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Speaker 1: Welcome back. It's a brand new episode. This is Laughing

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Speaker 1: Me a podcasts did Jeremy to Bob. Y'all, Hey, it's

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Speaker 1: j O and we've got a very special report just

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Speaker 1: for you. Have you heard about this Afroman trial that

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Speaker 1: is happening this week in Ohio. Afroman's home was raided. Well,

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Speaker 1: we're gonna give you all the details here a little bit.

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Speaker 1: It was raided, nothing was found. Okay, the police were

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Speaker 1: looking for drugs. They had a warrant to break in.

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Speaker 1: They found nothing in the Because I got a high singer,

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Speaker 1: he he took it to him, He took the police.

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Speaker 1: He created content out of it, made music, put on music,

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Speaker 1: made music videos. Well, apparently the police were offended by

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Speaker 1: this and they sued Afromn for defamation. So the trial

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Speaker 1: has been nothing but glorious. It's our first great trial

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Speaker 1: of the year. Lots of you if you gotta look

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Speaker 1: this up, to go to Twitter, go anywhere where you

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Speaker 1: can find clips and look up Afroman trial and you

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Speaker 1: will find absolute gold. He's been wearing this suit that's

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Speaker 1: just just plastered with American flags, and he's been nothing

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Speaker 1: but honest and bold in everything. But we're gonna report

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Speaker 1: on this and what will be Johnny the very first

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Speaker 1: ever Laugh with Me Reports. Welcome back to laugh with

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Speaker 1: Me Reports, the podcast where Legal travel meets Wait that

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Speaker 1: actually happened. I'm your host, Jay Owen. Today's episode is

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Speaker 1: about the one the only Afro man, Yes, the guy

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Speaker 1: who gave us well because I got high and now

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Speaker 1: apparently because I got sued. Let's set the scene here.

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Speaker 1: This whole saga started not in the recording studio, but

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Speaker 1: in a house rate. That's right, police officers rated Afroman's

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Speaker 1: home in Ohio back in twenty twenty two. Now, typically

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Speaker 1: when please show up, it's not exactly a grab popcorn situation.

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Speaker 1: But in this case, Afroman basically turned it into a

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Speaker 1: Netflix docu series, except he was the streaming platform. Because

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Speaker 1: what did he do? He took the footage from his

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Speaker 1: home security cameras, you know, the same kind you used

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Speaker 1: to catch porch pirates stealing your Amazon packages. Also, have

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Speaker 1: you seen those porch pirates lately? What people are doing,

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Speaker 1: they're pranking them, They're putting fake packages on their porch

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Speaker 1: and then like when the when those criminals come up

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Speaker 1: to steal your packages, they explode and like cover them

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Speaker 1: in blue or red paint. It's incredible. I say more

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Speaker 1: of that, please safely, right, we don't need actual bombs

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Speaker 1: harm in people, but it would be fun to have

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Speaker 1: a bunch of people in blue going look what they

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Speaker 1: did to me, and and then get all right back

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Speaker 1: to the report. But he turned his security footage into

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Speaker 1: music videos. Yes, music videos, and they are glorious. Somewhere

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Speaker 1: out there is footage of law enforcement officers doing their

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Speaker 1: job set to a beat. Honestly, if you told me

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Speaker 1: ten years ago that BODYCIM adjacent footage would become a

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Speaker 1: music video asthetic, I would have said that sounds illegal,

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Speaker 1: and apparently, hey, some people agreed. So here's what happened

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Speaker 1: with the raid. Police executed a search warrant at Afroman's house.

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Speaker 1: They were looking for evidence related to drug trafficking and kidnapping.

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Speaker 1: Big time potential charges for afromn. But the big plot

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Speaker 1: twist is they didn't find anything that led to charges.

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Speaker 1: No arrests, no big criminal case, no dramatic courtroom confessions.

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Speaker 1: Basically the legal equivalent of checking the fridge twelve times

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Speaker 1: and still have nothing to eat. You ever open the fridge,

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Speaker 1: you know, you look inside, you close it, you reopen

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Speaker 1: you close it thinking, you know, maybe there'll be something

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Speaker 1: different inside that fridge. That was That was basically this investigation.

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Speaker 1: But where things got really incredible were the music videos.

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Speaker 1: Afroman took routine police work and created this is why

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Speaker 1: we love the Internet. He took that surveillance footage officers

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Speaker 1: entering his home, looking around, even commenting on his lemon

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Speaker 1: pound cake and that is an important note here, and

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Speaker 1: edits it into music videos. He created songs like will

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Speaker 1: you help Me Repair My Door? And the very popular

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Speaker 1: over three million people have watched Lemon pound Cake. And

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Speaker 1: let me tell you, nothing says legal retaliation like baking

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Speaker 1: related diss tracks. Imagine being the police officer and suddenly

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Speaker 1: you're trending online because you appeared in a music video

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Speaker 1: about cake. Yo, hey honey, how's work? Oh you know,

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Speaker 1: I executed a warrant. Now I'm a viral dessert anthem.

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Speaker 1: And that's exactly what happened. Well, then you get the lawsuit, right,

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Speaker 1: so naturally the officers evolved. We're not happy about this.

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Speaker 1: Seven officers ended up suing Afroman. Their claims included things

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Speaker 1: like violation privacy on authorized use of their likeness, emotional distress,

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Speaker 1: emotional stretch, which, to be fair, I'd also feel if

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Speaker 1: I ended up in a music video called Lemon pound

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Speaker 1: Cake and you were getting any royalties for it, it

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Speaker 1: should have at least got a cut of that. Or

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Speaker 1: maybe that's what they're looking for here. The thing is

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Speaker 1: this lemon pound cake thing. This officer he's been getting

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Speaker 1: lemon pound cake as gifts at Christmas, now, I mean

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Speaker 1: he is more known for lemon pound cake. And all

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Speaker 1: he did, you know, was break into Afroman's home for

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Speaker 1: no reason and really eyeball the lemon pound cake under

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Speaker 1: the glass case in the kitchen. I mean he wanted

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Speaker 1: to slice bad. Well, the big legal issue here is

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Speaker 1: actually pretty fascinating. Can someone use footage of police officers

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Speaker 1: recorded inside their own home and turn it into commercial

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Speaker 1: content because on one hand, yes, it is his house,

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Speaker 1: and on the other, well, yeah, it's his cameras. Now,

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Speaker 1: the officers did not consent, and they definitely didn't expect

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Speaker 1: to become backup to answers in a viral rap video.

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Speaker 1: Although let's be honest, no one in history has ever

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Speaker 1: executed a search war thinking this might end up on Spotify.

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Speaker 1: We gotta talk more about this pound cake because During

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Speaker 1: the raid, officers allegedly commented on and possibly even eight

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Speaker 1: some of Afroman's lemon pound cake, which I mean, listen,

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Speaker 1: if you break into my house legally or not and

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Speaker 1: then start sampling my bake goods, I mean, this is

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Speaker 1: no longer a legal situation. Okay, we're now in a

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Speaker 1: family drama, all right. Things really start to escalate if

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Speaker 1: you start eating the bait goods in my kitchen. Okay,

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Speaker 1: it's no longer a search warrant. It's brunch. And Alfroman

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Speaker 1: absolutely ran with this detail, turning it into one of

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Speaker 1: the central comedic elements of the music. Because if life

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Speaker 1: gives you lemons, apparently you make pound cake and then

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Speaker 1: a lawsuit. Here's how frovance defense. It's basically, this is

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Speaker 1: my property, this is my footage. I'm expressing myself artistically,

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Speaker 1: and honestly, that's a pretty strong this is America defense.

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Speaker 1: I mean, this is a country where you can film

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Speaker 1: your house turn into a rap video and then argue

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Speaker 1: about it at court. This is what the founding fathers

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Speaker 1: fought for. What they didn't do, though specifically right about

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Speaker 1: lemon pound cake distracts, but you know, they assume would

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Speaker 1: have supported something of the nature. Of course, the Internet

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Speaker 1: loves us right, it's running wild. And you know what,

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Speaker 1: this is the first I've even heard of this whole

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Speaker 1: thing was when the trial started, But this entire situation

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Speaker 1: started in twenty twenty two. And then you know the

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Speaker 1: music it was made. But people have been streaming the songs,

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Speaker 1: creating hit Rackertz for Afroman. They've been meming the officers

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Speaker 1: and debating legal theory and comments sections which none of

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Speaker 1: us have the qualifications for that. But I mean, here,

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Speaker 1: I am nothing. We'll say qualified legal opinion like a

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Speaker 1: guy named XX four twenty law master XX explaining constitutional

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Speaker 1: rights in all caps, which you know has been happening

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Speaker 1: well so far, here's where things stand. The case has

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Speaker 1: been working its way through the courts with arguments about

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Speaker 1: First Amendment protections, right to publicity, privacy, expectations for police

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Speaker 1: officers performing their duties. And this is where it gets

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Speaker 1: genuinely interesting, because this could impact how people use their

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Speaker 1: surveillance footage, what rights individuals have over recordings in their

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Speaker 1: own homes, and whether turning real life events into monetized

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Speaker 1: content crosses the legal line. So yes, under all the jokes,

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Speaker 1: there is certainly a very important case, although very very

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Speaker 1: funny and kind of makes me hungry. I mean, there's

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Speaker 1: a lot of lemon pound cake talk. At the end

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Speaker 1: of the day, though, this whole situation feels like it's

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Speaker 1: the most twenty twenty story imaginable. We've got a celebrity

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Speaker 1: police raid, security footage, viral music videos, and of course

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Speaker 1: that lawsuit about cake. I mean, if aliens landed tomorrow

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Speaker 1: and asked what is human culture, we would just show

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Speaker 1: them this case and be like, look, we don't fully

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Speaker 1: understand it either. Honestly, I think the real lesson here

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Speaker 1: is simple. If you're gonna raid someone's house, maybe don't

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Speaker 1: eat their dessert because you might end up in a song,

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Speaker 1: possibly a lawsuit, forever associated with Big Goods, and that

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Speaker 1: you rascals. Is how you go from law enforcement to

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Speaker 1: the eleven pound cake lore. Well that's it for today's

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Speaker 1: episode of Laugh with Me Reports. If you enjoyed this,

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Speaker 1: share it with a friend, preferably one who won't turn

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Speaker 1: your worst moments into a remix, and remember, stay out

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Speaker 1: of trouble, or at least make sure your security cameras

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Speaker 1: have good lighting. Hey, we'll see you next time, you know,

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Speaker 1: Johnny I think we could have a future in this

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Speaker 1: uh news news world. You know, we could break down

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Speaker 1: really all the all the breaking news stories, all the

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Speaker 1: big cases. Forget Netflix with the big docs. I think

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Speaker 1: this is the future. Okay, we're talking laugh with Me

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Speaker 1: reports the podcast. The podcast, I think that's what we're

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Speaker 1: gonna call it, maybe on IT time. Hey, I'm rooting

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Speaker 1: for Afromn here. I think if you if you're gonna

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Speaker 1: break into his home, and I know they had a warrant,

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Speaker 1: but it ended up being completely false bullet and like

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Speaker 1: just just completely false if that's gonna happen, and even

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Speaker 1: if you break even if you're in the home without

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Speaker 1: the false pretense. He's got surveillance footage, I mean in

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Speaker 1: the cameras. And here's the thing. They looked up at

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Speaker 1: the cameras, they knew they were being recorded, and they

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Speaker 1: cut the feed. There's a lot of story look forward

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Speaker 1: to seeing how Hey, thanks for listening. This is laugh

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Speaker 1: with Me