George Floyd’s family sues Kanye West for $250M after rapper disputes cause of death
By Mark Kennedy
4 July 2018
This Saturday, a jury in Los Angeles will hear a trial to determine the cause of death for Floyd Michael Rich, who was killed on April 9, 2015. The verdict is likely to set off another round of recrimination and counter-accusation.
According to a statement released yesterday, the estate of Floyd Michael Rich, a 40-year-old black man, and father of two, has filed a lawsuit against radio personality, rapper and one-time Donald Trump supporter Kanye West in Los Angeles County Superior Court. Rich died at the hands of one of his former fans, who was a member of a group of “gang members” that had gathered outside of Rich’s apartment to intimidate Rich and other members of the group.
The complaint filed in court alleges that “The Defendant, Mr. West, and his team of law enforcement personnel, members of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD), repeatedly and maliciously, knowingly and repeatedly made false and harassing statements about the deceased Plaintiff and the victimization of others, including making death threats against him.”
The suit alleges that West’s statements and actions “were motivated by hatred for Floyd Michael Rich, a fellow African American man, in that they were made to intentionally cause or encourage others to engage in the commission of a crime because of the race of the victim.”
The suit says West’s comments to TMZ reporter Robby Beck were: “White people are all going to get what they so richly deserve—death in the streets.”
West’s lawyer, Daniel Petrocelli, issued a statement in which he called the lawsuit “patently false and malicious.”
West himself is a self-hating, self-described “slave owner,” who made repeated public statements that have been used by racists, anti-Semites and Trump supporters to justify violence and intimidation of Black people by White supremacists and neo-Nazis.
West, who said of