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


  •  October Tribunal to Probe US Crimes Against Humanity
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    October Tribunal to Probe US Crimes Against Humanity
    18 May 2021
    “We’re going to present expert witnesses to flush out” centuries of genocide and other US crimes before an International Tribunal on US Human Rights Abuses, said Jihad Abdulmumit,
  •  Israel Deliberately Provoked Violence
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Israel Deliberately Provoked Violence
    18 May 2021
    The bloodshed that has taken more than 200 Palestinian lives is the result of “a planned provocation to feed the ultra-right” in Israel, said Sara Flounders,  of the Internati
  • Freedom Rider: The End of Low Wage Work
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: The End of Low Wage Work
    12 May 2021
    The combination of unemployment and additional stimulus support has made staying home a better economic decision than working for peanuts under stressful conditions.
  • Democrats Give an “A” Grade to Joe Biden’s Brand of Corporate Rule. Should the Left?
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    Democrats Give an “A” Grade to Joe Biden’s Brand of Corporate Rule. Should the Left?
    12 May 2021
    Biden’s policies thus far represent the bare minimum response of a social order mired in total decay.
  • The Mother’s Day Massacre:  Mumia Abu-Jamal, 1985
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    The Mother’s Day Massacre:  Mumia Abu-Jamal, 1985
    12 May 2021
    Four years into his own ordeal as a political prisoner, Mumia Abu Jamal charged Philadelphia’s government with premeditated mass murder in the slaughter of MOVE men, women and children.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us