George Floyd’s family said they were considering a lawsuit against Kanye West. It was after the rapper said Floyd died of drug abuse.
Minneapolis police officer Derek Shaven was convicted of the murder of George Floyd in 2020. The police officer, arresting Floyd, put a knee on the neck of the detainee. When Floyd, panting and crying, said, “I can’t breathe”, Chauvin continued to “choke” the black man.
On Saturday October 15 on the Drink Champs podcast, discussing the Candice Owens documentary, Kanye said: “He was pumped full of fentanyl, if you look, the guy’s knee wasn’t even around his neck.”
Opinions are divided on West’s statement. Some say the rapper’s words are absurd, while others support him in every way possible.
“Although the dead cannot be slandered, George Floyd’s family is about to sue for Kanye’s false claims of Floyd’s death. The claim that the cause of Floyd’s death was fentanyl, not police brutality, undermines and weakens the struggle of the Floyd family”, – said a representative of the victim’s family.
According to the final autopsy findings of Dr Andrew Baker, Chief Medical Examiner of Hennepin County, fentanyl was indeed found in Floyd’s blood, but the amount was very small. That would not be enough to lead to death.
The comment was made by cardiologist Jonathan Rich, who testified in Floyd’s trial:
“I can state with a high degree of certainty that George Floyd did not die of a heart attack, but he also did not die of an overdose of substances.”
Many Celebrities have spoken out against West and his «passion for conflict».
Kanye West had earlier provoked a scandal when he appeared at a presentation of his brand Yeezy in a T-shirt with the inscription White Lives Matter (“White lives matter”). This act was immediately criticized online. Rapper was condemned by many stars, including longtime friends. He responded to the criticism and stated that the Black Lives Matter movement was a hoax.
The Black Lives Matter movement became the largest social movement in American history in 2020 after Floyd’s death.
The exact number of active protesters is difficult to obtain, as in most cases they have flared up unorganized, but even the estimates are impressive.
«It’s hard to overestimate the scale of this movement,» said political scientist Deva Woodley of the New School of Private Research University in New York.
As of July 2020, there were over 4,700 protests in the United States, averaging 140 per day. Black Lives Matter’s activity far surpassed that of other protest movements, such as the «Women’s March» in 2017 and the civil rights movement in the 1960s.
