Afroman and The Rights of Americans
Rights don’t protect themselves, so we need to fight for them
If you’d like these posts delivered directly to you, subscribe to the Decisions newsletter now!
Let’s Talk About Afroman
OK, who is Afroman?
He is a Grammy-nominated rapper; his song "Because I Got High" was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2002 for Best Rap Solo Performance. Afroman has 1.3 million subscribers on YouTube, and nearly 1 million followers on Instagram.
But 750,000 of those Instagram followers came after his defamation trial this month.
Well, let’s back up a bit…
Here’s a rundown of what happened from New York Timesreporting: [1]
An Ohio jury on Wednesday ruled in favor of the rapper Afroman after a civil trial in which law enforcement officers accused him of causing them mental distress by using footage from their 2022 raid on his home in a pair of music videos.
The rapper, whose real name is Joseph E. Foreman, was sued in 2023 by seven officers with the Adams County Sheriff’s Office in southern Ohio. They said in a complaint that Mr. Foreman’s use of their images in the music videos and to promote his brand had caused them to suffer “humiliation, ridicule, mental distress, embarrassment and loss of reputation.”
…
According to the complaint, the officers — four deputies, two sergeants and a detective — were acting on a search warrant when they raided Mr. Foreman’s residence in Winchester, Ohio, in August 2022. The warrant cited kidnapping and drug trafficking as reasons for the search, Anna Castellini, Mr. Foreman’s lawyer told The New York Times in 2023. No charges resulted from the raid.
Mr. Foreman was not at home during the 2022 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.
Mr. Foreman used the footage in music videos, in promotional material for his tours and on merchandise, including T-shirts that depicted the faces of some of the officers, the lawsuit said.
So, basically, the local sheriff raided his home and found nothing criminal, so no charges were ultimately filed. The police search damaged his door, external gate, and security system which cost over $20,000 to repair, and deputies seized over $5,000 but $400 was missing when it was returned. He considered suing the sheriff’s department for defamation “in part so the same thing doesn’t happen to someone else.” [2][3]
He instead exercised his First Amendment rights to let people know what happened to him, and he did it with his artistic flair, creating songs and using the footage from his surveillance cameras of the raid. More from the New York Times [4]:
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,” [set to the tune of "Under the Boardwalk" by The Drifters] 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.
In a social media post the month after the raid, Mr. Foreman, wearing one of the promotional T-shirts, thanked one of the officers for helping him get 5.4 million views on TikTok. “Congratulations again you’re famous for all the wrong reasons,” he wrote.
To date, “Lemon Pound Cake” has 5.1 million views on YouTube, and “Will You Help Me Repair My Door” has 10.7 million views. [5][6]
And then… seven deputies involved with the raids sued because the public exposure of the raid caused them “humiliation, ridicule, mental distress, embarrassment and loss of reputation.” The deputies, collectively, sought nearly $4 million in damages. [7][8]
Foreman discussed the case on a podcast and described the situation succinctly: [9]
The fact that they could kick in my door but I can’t kick in theirs – just having to live with that and the way that makes you feel powerless.
And then, to watch me write some songs to make them cry – it’s like I didn’t realize the power I had – my power to rap was more deadly than their AR-15.
The ACLU joined Foreman’s side with an amicus brief: [10][11]
In August 2022, several Adams County sheriffs conducted what appears to have been a highly destructive, intrusive, and ultimately fruitless search at the home of Joseph Foreman, a rapper known by the stage name “Afroman.” Mr. Foreman’s wife recorded the search, as did several security video cameras at their home. Subsequently, Mr. Foreman used this footage to create a series of music videos about the search. The footage shows Mr. Foreman’s front door being smashed in, officers combing through his home with weapons drawn, and officers searching through his clothing and personal belongings.
In March 2023, the officers shown in the music videos filed a civil lawsuit against Mr. Foreman, alleging various torts in connection with the use of their images from the security footage, and Mr. Foreman’s criticism of them more broadly. The plaintiffs’ primary claim is that Mr. Foreman is unfairly profiting from their “likeness” in his videos and depriving them of the economic benefits of their persona. They also claim that the videos and other statements by Mr. Foreman violate their privacy and defame them.
Mr. Foreman moved to dismiss the lawsuit, and the ACLU filed an amicus brief in support, arguing that the lawsuit is a classic “SLAPP” suit, or a “Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation,” which seeks to stifle criticism of public officials. The ACLU’s brief explains that Mr. Foreman’s music videos are not, as the plaintiffs have mischaracterized, tortious conduct but protected speech. The brief highlights the importance of the First Amendment’s strong protections for criticism of government actors, including police officers, which acts as a check against the government and is vital to the health and flourishing of a democracy.
In October 2023, the court dismissed the officers’ “right of publicity” and “unauthorized use of individual’s persona” claims, holding that “[c]ertainly, as public servants, the plaintiffs have to expect that they may from time to time be subject to commentary and criticism regarding their performance of their duties.” Although the court allowed the defamation claim to proceed because of the details of some alleged statements, it acknowledged that “[p]olice officers acting within the scope of their official capacity are public officials . . . and therefore enjoy only limited protection from public discussion and criticism of their performance as public officials . . . Statements made about public officials are constitutionally protected when the statements concern anything that may touch an official’s fitness for office.”
Link to Afroman’s testimony: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE8mtNCsihE
Wearing a star-spangled suit and sunglasses with reflective American flags, Foreman testified at trial, and this footage is worth watching to show his confidence in exercising his First Amendment rights. [12]
“The whole raid was a mistake. All of this is their fault. If they hadn’t have wrongly raided my house, there would be no lawsuit. I would not know their names,” Foreman said. “They wouldn’t be on my home surveillance system, and there would be no songs, nothing.” [13]
No Kings 3.0 – March 28
And now it’s time to exercise OUR First Amendment rights! Next weekend will be the third nationwide series of No Kings demonstrations.
An update on the events in California from Fox 11 News Los Angeles: [14]
Over 3,000 "No Kings" protests are scheduled nationwide for March 28, with California leading the movement with over 300 confirmed local events.
Organized by Indivisible and the ACLU, the mobilization aims to be the largest in U.S. history, following massive turnouts in June and October 2025.
Organizers emphasize a strictly nonviolent approach, explicitly requesting that participants refrain from bringing any weapons to the demonstrations.
A massive wave of "No Kings" protests is set to sweep across Southern California and the U.S. on Saturday, March 28, as activists prepare for what they predict will be the largest single-day mobilization in American history.
What we know:
This "No Kings Day of Nonviolent Action" follows a series of high-turnout events in 2025, which saw over five million participants in June and seven million in October.
In California alone, 320 events are currently tracked, with major gatherings planned for Los Angeles City Hall, the California State Capitol in Sacramento, and Embarcadero Plaza in San Francisco.
You can find a local No Kings event here - the two biggest in Ventura County are:
Ventura County Government Center, Ventura - 10 am
Corner of Lynn Road and Hillcrest, Thousand Oaks - 2 pm
Narratives
The book I’m reading or movie I’m watching
Dynasty: The Murdochs (streaming on Netflix)
From the Tudum by Netflix overview: [15]
After spending a lifetime building an empire that includes newspapers, digital media companies, and television networks like Fox News, media mogul Rupert Murdoch began making moves to secure his legacy in 2023. But establishing which of his children would inherit control of the multibillion-dollar business resulted in a fight for succession that fractured the family.
From Oscar-nominated, Emmy Award–winning director Liz Garbus (What Happened, Miss Simone?), with episode 4 co-directed by by Sara Enright (Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes), the four-part docuseries Dynasty: The Murdochs examines one of the world’s most influential families at a pivotal crossroads, giving viewers an in-depth look at the cutthroat dynamics between Murdoch and his eldest children. The series features interviews with journalists as well as private communications between the feuding family members, which have never been televised before, to illustrate the Murdochs’ strained history during the patriarch’s seven-decade career.
GIF Game
Notes and Sources
[1] Livia Albeck-Ripka, “Afroman Wins Civil Trial Over Use of Police Raid Footage in His Music Videos,” New York Times, March 19, 2026, https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/19/us/afroman-trial-lemon-cake-verdict.html
[2] “Afroman,” Wikipedia, retrieved March 20, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afroman
[3] Ken Baker, “$400 missing as sheriff returns cash seized from Afroman during home raid,” Fox 19 NOW, November 29, 2022, https://www.fox19.com/2022/11/30/sheriffs-office-comes-up-400-short-returning-cash-afroman-after-home-raid/
[4] Livia Albeck-Ripka, “Afroman Wins Civil Trial”
[5] Afroman {@ogafroman], “Afroman - Lemon Pound Cake (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO),
YouTube, December 30, 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xxK5yyecRo
[6] Afroman {@ogafroman], “Afroman - Will You Help Me Repair My Door (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO),” YouTube, December 29, 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oponIfu5L3Y
[7] Livia Albeck-Ripka, “Afroman Wins Civil Trial”
[8] Maryclaire Dale, “Rapper Afroman wins lawsuit against police over mocking their 2022 raid in viral music videos,” AP News, March 19, 2026, https://apnews.com/article/afroman-police-raid-lawsuit-ohio-first-amendment-309accc1ce068620e19cfd7d0f70dae1
[9] Rapdillz [@rpadillz], Instagram, March 13, 2026, https://www.instagram.com/p/DV1uWuJDiQe/?hl=en
[10] “Cooley v. Foreman AKA Afroman,” ACLU, retrieved March 20, 2026, https://www.aclu.org/cases/cooley-v-foreman-aka-afroman
[12] WCPO 9 [@wcpo9], “Rapper Afroman testifies in Ohio trial in Adams County,” YouTube, March 17, 2026, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE8mtNCsihE
[13] Maryclaire Dale, “Rapper Afroman wins lawsuit,” AP News
[14] Alexa Mae Asperin, “‘No Kings’ movement set to sweep California with mass protests planned for March 28,” Fox 11 News, March 20, 2026, https://www.foxla.com/news/no-kings-day-protests-california-march-28-2026
[15] Krutika Mallikarjuna, “Dynasty: The Murdochs Follows the Family’s Battle for Succession,” Tudum byNetflix, March 13, 2026, https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/dynasty-the-murdochs-release-date-news
Decisions with Mic Farris
Seek Truth. Honor Differences.
