George Floyd’s family reportedly considering lawsuit over Kanye West’s comments on his death

The family of George Floyd are reportedly considering a lawsuit against Kanye West, after the rapper made inflammatory comments about Floyd’s death in an interview.

In May of 2020, Floyd – a Black man who at the time was living in Minneapolis – was killed following an altercation with a white police officer. Emerging shortly after his death, distressing footage showed Floyd being restrained on a sidewalk by officer Derek Chauvin, who placed his knee on Floyd’s neck for over nine minutes.

Despite Floyd’s continued pleas that he couldn’t breathe, Chauvin continued to apply pressure to Floyd’s neck. A lack of oxygen caused brain damage, heart failure and eventually death. In April 2021, Chauvin was found guilty of Floyd’s murder, and he was sentenced to 21 years in prison.

Now, in a new appearance on the Drink Champs podcast, West claimed that Floyd died from “fentanyl” and said that Chauvin’s knee “wasn’t even on his neck like that”. He went on to compare Floyd to designer Virgil Abloh, who died from cancer last November.

As expected, the comments have spurred considerable controversy. According to Lee Merritt – a civil rights attorney and community organiser based in Dallas, Texas, Floyd’s family is “considering [a] suit for Kanye’s false statements about the manner of his death”.

Commenting on the matter, Merritt continued: “Claiming Floyd died from fentanyl [and] not the brutality established criminally and civilly undermines [and] diminishes the Floyd family’s fight.”

While one cannot defame the dead, the family of #GeorgeFloyd is considering suit for Kanye’s false statements about the manner of his death.

Claiming Floyd died from fentanyl not the brutality established criminally and civilly undermines & diminishes the Floyd family’s fight.

— Lee Merritt (@MerrittForTexas) October 16, 2022

Last year, a reputable doctor told the court that Floyd died from a lack of oxygen, not the presence of fentanyl in his system.

Merritt previously represented the Floyd family in a wrongful death lawsuit, which they launched against the city of Minneapolis in July of 2020; that case was eventually settled out of court for $27million.

In addition, Merritt has led cases relating to the deaths of Marlin Gipson, Atatiana Jefferson and Ahmaud Arbery – all of whom are Black individuals killed in acts of police brutality – and has been outspoken in his activism for Black communities displaced by violence at the hand of law enforcement.

As well as Floyd’s, the aforementioned deaths were instrumental in reigniting the Black Lives Matter movement, which West has come under fire for criticising over the past few weeks. It started when the rapper stirred controversy at this year’s Paris Fashion Week, where he appeared wearing a shirt emblazoned with the white nationalist dogwhistle “White Lives Matter”.

In addition to some of his colleagues – including Jaden Smith, Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs and Esthero –  West’s critics have also included the family of Ahmaud Arbery. Wanda Cooper-Jones, Arbery’s mother, came forward to express “extreme disappointment” with West’s actions, saying the stunt would act to “support and legitimise extremist behavior”.

West responded to the backlash by doubling and tripling down on his views, calling the Black Lives Matter movement “a scam”. Back in 2020, at the peak of the movement’s protests, West’s team said the rapper had donated $2million to the families of Arbery, Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

West went on to continue holding his ground with an interview on Fox News. In a section of that interview – which wasn’t aired but leaked online – the rapper also made string of antisemitic comments, including one that accused Margaret Sanger of founding Planned Parenthood with the Ku Klux Klan to “control the Jew population”. Fox News have publicly rescinded their support for the rapper.

West’s comments on Drink Champs follow a string of antisemitic sentiments shared by the rapper in recent times. A line directed at the Jewish community led to West being booted from Instagram – and later Twitter, where he wrote that he “[would be] going death con 3 [sic] On JEWISH PEOPLE”.

Both comments were roundly criticised by the likes of David Schwimmer, John Legend, Jack Antonoff and KISS’ Paul Stanley. Prospective Twitter owner Elon Musk, meanwhile, said that he has talked to West and “expressed [his] concerns about [West’s] recent tweet”. West’s bank, JPMorgan Chase, also severed ties with him.