Insisting he didn't assault a photographer as many media have claimed, Kanye West declared there should be more laws restricting photographers from invading celebs' privacy.
- Nov 17, 2008
AceShowbiz - In a post on his blog, dated Saturday, November 15, Kanye West denied media reports claiming he assaulted a photographer which then led to his arrest early Friday morning, November 14. "I didn't assault him," he wrote on the post, titled "Who's Winning, Me or the Media?"
"Here's what happened," Kanye started detailing on the events that led to his arrest. "When I left the club, I was encountered by a thirsty paparazzi as usual. He felt he had more rights to my space than me, so I put my hand up to prevent him from taking my image. I didn't assault him but merely putting my hand up to cover his lens. My security yelled, 'Get the camera off him.' I guess in all the commotion the camera scraped his nose." He insisted, "I put my hand up to the camera in self-defense!"
Three hours later, Kanye went on writing, "very cordial" police officers arrived at his hotel room and arrested him. "They placed me in handcuffs and drove me to the station. They spoke about how this was obviously a publicity stunt by the photographer but they still had to go through the motions," he stated. "That was the bogus part."
Although he was later on released from the prison without charge, Kanye claimed the arrest affected his reputation. "Even though I wasn't charged, the damage was done. Sure enough, the next morning, plastered across every media outlet, 'Kanye Gets Arrested.' It didn't matter that I wasn't charged or the fact that I hadn't assaulted anyone. All that mattered was that I was arrested," he lamented. "The fact that he could get me arrested off a mere complaint but I can't ask him to stop taking pictures of me is very lopsided."
Relating the minor incident he experienced to the tragic death of the late Princess Diana, Kanye called for more laws restricting photographers, many of whom even invaded his and many other celebs' privacy. "When will there be a law passed that simply enforces that someone has to ask to have a photograph of you?" he wrote on his blog. "That would seem like common courtesy. Right now the paps are above the law and the people they shoot are below it."
