Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

My Wise Country Cousin on The State Machine’s Machinegun-Totin’ Cops… 
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
20 Aug 2014
🖨️ Print Article

by BAR poet-in-residence Raymond Nat Turner

Dey got Glocks, pumps, tasirs, peppurspray, vess—
White magik fo’ conjurin’ cases ob “resisin’ aress!”

My Wise Country Cousin on The State Machine’s Machinegun-Totin’ Cops… 

by BAR poet-in-residence Raymond Nat Turner

Look lak de Daltuns, Youngas an ol’ James gangs
Is resirrecit, an’ up ridin’ again, doin’ dey thangs—
Bowdin’ de D train wit machinegun-totin’ police
Dey needin’ dat firepower fo’ “keepin’ de peace?”
‘Less Al Kater on de A, Boocoo Harome on de B
Dem damn machineguns make no sense, to me…
‘Less Eyesool on de C, an’ Eyesis down on de D
Dem damn machineguns make no sense, to me…
Dey got Glocks, pumps, tasirs, peppurspray, vess—
White magik fo’ conjurin’ cases ob “resisin’ aress!”

Dey shoutin’ night an’ day‘bout Eyesool and Eyesis
Coverin’ up de fac dey sistum’s tremblin’ wit crisis:
Workin’ folk tired ob takeaways an’ myzerly charity
Caint take much mo’ ob dese heists called awesterity—
Son, I tolt you once, tolt you twice, dis makes thrice
Dis a police state Negroz an’ liberuls call ‘paradice!’

Dey got C-Is, Demografick Units an Mosk Crawlers,
Ebben mens among trash hallers, an’ cable installers…
Now, it lookin’ lak to me dat Bloody Billy Bratton
Is bringin’ dat ol’ SS mess up here in Manhattun…
Sho lookin’ lak what de youngtaz be callin’ po-po
Is jes de Furor’s ol’ gang ob thugs de Gustop-po—
Well, so much fo’ hare-splittin,’ ackademik debate,
It pas’ time fo’ callin’ dis muthafucka a police state!

Raymond Nat Turner can be contacted at Raymond (at) upsurgejazz.com
Raymond Nat Turner © 2105 All Rights Reserved

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


More Stories


  • Spies of Mississippi: Mayor Lumumba’s Cops Put Public Under Spyglass
    Adofo Minka
    Spies of Mississippi: Mayor Lumumba’s Cops Put Public Under Spyglass
    25 Nov 2020
    Jackson’s supposedly “radical” Black mayor wants to make surveillance great again in Mississippi.
  • Superpredator: The Media Myth That Demonized a Generation of Black Youth
    Carroll Bogert
    Superpredator: The Media Myth That Demonized a Generation of Black Youth
    25 Nov 2020
    By the end of the 90s corporate journalists were feverishly dehumanizing young blacks in news stories, editorials and commentaries.
  • Letters from Our Readers
    BAR Comments Editor Jahan Choudhry
    Letters from Our Readers
    25 Nov 2020
    This week the lives of the incarcerated, Susan Rice’s bid to be Secretary of State, and the incoming administrators of the empire were on your minds.
  • BAR Book Forum: Lavelle Porter’s “The Blackademic Life”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Lavelle Porter’s “The Blackademic Life”
    25 Nov 2020
    Despite academia’s inherent racism, black scholars have figured out ways to work within these institutions.
  • BAR Book Forum: Erin Manning’s “For a Pragmatics of the Useless”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Erin Manning’s “For a Pragmatics of the Useless”
    25 Nov 2020
    Schizoanalysis opens up new alliances (approximations) in the uneasy overlaps of neurodiversity and black life.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us