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

What The Video Shows
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
01 Dec 2015
🖨️ Print Article

by BAR's poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner

Video, as police and military malefactors frequently remind us, is two dimensional.

What The Video Shows

by BAR's poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner

Baby, don’t do it
Baby, don’t you do it
Baby, don’t dare do it
Don’t trust your lying eyes

The officer drove 6 min.
Like Mario Andretti impersonating
Evel Knivel on Chicago streets
The officer alighted from his vehicle
Firing and fearing for his safety and
The safety of his fellow officers…

Baby, don’t do it
Baby, don’t you do it
Baby, don’t dare do it
Don’t trust your lying eyes

After being struck by several rounds 
Fired by the responding officer, the 
Suspect assumed a combative prone
Position and began resisting the officer’s
Fire…

Baby, don’t do it
Baby, don’t you do it
Baby, don’t dare do it
Don’t trust your lying eyes

Notice the suspect’s body refusing to
Stay still; notice the suspect’s body 
bouncing, twisting—that’s resisting
Notice the suspect’s body refusing to
Just die—that’s resisting—he’s resisting!

Baby, don’t do it
Baby, don’t you do it
Baby, don’t dare do it
Don’t trust your lying eyes
The officer feared for his safety and
The safety of his fellow officers whose
Guns were holstered
The officer feared for his safety and
The safety of his fellow officers and
The safety of the suspect, so they let
Him ‘bleed out’—a split–second decision
this work’s hard enough without second-guessing 

Baby, don’t do it
Baby, don’t you do it
Baby, don’t dare do it
Don’t trust your lying eyes

Well, on second viewing, the officer may
Have used poor judgment, may have over-
Reacted; the officer may need more training

Baby, don’t do it
Baby, don’t you do it
Baby, don’t dare do it
Don’t trust your lying eyes

Video’s two dimensional—what you think you
See is not what you really see—take that hospital 
Bombed
In Afghanistan—it wasn’t really bombed—it only
Looked bombed. It only looks like splattered blood
on ICU walls. That head only looks like it’s detached 
from its torso. It only looks like 32 people were killed…
Video’s two dimensional—what you think you
See is not what you really see—so repeat after me:
Baby, don’t do it
Baby, don’t you do it
Baby, don’t dare do it
Don’t trust your lying eyes

Raymond Nat Turner Š 2015 All Rights Reserved

subscribe to our free weekly email notifying you of new content published at Black Agenda Report

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


More Stories


  • Eliminating HIV in Black Communities
    Kathryn Macapagal and Darnell Motley
    Eliminating HIV in Black Communities
    27 Feb 2019
    The fight against HIV in Black America requires a comprehensive assault on institutional health disparities.
  • Recent Protests in Haiti Expose Democracy’s Lie
    Marline L. Daut
    Recent Protests in Haiti Expose Democracy’s Lie
    27 Feb 2019
    One of the greatest fictions of democracy is that people oppressed by their own government can place their faith in the electoral process.
  • Black Agenda Radio, Week of February 25, 2019
    Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Black Agenda Radio, Week of February 25, 2019
    26 Feb 2019
    “No legal justification” for US intervention in Venezuela decla
  • A Grandfather’s Powerful African Microphone
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    A Grandfather’s Powerful African Microphone
    26 Feb 2019
    GoGo Breeze, an elder with a radio program on a provincial Zambian station, counsels listeners on wage theft and other problems facing the common people -- and gets results.
  • Upholding the Humanity of Police Victims
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Upholding the Humanity of Police Victims
    26 Feb 2019
    Eleanor Bumpers, the grandmother killed by New York City cops in 1984, was blamed for her own death, with officials citing her past criminal conviction and mental problems.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us