The lawyer representing George Floyd’s family claims they feel “betrayed” by Kanye West‘s bogus assertion that the 46-year-death old’s was due to fentanyl and not a police officer kneeling on his neck for about nine minutes.
It is reported that Floyd family attorney Lee Merritt has confirmed his client’s intention to sue the rapper and added that he is also investigating whether ultra-right-wing pundit Candace Owens could be held liable for knowingly promoting a false claim from her new Daily Wire-produced “documentary,” The Greatest Lie Ever Sold.
Despite Merritt’s admission that a defamation claim on behalf of a deceased person has no legal standing, he argues that the nearly $1 billion judgement that Sandy Hook parents won against InfoWars host Alex Jones for spreading conspiracy theories about the 2012 shooting provides a possible pathway for legal recourse.
Also Read: Selma Blair leaves ‘Dancing with the Stars’ due to MS health issues
According to Merritt, we should have a good indication of what allegations are viable and who might be involved by the end of the week. The option to go to trial will be decided upon at that time.
After West’s YZY fashion show earlier this month in Paris, where he displayed models wearing White Lives Matter T-shirts, he has been generating PR disaster after PR disaster.
His Instagram and Twitter were disabled after he declared that Black Lives Matter was “over” and made other anti-Semitic remarks, including that he was going to go “death con three on Jewish people.”
Also Read: Panthers’ Robbie Anderson Dismissed After Disagreeing With Coaches
In an appearance on Drink Champs on Revolt TV over the weekend, he wrongly blamed fentanyl for Floyd’s death, despite having only recently seen the documentary by Owens on the subject. I saw the George Floyd documentary that Candace Owens released,” he said to N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN.
And the day he died, he prayed for eight minutes, during which time one of his roommates said, “They want a tall guy like me. They administered the fentanyl to him in a single dose. The man’s knee was not actually resting on his neck in that position.
According to Merritt, Ahmaud Arbery’s mom was the one who tipped him off about West’s comments regarding Floyd. Wanda Cooper-Jones had previously told Rolling Stone that West’s White Lives Matter stunt “flies directly in the face” of the fact that West had privately donated money to her family after her son’s murder.
Her kid was killed by “extremist behaviour,” She said this action “supported and legitimised.” West also claimed to have set up a college fund for Floyd’s daughter Gianna and given several significant gifts to Floyd and his loved ones.
Also Read: Kanye West To Buy Conservative Social Media Platform Parler; Everything You Need To Know
The Floyds feel “absolutely betrayed by his comments,” Merritt says because he has now taken a stance with Owens. For someone who has presented himself as an ally and supporter of the family, “to see him reversing course and ratifying [Owens’] comments and her extreme views is really disappointing,” he says.
We all know the individual offering the documentary is very right-wing and has an agenda. You can basically imagine Kanye West standing up for Derek Chauvin and the conspiracy theorists now.
Merritt argues that the consequences of West’s words could be even more severe, citing the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which is being promoted by George Floyd’s family and is currently before Congress.
The bill’s goal is to create a central database for complaints against police officers and ensure that they are investigated thoroughly.
He argues, “It certainly undermines their efforts to bring about reform when someone with a platform like Kanye or even Candace Owens [starts] making statements that police brutality was not the cause of death, but instead it was drugs or some other conspiracy.” That “regresses” everyone, the speaker said.
While West has the right “to exercise his first amendment right regardless how baseless and without merit” his accusations may be, Floyd’s uncle Roger Floyd, who is forming a memorial foundation in North Carolina in his nephew’s honour, told Rolling Stone that the family knows the truth.
He says a trial was held, and a guilt judgement was reached. Our whole family is happy with the result. In other words, “Justice Has Been Done.”
