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

A whistle and honk for our cities under siege
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
11 Feb 2026
🖨️ Print Article
ICE arrest

Exploding eyeballs of children in chokeholds. Shivering 
seniors drug out into teen temperatures in their underwear;
bloody faces of body-slammed elders, face prints in snow.
Packs of 250lb. fantasy football bettors/NFL-wannabes pile on.

Invasion of the body snatchers! Deputized traitors / MAGAt 
magicians disappearing loved ones. Boss Tweet’s bounty hunters —
$50,000 bonuses — body-slamming, beating down, choking and
Redacting 1st , 4th,  14th and other amendments — on our dime!

Home doors busted open like piñatas by battering ram-wielding
thugs. Shards of car window glass shower city streets with freezing
chaos and terror. 
Another US city’s under siege. Will the reign of ICE stall in snow?

Burrito shop hungry hardhats flooded for lunch; 
for strategy sessions; for 30 minute escapes into
sports sections folded up in sturdy denim back 
pockets: EMPTY.

Coffee shop where co-workers; old and new
neighbors and welcome visitors gathered to chat
over cappuccino, chai, mocha, Americano; or sat
journaling or answering messages: EMPTY.

Corner church swollen with Sunday harmonies 
with communion; with fellowship: EMPTY.
Neighborhood school’s steady stream of shrieking drop-offs 
and pickups ground to sudden halt.
Clinic’s steady stream of cold and flu sufferers: are missing
in action. Community life is strangled under brownshirt siege.

Recalling “No Kings” rally ‘eons ago.’ Signs reading: NO WAR BUT 
CLASS WAR! Recalling contagious rage against grifting Judas. And
feeling hopeful as hell. Remembering solidarity’s our silver lining
in swastika infused clouds … almost filling battleship gray skies …

© 2026. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

Raymond Nat Turner is a NYC poet, BAR's Poet-in-Residence, and founder/co-leader of the jazz-poetry ensemble UpSurge!NYC. You can vote for his work at GoFundMe and PayPal.

ICE
Immigration and Customs Enforcement
state violence
protests

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


Related Stories

Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
They Wear The Masks
19 August 2026
“We wear the mask that grins and lies, it hides our cheeks and shades our eyes …” 
Devin B. Martinez
ICE Killings Fuel Nationwide Protests
22 July 2026
Recent killings at the hands of federal agents have fueled protests across the US, including a nationwide day of action on July 18.
Black Alliance for Peace NYC/NJ Citywide Alliance
Collective Statement Delivered at Delaney Hall Rally - June 12, 2026
15 July 2026
Capitalist predation and imperialism displace people from their homelands. Once in the U.S.
Abayomi Azikiwe
Detroit People’s Tribunal Takes Mask off ICE
08 July 2026
Activists gathered from various areas of Michigan to report on the excesses and brutality of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
War House hosted cage-fighting for 250th what’s next?
24 June 2026
Navy Blue Angels fly over. Air Force Thunderbirds fly over.Offal Office to South Lawn, War House warlords walk onBlood. 
Community Movement Builders - Newark
CMB Newark Statement on the Delaney Hall Uprising
03 June 2026
The immigrants who revolted inside the Delaney Hall immigration jail are not criminals but prisoners of war, and their actions are those of res
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Making America Whiter Again: White Supremacy in Action
27 May 2026
There is nothing mysterious about Trump’s effort to curb legal immigration. White supremacy is the explanation.
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor , Jamal Abdulahi
Trump is Not Defeated in Minnesota
27 May 2026
Minnesota pushed back against ICE until its visible presence seemed cut in half, but Trump does not forgive or forget, and it’s a tim
Matt Sledge , Sam Biddle
ICE Recruitment Tweets Are So Racist That Cops Feared They Could Incite Neo-Nazi Violence
27 May 2026
A newly uncovered police bulletin warns that white supremacists may interpret ICE social media content as a call to violence.
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
STOP Cruel Reich Cult (CRC) from reinventing the wheel
01 April 2026
Cruel Reich Cult coveting Utopia of no unrest. No protest. Voiceless

More Stories


  • By trying to Silence Sanders, the Corporate Media De-Legitimize Themselves
    Glen Ford , BAR executive editor
    By trying to Silence Sanders, the Corporate Media De-Legitimize Themselves
    07 Nov 2019
    Sanders has been made into a non-person, and his proposals routinely distorted, because the corporate media want Americans to meekly submit to the Race to the Bottom.
  • Freedom Rider: America Needs Protest
    Margaret Kimberley , BAR editor and senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: America Needs Protest
    06 Nov 2019
    A thousand young people demonstrated in Brooklyn, jumping over turnstiles in solidarity with others arrested and brutalized by the cops.
  • Donald in the Donbass, Biden in the Crossfire
    Ann Garrison , BAR contributor
    Donald in the Donbass, Biden in the Crossfire
    06 Nov 2019
    Whether Trump tried to make an impeachable arms deal with Ukraine or not, “the last thing Ukraine needs is more weapons of any kind.” 
  • The World is Rising Up Against Austerity and the Rule of the Rich, When Will We?
    Danny Haiphong , BAR contributor
    The World is Rising Up Against Austerity and the Rule of the Rich, When Will We?
    06 Nov 2019
    Black political captivity in the Democratic Party has a lot to do with why there is no clear peace movement in the United States.
  • Liberalism Will Get Us Killed
    Erica Caines
    Liberalism Will Get Us Killed
    06 Nov 2019
    Much of the internet chatter over low- hanging fruit issues fails to address our material realities within a settler colony.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us