<$BlogRSDUrl$>

"Pay close attention to that man behind the curtain!"

Tuesday, December 02, 2003

Trouble every day

From Rodney King to Nathaniel Jones

Was it just another aberration or part of a larger pattern? Shortly before 1:00 AM on March 3, 1991, George Holliday videotaped Los Angeles police officers from a nearby balcony as they beat Rodney King in a highly-publicized incident which eventually led to huge riots in the L.A. area. Twelve years, eight months, three weeks, and six days later, Nathaniel Jones -- who, although resisting arrest, was unarmed -- was beaten by police. This time it was Cincinnati. This time, the incident was caught on tape by the video camera in the police car. This time, the suspect died. And this is at least the 15th time since 1995 that Cincinnati police have ended up killing suspects.

In my rap, "It's Not Democracy, It's A Conspiracy!" (The Sedition Commission, An Ambient Boot to the Head, Fatal Enema Music) -- written near the end of George H.W. Bush's term -- I say:
The right to silence is the only right you've got
If you don't want to end up being beat or getting shot
Rodney King's not an isolated case
It's just one of the few we've got on videotape

Police brutality is not democracy
The "war on drugs" is one more conspiracy
To make us kill each other up in the streets
With war outside your door we'll never ever have peace

Never! Ever! No! It's a conspiracy!
Those are words I wrote 12 years ago. It's a terrible shame how true those words still are today. Peer into the mind of the late Frank Zappa in these lyrics which were written 37 years ago about the Watts Riots:
Well I'm about to get sick
From watchin' my TV
Been checkin' out the news
Until my eyeballs fail to see
I mean to say that every day
Is just another rotten mess
And when it's gonna change, my friends
Is anybody's guess
-- Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention,
"Trouble Every Day,"
from the 1966 album Freak Out
Posted at 5:31 PM by: [Permalink]
eXTReMe Tracker
This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?