Cops Sue The Game

Five Greensboro, N.C., police officers have filed a defamation lawsuit against rapper The Game and his entourage stemming from public comments the performer made after his arrest last year at a shopping mall.

The officers’ lawsuit claims libel and slander and that their images were misappropriated, according to court papers filed at the Guilford County Courthouse in early November.

The Game, whose real name is Jayceon Taylor, is accused of telling a television reporter that his October 2005 arrest at a shopping mall was comparable to the Rodney King case. Taylor claimed he was arrested for signing autographs.

The rapper was scheduled to perform that night at Lawrence-Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Winston-Salem.

Video of the officers arresting Taylor is allegedly making the rounds on the Internet. A DVD of the incident is also being hawked by an unnamed Web site claiming the rapper was “being wrongfully arrested and brutalized by police in North Carolina” and that the footage is convincing.

Each officer is seeking more than $10,000 damages. The lawsuit also claims one of the policeman lost $7,500 in off-duty pay because he was afraid to go back to work at the shopping center.

The dispute began when mall police, who were working off-duty, asked Taylor to remove a full-face mask. The officers reportedly called for backup when the performer and his entourage refused to leave the shopping center. One officer used pepper spray on the group as eight of the rapper’s associates surrounded police who were cuffing Taylor.