'Humiliated' Cops Sue Afroman Over Song About Them Raiding His Home For No Reason

They didn't give him permission to use their likeness!

Last August, multiple police officers raided the Ohio home of hip-hop artist Afroman, best known for his 2001 hit "Because I Got High," with a warrant for narcotics and (seriously) kidnapping. Like, they broke his gate, broke his door down, entered his home with their weapons out and then proceeded to search through his whole house — and found nothing. Not even one kidnapping victim!

That's not entirely true. They did find money! And they took it with them. When Afroman went to the police station to get it back, he found that it was $400 short. (The sheriff's department claims that the police who seized the money were just really bad at counting and counted $400 more dollars than they actually took and that Afroman had the correct amount of money returned to him.)

Afroman wasn't home, but his wife recorded much of the incident on her phone and the rest of it was captured by security cameras throughout their home. Being an artiste, Afroman wrote several songs about the incident — including such hits as "Will You Help Me Repair My Door," and "Lemon Pound Cake" — and made music videos using the footage from the security cameras.

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This one is set to the tune of "Under The Boardwalk!"

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These songs are hilarious, but what happened is not. Police raiding a home like that is extremely dangerous, not to mention absolutely terrifying for anyone who is home.

Now, the deputies and sergeants who appeared in the video, breaking down Afroman's door, going through his suit pockets, going through his CDs (no kidnapping victims or many pounds of weed in either) are suing him for making a profit off of the raid. They say he is unfairly using their likenesses in the video and on merchandise without their permission, because they did not consent to be filmed on his security cameras when they raided his home and took his money.

Afroman, however, maintains that he created the videos and the merchandise to recoup some of his financial losses from having his home invaded by the police for no good reason. The rest of the proceeds, he says, will "go to help fight American systemic racism in the justice system."

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According to a lawsuit obtained by TMZ, "the officers say Afroman's music videos, social media posts and merchandise related to the raid amount to an invasion of privacy and misappropriation of their likenesses ... and they say it's causing them emotional distress, ridicule, humiliation, loss of reputation and embarrassment."

Aw! The poor darlings! Maybe they shouldn't have broken down a man's door for pretty much no reason! Then they wouldn't be so embarrassed. They're embarrassed by their own behavior, and that, frankly, is their problem.

In a statement to TMZ, Afroman said:

Essentially a racist judge signed a fictitious false warrant, lying on the warrant, accusing me of kidnapping and drug trafficking.The warrant put the Adams county sheriff in a position to attempt to kill me. After the Adams County Sheriff burglarized vandalized and destroyed my property. They became thieves and stole my money. After they stole my money they became criminals. After they became criminals they lost their right of privacy. My house is my property, my video camera films everything on my property as they begin, stealing my money, disconnecting plus destroying my video camera system, they became my property! Criminals caught in the act, of vandalizing and stealing money.

My video footage is my property. I used it to identify the criminals who broke into my house, and stole my money. I used it to identify criminals, who broke into my house, stole my money and disconnected my home security system. I use my footage of my property to raise money to pay for the damages they done and to identify the criminals operating inside of the sheriff department that stole my money, ransack my house and disconnected my video cameras. Not knowing who the criminals were operating in the Adam County sheriff's department I gave them humorous nicknames. I am a law-abiding tax-paying citizens who was violated by criminals camouflaged by law-enforcement! I use my property./my video footage to make up for damages and to make the public aware of criminals disguised as law-enforcement, stealing money and disconnecting cameras.

That seems fair!

If the video was taken someplace where the cops had a reasonable expectation of privacy, that would be one thing. It wasn't. It was taken in someone else's home. Police also do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy while doing their jobs, because their job is supposed to be working for the public.

If police are going to bust down someone's door, then they better have some reason to believe that someone's life is in danger. A musician maybe having some recreational pot in their home is not a door-busting-level emergency. Let us not forget that Breonna Taylor was actually killed by cops in a similar sort of raid. If cops find it "humiliating" to have the whole world know that they terrorized people in this way, then maybe they should find a less horrific way to deal with problems like "a musician might have some weed in one of his coat pockets."

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