because just

23:58 Speaker 1: because we already played the clip. But he also said

24:03 Speaker 1: some of this, uh, none of this would have happened

24:05 Speaker 1: if they hadn't raided his house, so uh. Klingler, the

24:11 Speaker 1: lawyer for the deputies, framed it to the jury this way.

24:15 Speaker 1: Quote a search warrant executes, I'm sorry, a search warrant

24:18 Speaker 1: execution that you think was unfair doesn't justify telling intentional

24:24 Speaker 1: lies designed to hurt people unquote. He said, a verdict

24:27 Speaker 1: in their favor would quote make up in some way

24:31 Speaker 1: for what they've been through unquote the like these they've

24:35 Speaker 1: been through, these terribly unsympathetic people that you can't possibly

24:38 Speaker 1: feel sorry for, you psychotic.

24:42 Speaker 2: So what did it do to them when they pointed

24:44 Speaker 2: the guns at the children?

24:44 Speaker 1: Yeah, no kidding, huh, Yeah, we're supposed to never.

24:46 Speaker 2: Mind the children, never mind their dad. None of that.

24:49 Speaker 1: We're supposed to forget that.

24:50 Speaker 2: Let's remember there's no lie. He didn't say anything, right, untrue. Right,

24:56 Speaker 2: he literally spoke what you see on camera.

25:00 Speaker 1: Okay, Now this next part's funny. This this involves Sean Cooley,

25:03 Speaker 1: the pound cake guy. Okay, So Sean Cooley, the now

25:07 Speaker 1: retired deputy who has caught on camera checking out the cake,

25:11 Speaker 1: said he's received hundreds of poundcakes at work from different

25:16 Speaker 1: people and was even recognized by cops while working cases

25:20 Speaker 1: and other jurisdictions, in addition to his own community members.

25:25 Speaker 1: See if he were smart, If he were, he's an

25:27 Speaker 1: older guy. He doesn't get it. If you were smart,

25:29 Speaker 1: he would actually just lean into that. Yeah, have fun

25:31 Speaker 1: with it.

25:32 Speaker 2: But he's like take him to a local nursing home

25:34 Speaker 2: and deliver them in chair. Yeah, like sure everybody eats them.

25:36 Speaker 1: He probably threw them away, But he's just a dumb,

25:39 Speaker 1: fat cop from Ohio. He doesn't know any better. Yeah,

25:41 Speaker 1: he probably did. He probably was so keep it. Probably

25:44 Speaker 1: did just throw them away.

25:45 Speaker 2: Do you mean you expecting me to do my job?

25:47 Speaker 2: I was in the kitten, I was policing the food.

25:52 Speaker 1: Cooley said, quote, I had one guy come out of

25:54 Speaker 1: a bedroom after me, call me a thief and want

25:57 Speaker 1: to know why I stole Afroman's money. It just went

26:01 Speaker 1: from being a nice, quiet community, a job you felt safe,

26:04 Speaker 1: and to a place where you had to look over

26:06 Speaker 1: your shoulder every second.

26:08 Speaker 2: Quote people in the community were parently.

26:11 Speaker 1: Doing yeah, no kidding. Another Brian Newland, said he was

26:15 Speaker 1: forced to quit his dream job with the Sheriff's office

26:18 Speaker 1: due to Afroman's claims of him being a and it

26:21 Speaker 1: starts with a p I'm not gonna say it, which

26:23 Speaker 1: he denies. Deputy Lisa Phillips cried on the stand.

26:27 Speaker 2: Apparently his brother was convicted or something like that, and

26:31 Speaker 2: there's something about that as to how he gets Oh yeah,

26:35 Speaker 2: there's more to that use of that word.

26:40 Speaker 1: Also, Lisa Phillips cried on the stand on Afroman's mean songs.

26:45 Speaker 1: When asked if he saw that, Afroman acknowledged that Phillips

26:47 Speaker 1: was upset by the online trolling. Quote just like I

26:51 Speaker 1: was upset when she was standing in front of my

26:53 Speaker 1: kids with an AR fifteen in her hand around the trigger.

26:57 Speaker 1: But I'm not a person, so I'm sorry for being

26:59 Speaker 1: a vic. Let's talk about the predators.

27:01 Speaker 2: And that was That was just a mic dropping gold

27:04 Speaker 2: right there. Oh yeah, you know, yeah, let's talk about

27:07 Speaker 2: never mind the victim, we'll talk about the predators. That

27:10 Speaker 2: that that was a great line. He's right. The kids

27:13 Speaker 2: was like ten in eight ease old ten and twelve,

27:15 Speaker 2: ten and twelve, yep. And how much therapy are they

27:18 Speaker 2: going to be in forever? And how much trauma are

27:20 Speaker 2: they going to care for the rest of their lives

27:21 Speaker 2: over that? Yeah, no kidding, yeah, gets to make enough

27:24 Speaker 2: money to put him in college.

27:26 Speaker 1: It says. In addition to traumatizing his family and damaging

27:29 Speaker 1: his property, Afroman maintained that the deputies stole money from him.

27:33 Speaker 1: They seized thousands of dollars in cash from his home,

27:36 Speaker 1: which Afroman said was payment for a gig, but returned

27:40 Speaker 1: at four hundred dollars short. The Sheriff's office has explained

27:43 Speaker 1: the discrepancy by saying deputies originally miscounted the money, which

27:47 Speaker 1: Newland took responsibility for on the stand. Oh, they miscounted

27:51 Speaker 1: exactly four hundred, yes, round number.

27:54 Speaker 2: Yes, he just he just counted it wrong.

27:56 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah. The defense only called one Okay, this

28:00 Speaker 1: part's fun too. The defense only called one witness, Ronda Groomes,

28:06 Speaker 1: a teacher and the ex wife of sheriff's deputy Cooley Yep.

28:12 Speaker 1: She was asked whether she and her students were familiar

28:14 Speaker 1: with the Cardi B song wapp Wap, which if you

28:18 Speaker 1: don't know what it stands for, you'll have to google it.

28:20 Speaker 1: We can't say it here clearly, which stirred controversy with

28:24 Speaker 1: its overtly to put it mildly sexual lyrics in twenty twenty,

28:28 Speaker 1: and testified that none of them took the words literally.

28:31 Speaker 1: Afroman's lawyer, David Osborne Junior, pointed to other explicit rap

28:35 Speaker 1: songs to argue that artists tend to exaggerate for the

28:38 Speaker 1: sake of entertainment. At one point, he argued that no

28:41 Speaker 1: one listens to Lil Wayne's song p Monster, I'll just

28:46 Speaker 1: say it that way and says there's a monster in

28:48 Speaker 1: that song, oh okay. In other words, nobody listens to

28:51 Speaker 1: that and takes it literally. He said that's what Afroman

28:54 Speaker 1: was doing in his songs, and that many of the

28:56 Speaker 1: terms that deputies found defensive were not facts but matters

28:59 Speaker 1: of opinion, like one that calls Sergeant Randy Waters a

29:03 Speaker 1: son of a bee, which Osborne said there was no

29:06 Speaker 1: definitive way to prove or disprove she's been dead for years,

29:12 Speaker 1: Walters replied, matter of fact, lee, prompting a chuckle and

29:15 Speaker 1: condolences from the defense lawyer regarding as his mother. So

29:18 Speaker 1: no way to prove or disprove that she was a

29:20 Speaker 1: bee at LISTA, Walters said something mildly clever for you

29:24 Speaker 1: know this dumb hillbilly quote unquote. Sheriff in his closing statements,

29:31 Speaker 1: Osborne appointed to a rap as pointed to rap as

29:34 Speaker 1: an established form of social commentary, saying police and public

29:37 Speaker 1: officials are called names online all the time, whether whether

29:41 Speaker 1: or not they like it, and he rephrased the plaintiff's

29:44 Speaker 1: question about what a liable verdict would mean. Osborne said, quote,

29:48 Speaker 1: what does this message send if we find that music

29:51 Speaker 1: and social commentary, while maybe not the most tasteful thing

29:54 Speaker 1: in the world, is silenced because a public official was

29:57 Speaker 1: hurt by it? Unquote. Some of the most fever dream

30:02 Speaker 1: like moments of the trial took off in social media

30:05 Speaker 1: eclips Afroman defiant in his American flag suit, deputies soberly

30:10 Speaker 1: discussing lemon pound cake, the defense lawyers garbling of Cardi

30:15 Speaker 1: B's name Most of the commenters remarked that by bringing

30:20 Speaker 1: the case to court, the deputies brought it to the

30:23 Speaker 1: public's attention. Several highlighted the irony of an invasion of

30:27 Speaker 1: privacy case going viral online, calling it an example of

30:31 Speaker 1: the Streisand effect, named after Barbara Streisand's two thousand and

30:34 Speaker 1: three lawsuit to remove a photo of her home from

30:36 Speaker 1: the web that only brought more eyes to it. The

30:39 Speaker 1: Lemon pound Cake music video has three point eight million

30:43 Speaker 1: views on YouTube as of Thursday, and the top comments

30:46 Speaker 1: were all about the trial. One commenter wrote, shout out

30:50 Speaker 1: to the cops for making sure I saw this absolute

30:53 Speaker 1: bop yep. Afroman, who said on the stand that he

31:00 Speaker 1: it did an estimated two hundred and fifty shows last year,

31:02 Speaker 1: acknowledged that the attention had boosted his follower account, which

31:06 Speaker 1: is almost six hundred thousand on Instagram alone. All the

31:08 Speaker 1: publicity from the officers lawsuit on me is running up

31:12 Speaker 1: my numbers unquote. So there you go. So and that's

31:15 Speaker 1: kind of the you know, if there's a happy ending

31:18 Speaker 1: to this. Not only not only did Afroman win in

31:22 Speaker 1: court and this is an important you know, it's funny

31:25 Speaker 1: and silly and goofy as it might seem, in some ways,

31:27 Speaker 1: it's actually a very important victory for the First Amendment

31:30 Speaker 1: for free spot art, for art.

31:33 Speaker 2: Art entirely because that could easily translate into picture art.

31:36 Speaker 2: It doesn't you know, you know, I do a I

31:39 Speaker 2: do a political picture art, and it does a charriacature

31:43 Speaker 2: of somebody in a negative light.

31:45 Speaker 1: Yeah. But also this, the other part of the happy

31:49 Speaker 1: ending is this has helped Afroman's career tremendously.

31:52 Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, Yeah, I bet he's getting even more well.

31:55 Speaker 1: Yeah, because without they blew him up, without all of this, Yeah,

31:58 Speaker 1: I mean, he's you know, he's relevant in twenty twenty

32:01 Speaker 1: six because of this.

32:02 Speaker 2: If they do another trial, if they go after him again,

32:05 Speaker 2: they're just gonna keep it that much more in the light.

32:07 Speaker 2: You'll get that much more views, I don't think, and

32:09 Speaker 2: he probably gets to raise his rate for what he

32:12 Speaker 2: gets paid for a performance.

32:13 Speaker 1: I don't think they're gonna go through with trying to

32:15 Speaker 1: appeal it. He's stupid, a waste of money. But but yeah, I.

32:19 Speaker 2: Mean, stupid is a stupid does Isn't that what?

32:22 Speaker 1: Because without all of this, if none of this had happened,

32:24 Speaker 1: he would just be you know the guy. Oh yeah,

32:27 Speaker 1: af me and I remember him. He had that song

32:28 Speaker 1: because I got high.

32:29 Speaker 2: Right, you know what I mean. But that's not the

32:31 Speaker 2: thing anymore. Right now, it's not about that anymore. It's

32:33 Speaker 2: about Lemon pound Gate.

32:35 Speaker 1: And now he's a free speech First Amendment icon because

32:39 Speaker 1: of all this. So he stood in the good for him.

32:41 Speaker 2: Yeah, he stood in the line of fire and defended

32:43 Speaker 2: the ability of an artist to be able to can

32:46 Speaker 2: produce the music they want to produce, be a good batter, indifferent.

32:49 Speaker 2: You don't have to like it, but they have the

32:51 Speaker 2: right to say it. That's basic free speech.

32:53 Speaker 1: Yep, yeah, absolutely one.

32:57 Speaker 2: So this is an important win the jokes. Yeah, this

33:01 Speaker 2: is a very important win for the music industry and

33:05 Speaker 2: for the artistry in and of itself. Yeah, especially these

33:09 Speaker 2: days when people do like to pick apart things and

33:11 Speaker 2: try and go after people. Yeah, it's really important to

33:15 Speaker 2: reinforce that the First Amendment applies to art, it applies

33:19 Speaker 2: to all of us.

33:21 Speaker 1: I think I'm gonna play yeah, yeah, we were gonna

33:25 Speaker 1: do do another one of them. I think I'm gonna

33:27 Speaker 1: play this track batter ram batter ram him, because that's

33:30 Speaker 1: what they used to break down his door him of

33:33 Speaker 1: the police whistleblower. I think'm gonna play this now. I

33:37 Speaker 1: did make a radio edit of this last night when

33:40 Speaker 1: I came in right before Paul's show. Afromann songs for

33:44 Speaker 1: the most part, the songs that he's been releasing are

33:47 Speaker 1: completely clean. Uh. But in other words, there's no swearest.

33:50 Speaker 1: But there was one word in this song I was

33:52 Speaker 1: uncomfortable with. So and it starts with a P. It

33:55 Speaker 1: came up a couple times in that article. I won't

33:57 Speaker 1: say it on the air for a couple of time,

34:00 Speaker 1: different reasons, but so I did take that word out.

34:03 Speaker 1: There's also another word in it that he actually self censors.

34:06 Speaker 1: But you can figure out what he's going for. But

34:08 Speaker 1: I think we should play this to end the segment

34:10 Speaker 1: or discussion about Afroman. Unless you had anything to add,

34:13 Speaker 1: we can. We'll play this out of them. Yeah, yeah,

34:16 Speaker 1: proud of him, absolutely.

34:17 Speaker 2: Way to stand up for everybody. Yeah, well done, sir.

34:20 Speaker 1: I know it's funny. Like I said, I didn't like

34:22 Speaker 1: that song back in two thousand and one, and I

34:24 Speaker 1: couldn't wait for it to go away, and I really

34:26 Speaker 1: had no interest in the guy. And you know, here

34:28 Speaker 1: we are twenty five years later, and I'm while like

34:30 Speaker 1: like while celebrating his victory in court.

34:33 Speaker 2: And having favorite songs. Now you and I both love

34:36 Speaker 2: pound cakes.

34:37 Speaker 1: I'm twenty five years later, I'm now a fan of Afroman.

34:40 Speaker 1: It's funny.

34:41 Speaker 2: So thank you PD for doing that. Let's rechoose to

34:45 Speaker 2: do it again. I'm sure he will take a few

34:47 Speaker 2: more million listeners.

34:48 Speaker 1: That's right, that's right, all right here it is this

34:50 Speaker 1: is bad Or ram him of the police, whistled lower

34:53 Speaker 1: the radio. Edit by Afroman