The family of George Floyd is exploring how it can take legal action against Kanye West after the rapper suggested Floyd had not died from a police officer’s knee on his neck.
In a recent episode of the podcast Drink Champs, West (who has changed his name to Ye) implied Floyd’s death was linked to him overdosing on the drug fentanyl.
“I watched the George Floyd documentary that Candace Owens put out,” said West.
“One of the things that his two roommates said was they want a tall guy like me, and the day that he died, he said a prayer for eight minutes.
“They hit him with the fentanyl. If you look, the guy’s knee wasn’t even on his neck like that.”
It’s the latest in a series of public rants and stunts by West that have sparked outrage, including an anti-Semitic tirade and wearing a ‘White Lives Matter’ t-shirt.
Former Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin was jailed for 22 years last year for second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
Footage of him kneeling on Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes sparked Black Lives Matter protests around the world.
The medical examiner at the trial said Floyd’s death was caused by “cardiopulmonary arrest” from the police “restraint, and neck compression”.
Floyd’s heart disease and use of fentanyl contributed but did not cause his death, the examiner said.
Civil rights attorney Lee Merritt tweeted that the Floyd family was considering legal action against West.
“While one cannot defame the dead, the family of #GeorgeFloyd is considering suit for Kanye’s false statements about the manner of his death,” Merritt tweeted.
“Claiming Floyd died from fentanyl not the brutality established criminally and civilly undermines & diminishes the Floyd family’s fight.”
West to buy social media platform
Meanwhile social media platform Parler, popular with US conservatives, has announced it has entered into an in-principal sale agreement with West.
Parler describes itself as “the world’s pioneering uncancelable free speech platform”.
“In a world where conservative opinions are considered to be controversial we have to make sure we have the right to freely express ourselves,” West was quoted saying in the company’s press release.
Parlement Technologies CEO George Farmer said the deal would “change the world, and change the way the world thinks about free speech”.
“Ye is making a groundbreaking move into the free speech media space and will never have to fear being removed from social media again.”
Twitter and Instagram had earlier restricted West’s accounts and removed the rapper’s posts after online users condemned them as anti-Semitic.
He was first locked out of his Instagram by Facebook parent Meta Platforms more than a week ago after which he took to Twitter which was also locked.
The step by Twitter to lock the rapper’s account was noteworthy because billionaire Elon Musk, who has said he would buy Twitter and calls himself a free speech absolutist, had welcomed West’s return to the platform and replied to a post by the rapper tweeting: “Welcome back to Twitter, my friend!”
West has also previously made erratic online posts. Earlier this year, he was suspended from Instagram for 24 hours after he directed racial slurs at comedian Trevor Noah.
-with AAP
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