14 ms·

Afroman found not liable in defamation case

• looofooo0 7mo ago
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oponIfu5L3Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oponIfu5L3Y This is the video in question, police again falling trap to the Streisand effect.
  • Mashimo 7mo ago
    Yes, but not limited to just that one. https://www.youtube.com/@ogafroman/videos https://www.youtube.com/@ogafroman/videos He also has other videos where he calls one of them a pedofile, questioning their gender (Licc'm low lisa) and more.
    • walletdrainer 7mo ago
      This all feels extremely mild next to what these people did to Afroman.
    • arianvanp 7mo ago
      I think you're confusing gender and sexual orientation. He's calling her a lesbian
      • Mashimo 7mo ago
        No, I'm not. He also posted about her deep voice and people should check what genitals she really has.
    • yread 7mo ago
      > pedofile apparently, the deputy in question has a brother who was a deputy as well but was fired and charged with a sexual misdemeanor against minors. Afroman also said he steals money during traffic stops and he was accused of that multiple times. Of course that's not bulletproof evidence but a reasonable person might assume these rumours are not completely unfounded EDIT: also the deputy of course didn't steal the money. He miscounted - when seizing the money he put 4630$ in the envelope but wrote 5000$ on it (which is the amount Afroman thought he had there)
      • embedding-shape 7mo ago
        > but a reasonable person might assume these rumours to be true From all the claims Afroman made, it seems the cop sued because of the whole "He claimed he had sex with my wife, which reflects poorly on me", presumably because he only has a chance to win the suit if there is actual lies. The same video seems to have texts about how he crashed into civilians, stealing pills/money and more, but none of that was brought up in the suit, only the cheating part.
        • shadowgovt 7mo ago
          We are, of course, not privy to the jury's reasoning unless they choose to divulge it. Which is unfortunate, because we may never know if they concluded "Given who you've demonstrated yourself to be, your wife is justified in seeking other lovers whether or not this allegation is true" or if there were other factors involved.
        • Rebelgecko 7mo ago
          Although funnily enough, when one of the questioned about if his wife had an affair with afroman he was like "I dunno". If he doesn't know it's a lie, kinda defeats the point of the defamation suit
          • philwelch 7mo ago
            To be fair, this raises an interesting question of epistemology. Can any man know for sure that his wife has never had sex with Afroman? It's almost always possible, however unlikely. One can and probably should trust that his wife hasn't had sex with Afroman, but it's rarely possible to be absolutely certain.
  • ceejayoz 7mo ago
    This might be peak Streisand effect.
  • embedding-shape 7mo ago
    Also probably a rare case where there are a few Streisand effect's all packed together, where the cops at each step made it worse for themselves. If they never did the raid in the first place, no music video, no "embarrassment". They could have cut their losses, and not made a big deal about it and probably way less people (including myself) would have ever heard about it. Instead they decided to sue, which made even bigger news. Here they could again have chosen "You know what, maybe this is counter-productive, lets settle/cancel it", and again probably people would have cared way less about it. Instead, they go to court, make a bunch of exaggerated and outrageous claims, one officer apparently cried as well, all in a public court room that is being recorded, again making it a bigger thing. Finally, Afroman wins the case, leading to this now seemingly making international news, and the videos continue racking up views. I know cops aren't known for being smart, but I have to wonder who made them act like this, don't cops have lawyers who can inform them about what is a smart move vs not? Seems they almost purposefully and intentionally tried to help Afroman, since they basically made the "wrong move" at every chance they got.
    • lukan 7mo ago
      They would have individually gotten lots of money in compensation if they would have won. So maybe the motives on their side are a bit more materialistic.
    • lenerdenator 7mo ago
      > don't cops have lawyers who can inform them about what is a smart move vs not? Generally, municipalities have at least some sort of attorney on retainer for this sort of thing. Generally. I don't know if that's the case where he lives. Either way, the police have to be smart enough to listen to that attorney, and have to be given a consequence for not doing so. If you can brush off everything as qualified immunity and say you were acting under color of law while a part of a union that would raise absolute hell for any sort of corrective action taken against you, you might not be introduced to said consequence.
      • SpaceL10n 7mo ago
        I have no evidence besides my own experience, but I think that the "back the blue" mentality might skew their support staff's objectivity a bit. Especially in smaller cities and towns where cops aren't just law enforcement, they are foundational pillars of morality and governance. The point I hope I'm making is that they are getting bad advice not because they are stupid, or the people around them are, but rather because it's inevitable due to complex social and psychological reasons.
  • milkshakes 7mo ago
    here appears to be his celebration of his victory, pretty catchy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM8Ee6pcXvQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM8Ee6pcXvQ
    • embedding-shape 7mo ago
      > here appears to be his celebration of his victory No, that video seems to be from 4 days ago, the verdict of the jury came yesterday.
      • milkshakes 7mo ago
        even more amazing then
  • hedora 7mo ago
    So, in the music video, the cops pretty clearly steal something (probably money, as alleged), and attempt to destroy evidence. They’re facing charges too, right? Right?
    • kagi_2026 7mo ago
      [dead]
    • plagiarist 7mo ago
      No, no way they could have known stealing money and destroying evidence is illegal. So the Post-It note on the old court case gives them qualified (absolute) immunity.
    • cryptonym 7mo ago
      Yes and as a result they will give taxpayer money in a deal and, officer will be moved to nearby county.
      • ceejayoz 7mo ago
        Or just promoted. https://www.13abc.com/2026/03/18/toledo-police-promote-lieutenant-who-was-disciplined-sexual-harassment/ https://www.13abc.com/2026/03/18/toledo-police-promote-lieut...
  • deleted 7mo ago
    [deleted]
  • mmaunder 7mo ago
    Almost too good to be true. They didn't find large quantities of weed, and afroman had cameras set up and caught it on camera. I mean, talk about landing with your bum in the butter. His career just caught a major reboot.
  • progbits 7mo ago
    Love the morons wearing desert/forest camo to an urban job. GI Joe cosplayers.
  • behringer 7mo ago
    It's worth it for a spin at millionaire roulette.
• LightBug1 7mo ago
  As someone who has never seen that video before, could I respectfully say: LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL Thank you, Ohio cops and lawyers, for bringing this to our attention.
  • quietsegfault 7mo ago
    I highly recommend watching the video that made the other cop cry.
    • noman-land 7mo ago
      Please post the link!
    • embedding-shape 7mo ago
      Licc’em Low Lisa - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wWQxSV8CK8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wWQxSV8CK8 (NSFW, depending on your workplace)
      • LightBug1 7mo ago
        Oh my ... that is just gold ... LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL
  • duskdozer 7mo ago
    When he started reversing the video around lemon pound cake I really thought the officer was backing up to take a piece lol
• archerx 7mo ago
  Those cops are the epitome of the term “cry bully”.
• BLKNSLVR 7mo ago
  Pretty funny, worth seeing at least once to be able to reference it at appropriate times. Having had my house raided, I love this. Police incompetence should be exposed at all opportunities with the hope that it makes some small amount of difference to future competence.
  • ourmandave 7mo ago
    Hoping it wasn't the SWAT guys. Those guys go hard and everyone is a meth terrorist until zip tied on the floor and proven otherwise. They also tend to shoot your dog. =(
    • embedding-shape 7mo ago
      Judging by the videos, they look like the typical American "deputy" that wouldn't even pass the fitness tests in other countries, which probably means it's easier to escape, but also that they are more trigger-happy.
    • BLKNSLVR 7mo ago
      Mime was in Australia, so much lower chance of violence, more polite. The incompetence was: 1. The entire suspicion was based on an IP address 2. They did no background investigation for potential counter evidence - they didn't even know to expect children in the house (school aged children that have been attending public school for at least 5 years each at that point). 3. As a result of the above, one of my kids was somewhat traumatised by being woken up with a police officer in her room 7 cops. They called in two more because I had so much computer hardware, so 9 cops altogether for an entire morning. 8 months later I get told I can pick up my (~$10k worth of) gear that they took. No case to answer. Should never have made it to a warrant. Useless, lazy, waste of a lot of resources. And creates an entire extended family with significantly diminished respect for, and increased suspicion of, the police force as a whole... ... you know, that whole erosion of trust in the system that's playing out writ large right now.
• _qua 7mo ago
  Damn, that case took a long time to resolve. You know what they say about justice delayed...
  • jfengel 7mo ago
    That it's the only type of justice you can ever hope to get in the US, if any at all?
• Iamkkdasari74 7mo ago
  [dead]
• iamacyborg 7mo ago
  I’ve had “lemon pound cake” stuck in my head all morning thanks to this
  • embedding-shape 7mo ago
    I've heard "Randy Walters is a son of a bitch, ooooh oooooh, uuh!" the entire day today after hearing the song yesterday, probably the most catchy one to come out of this whole story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4AiuqQpB1U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4AiuqQpB1U
  • michaeljx 7mo ago
    My mind went to K&P rap confession skit : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14WE3A0PwVs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14WE3A0PwVs
• quietsegfault 7mo ago
  The judge really loved the cops for some reason. So embarrassing for him.
  • embedding-shape 7mo ago
    Well, he probably interacts with them on a daily/weekly basis, or at least other people from their department, and probably don't want to end up on their bad side. In the end, justice and freedom of expression seems to have prevailed, so doesn't really matter what the judge think/thought in the end.
    • chaps 7mo ago
      If you think "justice and freedom of expression seems to have prevailed", then please consider the people who aren't famous and can't get media attention when this sort of thing happens to them. Justice and freedom of expression fail to prevail on the regular and this is just one win amongst many, many, many losses.
      • tehwebguy 7mo ago
        Even just in this instance justice would include damages for their destruction and an inquest into the warrant from the cop that wrote it to the judge that signed it.
    • Tostino 7mo ago
      For this one case. He seems to be a horribly biased judge though from what I saw in this case over the three days.
    • sneak 7mo ago
      Justice didn’t prevail. Afroman had to spend THOUSANDS defending himself in this bullshit civil lawsuit, and his countersuit got thrown out because police have qualified immunity. This is after they raided his house, bashed in his door, broke his cameras, stole his money, and then didn’t charge him with a single thing (and only returned part of the money). There is no justice here.
• pseudolus 7mo ago
  https://archive.ph/sMpjA https://archive.ph/sMpjA
• zzzeek 7mo ago
  gotta love some Streisand effect in the morning...
• snackbroken 7mo ago
  Going on the stand and stating that you "don't know" whether the allegedly defamatory statements you are suing over are true or not is a... bold legal strategy.
  • anon84873628 7mo ago
    Or claiming you don't know what crime your brother was charged with that led him to resign from the same police department.
  • mcdonje 7mo ago
    The ACLU called it a SLAPP lawsuit. If true, they probably didn't care if they won or not. That said, going on stand when your opponent has proven they can and will use your words and actions against you in the court of public opinion is a... bold strategy.
    • Rebelgecko 7mo ago
      Honestly it was pretty ballsy of Afroman to release songs during the trial (which did come up, but I think they sort of ignored due to some law that changed in 2024?)
  • fsckboy 7mo ago
    >Going on the stand and stating that you "don't know" whether the allegedly defamatory statements you are suing over are true or not is a... bold legal strategy. if the statement is true, that's a defense against defamation. if the statement is not believable, that is also a defense against defamation. it actually was legal strategy designed to dance around the legal strategy behind those questions being asked, taking the air out of your insult
    • tantalor 7mo ago
      I think comment was alleging perjury. They do know the statement is true (and this is provable). Pretending like they "don't know" is a lie under oath.
• shadowgovt 7mo ago
  One of the more interesting parts of the whole ordeal was officers getting on the witness stand and declaring that the lyrics that insinuated he had had sex with their wife were deeply traumatizing. People keep throwing around 'cuck' as an insult, but if trained officers of the law familiar with application of deadly force when necessary can be severely traumatized by the notion of another man sleeping with their wife... Maybe the cucks have been the brave ones all along?
  • SketchySeaBeast 7mo ago
    It's important to remember to thank them for their service.
• mkovach 7mo ago
  As fellow Ohioan Chrissie Hine and The Pretenders said, "Ay, oh, way to go, Ohio." Yeah, it was from "My City Was Gone," which isn't a pleasant song about the state, but pfft, it works here.
  • mcdonje 7mo ago
    It works here because it isn't a pleasant song about Ohio.
• bdcravens 7mo ago
  Gotta say I love Afroman's choice of courtroom atire.
  • bonesss 7mo ago
    I made this joke in another thread, but: I keep imagining Afromans court getup as the formal attire for American civil lawyers. Like robes and wigs, suits n ‘fros.
• maverickmalti41 7mo ago
  [dead]
• lenerdenator 7mo ago
  Y'know, officers, if you'd shown up to his house after the raid and apologized and offered to buy the guy a new door of his choosing and the installation for it, we're probably not having this conversation.
  • alphawhisky 7mo ago
    They don't have the emotional intelligence for that.
  • no_shadowban 7mo ago
    They got what they wanted. Afroman is the exception that proves the rule. If you aren't a platinum-selling rap star they will abuse you without recourse.
• lotrjohn 7mo ago
  I was gonnna click the link, but then I got high.
  • dghf 7mo ago
    I would’ve posted to say what I think, but I got high.
    • looselygoosy 7mo ago
      Can't be bothered to upvote, and I know why
    • deleted 7mo ago
      [deleted]
• josefritzishere 7mo ago
  This is the single funniest thing to happen in at least a decade.
  • anonymars 7mo ago
    You owe it to yourself to watch this testimony from the trial https://www.instagram.com/reel/DV_7xmAEfq0/ https://www.instagram.com/reel/DV_7xmAEfq0/ Apologies, I wish I had a less cancerous link
  • backscratches 7mo ago
    Heartily agreed. It is so good to see much needed shaming get doled out once in a while.
• Reubachi 7mo ago
  "Mr. Foreman was not at home during the 2002 police raid, but a security camera system and his wife, using her cellphone, recorded the “faces and bodies” of the officers while they were on the property, according to the lawsuit" "2002" New York Times, everyone. Props to afroman for his perfect demeanor/attitude during all this.
  • esprehn 7mo ago
    2022. I'm not sure phones recorded useful video in 2002.
    • refulgentis 7mo ago
      Right. It’s a little hard to parse but they’re saying “The NYT has a typo”
      • netsharc 7mo ago
        And what he's implying. "The NYT has a typo, it's all garbage!"
        • amiga386 7mo ago
          They're implying "An establishment calling itself a 'newspaper of record' can be expected to have high standards, such as correctly reporting dates, and I'll hold them to that" If you can spot a typo in the first few seconds of reading a piece, so can the editor and sub-editor before it's published.
          • ddellacosta 7mo ago
            Myself and most other programmers I know have at least once (more like 100 times) had the experience where you can't figure something out in some code you've been staring at for an hour, then another person comes along and immediately sees an obvious glaring error that you missed. I can only imagine the same thing happens in newsrooms with text, especially when it is visibly very similar, like "2002" and "2022."
• hollywood_court 7mo ago
  Those cops embarrassed themselves. Especially that one lady that was faux crying. Shameful behavior from the largest gang in the US.
  • alphawhisky 7mo ago
    [flagged]
  • anon84873628 7mo ago
    That didn't seem like faux crying. Making fun of her in that way is the hardest to defend IMO, since it had nothing to do with her job performance or relevant character attributes. (E.g. how the other officer had been accused of stealing before, or had a brother resign from the force after being charged with a crime involving a minor). That said, I don't disagree with outcome.
    • embedding-shape 7mo ago
      Aren't cops by default public figures? They're the de facto face of the police for the ordinary citizen, not sure they should be the type of individual who cries because someone calls them fat, lesbian or whatever. These people have the legal right to essentially execute you in public, I think we should set the bar a bit higher on who should be allowed to be a police officer in the first place.
      • hollywood_court 7mo ago
        I was raised by LEOs. My mother and all four of her husbands were career long LEOs in the South. Of course this is just based on my anecdotes, but LEOs have some of the thinnest skin imaginable. The first time I fought a grown man was when I was 13 and I had to fight my mother's fourth husband. He was a Deputy Sheriff and combat veteran and that dude had the emotional strength of a 12 year old girl who didn't get asked to the winter dance.
        • edm0nd 7mo ago
• jcarrano 7mo ago
  [flagged]
  • sneak 7mo ago
    This is not remotely true. Furthermore, the way people don’t get away with stuff like this is via extralegal/extrajudicial harassment, abuse, violence, and sometimes assassination (see also: MLK, Huey, Leqaa Kordia, Mahmoud Khalil, Barry Cooper, etc), so we aren’t really sure that he has gotten away with it yet. He beat a civil defamation suit; these cops still know where he lives. Do you think the events of today made them less angry at him?
  • headz 7mo ago
    You mean the cops. Right?
    • no_shadowban 7mo ago
      [flagged]
      • circlefavshape 7mo ago
        They're not. Really. You know less about the world than you think you do. Come to Ireland and talk to a cop
  • ohyoutravel 7mo ago
    I’m curious what the alternative is? I’m not aware of anyone, save you and the aggrieved police, who think this went the wrong way.
  • jrm4 7mo ago
    Feels like some unfair downvotes, so I'll ask again. In what other countries could one publicly shame the authorities this severely? I think that's what was meant here. And yes, it's great.
    • input_sh 7mo ago
• postalcoder 7mo ago
  It gives me immeasurable delight seeing afroman at the top of HN. Love me some freedom, sweet soulful music, and pie in the face of bad cops. Dang/Tom, please don't downrank this. America needs this win.
  • smt88 7mo ago
    [flagged]
    • radlad 7mo ago
      Not sure he's "big MAGA" but I assume this is where the idea stems from - https://www.newsweek.com/afroman-explains-his-new-song-hunter-got-high-1895392 https://www.newsweek.com/afroman-explains-his-new-song-hunte...
      • jollyllama 7mo ago
        It is interesting that his treatment is being cast in the light of racial politics rather than persecution of a political dissident.
    • pstuart 7mo ago
      That's good to know. The second sentence you gave was superfluous because the first one told us that -- I add this not to dismiss your efforts but to highlight them.
    • Y-bar 7mo ago
      I see he celebrated anti-ICE protests in some videos on his YouTube channel. Where does his MAGA support you claim come from?
      • watwut 7mo ago
        I mean, both him and Trump have similar approach to opponents or those who wronged them. In this case, the opponents are deeply unsympathetic to most, so it is harder to see. I do see how someone whose reaction to being wronged is "I fucked his wife doggy style" could be attracted to the Donald Trump personality.
• sayYayToLife 7mo ago
  Okay at first I was like this music is not my style, but the humor was so good.
  • eks391 7mo ago
    Same. It was such low quality video and audio, but I stayed for the same reason you continue listening to a comedians story
  • Tade0 7mo ago
    I've only seen the clip where Afroman is escaping from that police lady zigzaging backwards, but that's enough for me. How is it that a law enforcement officer can't keep up with a man in his 50s who isn't even trying to be the fastest?
• Asooka 7mo ago
  I know things are bad in the USA right now, but news like these show that you still have your basic rights. This kind of song would not fly in any other country on Earth. No other country has Freedom of Speech laws strong enough to defend against insulting the police. There have been some people abusing their freedom in recent times cough Kanye cough, but for every loud nazi there are ten more excellent people whose right to speak should not be infringed!
  • sneak 7mo ago
    This wasn’t a 1A case, it was a civil defamation suit. He won because they failed to prove defamation, NOT because the judge threw out the lawsuit because of a violation of constitutional rights. Separately: saying something shitty or unpopular that you disagree with isn’t someone abusing their rights to free expression. Expressing unpopular viewpoints that others consider abusive is exactly the point of such rights. There’s a REALLY BIG reason it isn’t “freedom of expression, except for expressing racial hatred”, and it’s not because we like racism. Germany sometimes bans entire political parties that they declare unconstitutional. Now imagine that power in the hands of Trump. You can see what Putin did to Navalny for a preview.
    • shadowgovt 7mo ago
      Perhaps interesting here is that some of the things he said were definitely not defensible via "truth is an affirmative defense." But it's ultimately up to the jury, and they can also find him innocent because a reasonable person wouldn't be offended by outlandish accusations. (Ultimately, though, they can find him innocent for any reason. If they decided he should walk because you can't legally offend cops, that's fine too.)
      • TheCoelacanth 7mo ago
        Truth is far from the only defense. Opinion is not defamatory. Satire is not defamatory. With public officials like police, even false factual statements are not defamatory unless you knew they were false and lied about it specifically to hurt them.
• anon84873628 7mo ago
  One of my favorite parts is when Afroman is being cross examined about why he brought the media and his lawyer to retrieve his money. He says, well that was for my protection because they came to my house with AR-15's and turned off the cameras. "I didn't want to get beat up or Epstein'd". And the lawyer is trying to make that out to be unreasonable, that a black man in the US shouldn't be scared of the police. Afroman just continues to assert that of course he was scared.
• subpixel 7mo ago
  I haven’t found any information about what cause the police had, why a warrant was issued, etc. I’m not suggesting suspicion has merit, but given all the idiocy I’m wondering what other forms of chicanery may have taken place to get a warrant.
  • dghf 7mo ago
    Tip from a “confidential informant”, I believe I read somewhere.
    • deleted 7mo ago
      [deleted]
    • mmmm2 7mo ago
      From Afroman's BATTERAM HYMN OF THE POLICE WHISTLE BLOWER: https://youtu.be/HM8Ee6pcXvQ?t=190 https://youtu.be/HM8Ee6pcXvQ?t=190
  • superxpro12 7mo ago
    Nah its just that simple. Racism is still alive and well. Don't overthink this.
• speefers 7mo ago
  [dead]
• debo_ 7mo ago
  Is the NY Post some kind of National Enquirer analogue? This article reads like it was written by a grade school child trying to emulate the voice of an villainous news reporter.
  • ceejayoz 7mo ago
    Yes, it's a right-wing tabloid. Our equivalent of the Daily Mail.
  • Capricorn2481 7mo ago
    Yes, it's a pretty over the top paper. Feels like you're reading TMZ for stuff that didn't happen.
  • cristoperb 7mo ago
    Yes. Here's an AP article: https://apnews.com/article/afroman-police-raid-lawsuit-ohio-first-amendment-309accc1ce068620e19cfd7d0f70dae1 https://apnews.com/article/afroman-police-raid-lawsuit-ohio-...
    • jkl5xx 7mo ago
      Thanks for sharing. Much better source.
• shevy-java 7mo ago
  This was also on youtube - Afroman made his points very clearly. That was an easy case. Makes you wonder why taxpayers have to pay for incompetent cops all the time. I understand that some proection is needed, but the whole system is really defunct if such cases even (have to) come to court.
• throwa356262 7mo ago
  Serious question: how come the police have not paid for the damage they caused?
  • caymanjim 7mo ago
    Qualified immunity.
    • iririririr 7mo ago
      which is double genius on afroman, because they forfeited qualified immunity to start this trial. now he can even sue further damages. distrack as legal maneuver.
      • giraffe_lady 7mo ago
        He is a seasoned professional at this. He was respected in the diss track game in his day, he definitely understands the boundaries of defamation. And what has long been known in rap in newspapers: even if you're right it's not worth it to be on the stand defending defamation. "It's average size your honor."
    • jhancock 7mo ago
      I'm going to keep this one... underqualified immunity :)
  • Drakim 7mo ago
    If the damaged party tries to sue the police for the damage they caused, the police can get the case instantly dismissed underqualified immunity.
    • lightedman 7mo ago
      Stealing things out of a person's fridge and eating it is not covered under qualified immunity.
      • 7mo ago
• NoSalt 7mo ago
  > "On March 14, 2023, seven Adams County police officers sued Foreman, alleging that his use of the video of the raid invaded their privacy." THEIR privacy?!?!? Their privacy ... in his home? This is the most ridiculous claim I have ever heard.
  • jkestner 7mo ago
    The term I learned for this yesterday is “crybully”.
  • junaru 7mo ago
    This is not some footage issue, there apparently was a smear campaign online. FTFA: > After making the music video, Foreman allegedly continued putting up social media posts with names of the officers involved, the lawsuit states. > Several of the posts allegedly falsely claimed that the cops “stole my money” and were “criminals disguised as law enforcement,” according to the suit. > They also falsely stated that the officers are “white supremacists,” that Officer Brian Newman “used to do hard drugs” before “snitching” on his friends, and that Officer Lisa Phillips is “biologically male,” according to the lawsuit.
    • ceejayoz 7mo ago
      > falsely claimed that the cops “stole my money” That appears to have happened; they're claiming it was a miscount. > were “criminals disguised as law enforcement,” Seems fair. (And opinion, which can't be defamation.) > They also falsely stated that the officers are “white supremacists,” Statistically that's a pretty sensible assumption. I'd note that the jury found Afroman not liable on all these.
      • tt24 7mo ago
        > They also falsely stated that the officers are “white supremacists,” > Statistically that's a pretty sensible assumption. Interesting, is there a source or some data you’re aware of that suggests that it’s a statistically safe assumption?
• NikolaNovak 7mo ago
  I have a potentially silly question, and obviously naive - but why so many drawn guns? Fun music videos aside, what was the background here? Were they coming in on a Massive gang fortress? Or are all the stereotypes of American police forces true and they just come guns a-blazing all the time? I mean, that wasn't even police officers with hand guns, they have army-like guys with massive automatic rifles, and they seem to keep them drawn and hair triggered throughout the search? :O (on aside, I do enjoy watching British crime procedural shows as contrast, where seemingly nobody has guns and they have to call in a special unit if they actually need somebody with a handgun)
  • ceejayoz 7mo ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rise_of_the_Warrior_Cop https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rise_of_the_Warrior_Cop Watch the short clip in https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/rcgkis/us_delegates_discuss_police_scotland_deescalation/ https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/rcgkis/u... - American cops get shown Scottish cops' deescalation procedures, and they scoff at it. "When you say preservation of life, it is… everybody's life. Ours has a pecking order. I'm just being honest."
    • petesergeant 7mo ago
      I mean the key point there I think is the one where they point out that Brits simply wouldn’t accept police regularly shooting people. Policing for the people by the people.* * and pretend Northern Ireland doesn’t exist, or course
      • GJim 7mo ago
        [flagged]
        • petesergeant 7mo ago
          If you need some context, you can look up the history of policing in Northern Ireland on Wikipedia, where British police were happily shooting other British people for many years.
• sanitycheck 7mo ago
  I don't understand how they found nothing in the raid, wouldn't they normally bring drugs with them to plant? If they forgot those that's a whole new level of police incompetence.
  • polothesecond 7mo ago
    You say that, but I’ve been watching a lot of those body cam channels over the past few years. I remember one quite well, in which the police were raiding some suburban Texas home and decided to steal the guns and cocaine they found in it. The kicker: They forgot to turn off their body cams while doing and discussing it.
  • jkestner 7mo ago
    I guess they assumed that a musician whose whole persona is built around weed would supply the evidence.
  • parineum 7mo ago
    > Common enough to be a minor plot point in a current cop show... You've reversed cause and effect. Cop shows don't base their plots on what is real, they base them on what people will believe is plausible.
  • ceejayoz 7mo ago
    > wouldn't they normally bring drugs with them to plant? Why do you think they were so annoyed at all the cameras?
• iririririr 7mo ago
  was this on the regular media? I've been bombarded by this case on tiktok for the last 5 days. and i don't follow police, law, celebrity, or rap.
  • ceejayoz 7mo ago
    Yes. https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/19/entertainment/afroman-lawsuit-lemon-pound-cake-cec https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/19/entertainment/afroman-lawsuit... Including internationally: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq57557d6p6o https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq57557d6p6o
• lokimoon 7mo ago
  [flagged]
• nstj 7mo ago
  How come so many cctv’s inside his house?
  • jkestner 7mo ago
    Maybe he’s justifiably paranoid? He got burglarized before, and got threatened with arrest after demanding police investigate. https://www.tmz.com/2022/08/22/afroman-home-raided-police-ohio-drugs/ https://www.tmz.com/2022/08/22/afroman-home-raided-police-oh...
  • giraffe_lady 7mo ago
    It's a small county with an extreme minority of black people, like a couple hundred or less. It's quite likely he had personally encountered some of these officers before, and almost certain they knew who he was. Within the realm of possibility he saw something like this coming. Small rural sheriff depts are astoundingly corrupt.
• moi2388 7mo ago
  I would argue that using the footage ought to be legal; they are in his home. Posting their names is questionable; as officers they are public servants, but naming them is perhaps invasion of privacy? Lying however would be slander and illegal, in my humble opinion. Not worth 4 million in damages, but at least a cease and desist?
  • ceejayoz 7mo ago
    > naming them is perhaps invasion of privacy? No. The President of the United states is Donald Trump. His address is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and his phone number is 202-456-1414. > Lying however would be slander and illegal… They couldn't prove he did.
    • moi2388 7mo ago
      I’d argue that’s rather different than just a cop somewhere. He said they were criminals, and that the woman was actually a man..
      • ceejayoz 7mo ago
        > He said they were criminals, and that the woman was actually a man. If that were defamatory, 90% of QAnon would be in court.
      • Rebelgecko 7mo ago
        My understanding is he said "Adams county sheriff's are crooks because they took my money" (which is not disputed)., and individual officers, who weren't actually mentioned by name, sued because someone else was responsible for taking the money
• khernandezrt 7mo ago
  Never thuoght i'd see Afroman at the top of the Hackernews articles haha
  • dyauspitr 7mo ago
    Makes me feel nostalgic for the 2000s.
• maerF0x0 7mo ago
  They tell us over and over again that we should have no expectation of privacy or not being filmed in public. Well, IMO they should not have any expectation of privacy or not being filmed when on private property.
  • paxys 7mo ago
    Police, and government agents in general, should have no expectation of privacy when doing their job, period. If you have to hide your face then I don't trust you. And yes, that applies to all of ICE.
• maerF0x0 7mo ago
  They tell us over and over again that we should have no expectation of privacy or not being filmed in public. Well, IMO they should not have any expectation of privacy or not being filmed when on private property and conducting the work _that we pay for_. They work for us.
  • bestouff 7mo ago
    > They work for us. Ooh sweet summer child.
    • gonnagetbanned 7mo ago
      well, to be fair, there are a higher-than-average number of business owners on here, so they really might work for them
      • cucumber3732842 7mo ago
        Only insofar as those business interests align with the government's interests. The police get paid by and do the bidding of the government. They work for the government. While you can screech about the degree of overlap between government interests and big business interests, and it absolutely is something worth screeching about, acting as though they are one in the same is counterproductive to understanding either.
        • notlenin 7mo ago
          yes. It is also worth noting that in some cases, government and business owners have diametrically opposed interests - namely governments can nationalize companies (and if I'm not mistaken, some governments, like the Nazis, did, or would use the threat of nationalization to make business owners do their bidding with no regard for the interest of the business owner)
    • schiffern 7mo ago
      Cynicism is very cooler-than-thou, but it's not because we don't know better. It's because we do know how the system fails, and holding power accountable to those high aspirations is the only thing that pushes back the equilibrium.
• notepad0x90 7mo ago
  Is there anyone who isn't super rich who feels safe in america anymore? Is it the same in other countries, can cops just raid you for no reason, or abduct people (ICE) and that's not the biggest story in the country?
  • qup 7mo ago
    [flagged]
    • john_strinlai 7mo ago
      ice has literally abducted citizens with no criminal record. those people are victims.
      • qup 7mo ago
        [flagged]
        • john_strinlai 7mo ago
          abduct: to seize and take away (a person) by force https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/abduct https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/abduct sounds like what happened to me.
          • qup 7mo ago
            Law enforcement arrests people every day. It's their primary job. You're not confused about the term. We all know the difference.
            • john_strinlai 7mo ago
              correct, i am not confused about the term "abducted", and i stand by what i said.
          • lostmsu 7mo ago
• pkilgore 7mo ago
  cowsay "lemon pound cake"
• fny 7mo ago
  I highly recommend people watch video from the trial--specifically the officer testimonies. It's absurd this lawsuit was even fit for trial.
  • quchen 7mo ago
    Do you have a link? There are plenty of snippets that are easy to find, is there one canonical full video?
    • fny 7mo ago
      Here's a playlist that includes them: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcopJNj12opkoEDaj5lwPUTV-N1tEHHUO https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcopJNj12opkoEDaj5lwP...
      • embedding-shape 7mo ago
        With some strange commentary, ended up watching https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ozZIWy7OWk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ozZIWy7OWk from that playlist and I'm not sure it's AI or what's going on, at one point she said Afroman called one of the police officers a "PDF" which is the first time I heard, doesn't seem Afroman actually said something like that, and I also don't understand at all what's that's supposed to mean. Doesn't seem to be a typo either?
        • philwelch 7mo ago
          "PDF" is a zoomer euphemism for "pedophile".
          • fny 7mo ago
            Funnily, this started because their trying to avoid perceived insta shadow banning.
            • philwelch 7mo ago
• cardsstacked47 7mo ago
  [flagged]
  • _alternator_ 7mo ago
    Explain?
    • awithrow 7mo ago
      You're talking to a bot. There has been a wild influx of these accounts that just add filler comments like this.
      • dang 7mo ago
        Thousands of them in fact.
• fortranfiend 7mo ago
  That lemon pound cake did look tempting though.
• duxup 7mo ago
  > In one of the music videos, “Will You Help Me Repair My Door,” surveillance footage shows officers swinging open a gate, kicking down a door, and roaming armed around a living room and a kitchen. >The other, “Lemon Pound Cake,” shows one of the officers, gun in hand, pausing briefly in Mr. Foreman’s kitchen by a cake inside a glass cloche. “It made the sheriff want to put down his gun and cut him a slice,” Mr. Foreman sings in the song. The man has a sense of humor.
  • asveikau 7mo ago
    Seems like the Streisand effect to me. Suing him over this calls attention to the inappropriateness of police raiding his house. I hadn't heard this story and now I took away from it some embarrassing stories about the cops.
  • dmix 7mo ago
    He's also a savvy businessman, this will be great for his career
    • sixothree 7mo ago
      Unfortunately that might be all he gets out of it. He apparently lost the civil suit for damages to his house and the stolen property.
  • mytailorisrich 7mo ago
    The lemon pound cake first features in the first video, "Will You Help Me Repair My Door" and seems to have become popular (a chubby sheriff deputy glancing at a lemon pound cake, gun in hand is a viral godsend!) so he made that second video about it [1] and it completely took off. I have watched videos outside the courthouse after the verdict and supporters were even handing free lemon pound cakes [2]. Has the apple pie got competition? [1] https://youtu.be/9xxK5yyecRo?si=rnz34IxCeFPRKQ4M https://youtu.be/9xxK5yyecRo?si=rnz34IxCeFPRKQ4M [2] https://youtu.be/pSEOiu0RvLk?si=xx2ZrN1rzEg3n1Ve https://youtu.be/pSEOiu0RvLk?si=xx2ZrN1rzEg3n1Ve
    • 7mo ago
• ChrisMarshallNY 7mo ago
  Heh. > their constitutional privacy Isn't that something that people are always pointing out "is not guaranteed by the Constitution"?
  • jfengel 7mo ago
    The Constitution guarantees the right to be "secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects". Which means what the Supreme Court says that it means. It's easy to imagine that it means something akin to what people mean by "privacy", but interpreting the Constitution is infinitely malleable so I don't have any idea what it means.
• dehrmann 7mo ago
  Defamation is the most boring version of this case. Barring dishonest editing, of course it's fine. There are hypothetical versions of this that get more interesting. Ohio is a one-party consent state. It's not clear what happens in a two-party consent state. Law enforcement has no expectation of privacy in public spaces. Private is "it depends," think cases where low enforcement is discussing something with one party in a domestic dispute. If he had used bodycam footage, then you get into interesting copyright laws. Is it public domain, and if not, is it sufficiently transformative to qualify as fair use (think April 29, 1992 by Sublime).
  • OkayPhysicist 7mo ago
    > If he had used bodycam footage, then you get into interesting copyright laws Not that interesting. The US government cannot create copyrighted works. Works created by the government are public domain. This is why Ghidra (made by the NSA), for example, has a really odd license, where the parts written by the government are "not subject to U.S. copyright protections under 17 U.S.C.", whereas future contributions by the public are covered under the Apache license.
    • wnoise 7mo ago
      I knew that about the feds, but does it also apply to the states?
      • dehrmann 7mo ago
        I think most states don't consider it public domain.
• Aryanto 7mo ago
  [dead]
• culi 7mo ago
  Interestingly enough this is not the first time cops have invaded a famous rapper's house and the rapper proceeded to make a music video out of the footage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nfVWiXY3WY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nfVWiXY3WY Neighbors by J. Cole
• djfobbz 7mo ago
  Suing for invasion of privacy over a music video demonstrating how they invaded his privacy is wild!!
• MaxVeritas775 7mo ago
  [flagged]
• djfobbz 7mo ago
  Suing for invasion of privacy over a music video demonstrating how they invaded his privacy is wild!!
• xeckr 7mo ago
  Cops bust in searching for his drugs, then accuse him of invasion of privacy and humiliation...
• dang 7mo ago
  Related. Others? Do the cops suing Afroman after raiding his home have a case? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36827566 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36827566 - July 2023 (19 comments) Police sue rapper Afroman for using footage of home raid in his music videos - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35284187 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35284187 - March 2023 (551 comments) US Police raids home; sues homeowner over CCTV footage of raid - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35281258 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35281258 - March 2023 (53 comments)
• s5300 7mo ago
  [dead]
• purpleidea 7mo ago
  The thing I don't understand is why it isn't a felony for the police the disable the surveillance cameras! That alone should be a crime. I get that you need search warrants and protections, but you shouldn't be able to suppress the evidence of your work, since it's common for police to steal, plant evidence, or destroy property.
  • jMyles 7mo ago
    It is a crime, obviously. Things don't magically become crimes depending on the employer of the perpetrator - that's the whole point of "a nation of laws and not of men." It's legal for you to arrest someone if you see them commit a felony. It's legal for you to arrest someone under a warrant if you are deputized by a Sheriff of the court (almost never happens, but legal). It's not legal for you, whether you are employed at a police agency or not, to vandalize someone's camera.
• jadbox 7mo ago
  In case people missed it, here's the video that caused the lawsuit to get filed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oponIfu5L3Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oponIfu5L3Y
• syngrog66 7mo ago
  This story should not be on HN. Shame on you folks.
• 3327 7mo ago
  [dead]
• AndrewOMartin 7mo ago
  > Foreman was sued by the Adams County Sheriff’s Office over a drug search at his home in August 2022 that resulted in no criminal charges. This is a mad sentence.