Frogger Blogger

Kanye West is the Best

"It's not safe for you in this zoo. Never think that I'm not from Chicago for one second."

-Yeezus

In July of 2014, Kanye West pleaded no contest in a case filed by a photographer named Daniel Ramos. Ramos claimed that he was asking West a question, when Kanye turned on him, struck him, and tried to wrestle his camera away from him. While there are pictures of the incident, West says he was trying to take the camera away from Ramos, and that Ramos simply faked the assault, throwing himself to the ground and then later calling the police.

With the fear of special treatment, Ramos urged the court to send West to prison for assaulting him, but the residing Judge made the decision to put Kanye under 2 years' probation, and 250 hours of community service, as well as 24 hours of anger management classes. Still not satisfied by this sentence, Ramos told reporters, "If I did what he did to me, I'd be behind bars. I was doing my job and he broke the law."

As far as the legal rights of photographers go, Ramos had every right to take photo/video of Kanye, and had every right of freedom of speech to ask him whatever he wanted. Kanye claims that he was emotionally unstable because he had just found out his grandfather only had three weeks to live, but overreacted when he tried to take the camera from Ramos.

This is not the first legal battle Kanye has faced against photographers and paparazzi. In 2008, he was arrested at LAX for a separate scuffle with photographers, but he was cleared after taking anger management courses and paying the photographers for their broken equipment.

I personally hate the idea of paparazzi being allowed to take photos without the subjects consent; but it is their right. Therefore, I agree with the outcome and punishment for Kanye West, but I wish the law would discourage photographers from excessively interfering in the lives of celebrity's or athletes.