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


  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Donald Trump and the Truth About Robert Mueller
    25 Mar 2026
    Donald Trump is not lying about Robert Mueller. Mueller was the point man for a plot involving the Democratic Party establishment, intelligence agencies, and corporate media. Russiagate was a…
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: Black Folks and Foreign Policy, June Jordan, 1983.
    25 Mar 2026
    “Who will we become if we remain the silent partners to this white arrogance?”
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor , Dan Kovalik
    U.S. Takes Aim at President Gustavo Petro, but He's Akin to a Rock Star in Colombia
    25 Mar 2026
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor, spoke to attorney and author Dan Kovalik, President Petro’s legal representative in the US and in international courts. 
  • Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    War Crime Cafe
    25 Mar 2026
    "War Crime Cafe" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
  • Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    Big Green + Big Tech = Bigger Environmental Racism: How Certain white-led “environmental” Groups are Selling out Frontline Communities to Accommodate Data Centers
    25 Mar 2026
    Big Green groups taking millions from Big Tech have abandoned vulnerable communities to become accomplices in data center proliferation rather than opponents.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us