Tragic Details About The Dead Kennedys

Jello Biafra wasn't just the lead singer for the Dead Kennedys, he was also their label boss. The band's second album, 1981's "In God We Trust, Inc.," was released via Alternative Tentacles, a small, independent, punk-centric record company founded and owned by Biafra. In 1992, Alternative Tentacles put out "Our Will Be Done" by the

Jello Biafra wasn't just the lead singer for the Dead Kennedys, he was also their label boss. The band's second album, 1981's "In God We Trust, Inc.," was released via Alternative Tentacles, a small, independent, punk-centric record company founded and owned by Biafra. In 1992, Alternative Tentacles put out "Our Will Be Done" by the band called the Crucif***s, which used as its cover art a graphic photograph of Philadelphia police sergeant John Whalen after he'd been shot in the line of duty. Four years later, according to MTV News, the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police filed suit against the Crucif***s, Biafra, and Alternative Tentacles, seeking $2.2 million, citing invasion of privacy and defamation for its use, or rather "misappropriation," of the Whalen image. "Our work in question is clearly a commentary about the widespread problem of police brutality in America," Biafra said in a statement.

In December 1997, a federal judge issued a dismissal of the lawsuit against Biafra and his company, persuaded by an Alternative Tentacles attorney's defense that said the FOP couldn't legally claim invasion of privacy because it's an organization and not an individual, and that defamation didn't apply because Whalen wasn't even clearly identified in the photo. "Of all the legal harassment I've been through, this has to be the most groundless, mean-spirited, and ridiculous," Biafra said after the case was closed.

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