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

F Train Lynching: Papa Cop’s wink and nod
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
08 Jan 2025
🖨️ Print Article
Jordan Neely

I.

Blessed with beautiful voice, and chops for
Moonwalking moving trains. Trains and
train stations his stages, his concert halls.
Smiles, cheers, applause, crowds fed him.

He was 14 when death stole the show—
danced down his youth, his joy.
He was 14 when his Mother—the one he
Loved most—was murdered.

Plasticity of an un-molded mind: PTSD be-
came his dance partner after testifying
at his Mother’s murderer’s trial. He lived with
Aunts between peaks/valleys. Between dances.

II.

Broadway-Lafayette station. Yellow-taped F Train
Car and platform. Organized crime-scene of cruel
Capitalism—
Its rotten ass revealed again International Workers Day!

And Black Lives Matter again. Like cigarette butts on
Minnesota streets; Staten Island sidewalks; back roads
Of Georgia… 1st day of Mental Health Month: Young,
Gifted Black man’s mental health treated on train floor!

And Papa Cop’s ‘plan’ calls for criminalizing
Poverty.  1,000 Vitamin S-fueled badges—
Purging rolling refuge of the unhoused—
‘Sweeping’ flesh and blood ‘trash’ from trains!

Papa Cop’s ‘plan’ calls for never scenting un-ceded Leni-Lenape
Land with sawdust! Never acting Amish—raising roofs! Never
Accenting city noise with Go-Go hammers/screaming saws/re-
Bar-bending/concrete pouring for the poor!

III.

Pentagon groomed; self-deputized; 2nd Amendment-minded
Man—blu gravitational pull toward policing Black bodies.
Killed in Kabul? Baghdad? Tripoli? With impunity? Boarded
Aircraft before farmworkers, teachers, nurses, nannies, cooks?

Chokehold concert? Long white arm of a vigilante: 30-45 seconds…
Stopping blood flow to brain. Unconscious. Bravo! 6-15 minutes…
Dancer’s lean legs flailed.
Life’s last sparks wrung from his hungry, thirsty, limp Black body.

Now’s the time: flip the script! Dish the dirt! Unearth arrests! Let character
Assassination games begin! Paper of record/Fox-box-foot-soldier-scribblers
Weaponize Papa Cop’s words: “He got what was coming to him!” Presto—
Parasitic, avaricious, ethnic-cleansing rentier class views lynching fondly!

IV.

F Train Executioner not charged as denizens of darker hue. Viral video?
Don’t trust your lying eyes! “There are many, many things we don’t know,”
says Papa Cop,
“Allow the investigation to run its course…”

And People of All Seasons: Arab Spring, George Floyd Summer,
Strike-tober, Occupy respond—
Passing shoe leather legislation on tracks—shutting down
Business as usual … Warming our planet with Street Heat!

© 2023. 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.

New York City
Jordan Neely
state repression
state violence

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


Related Stories

Erica Caines
“Crime”, The Trojan Horse For Colonial Control
24 September 2025
The rhetoric of crime prevention has always served to enforce colonial order.
Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
Breaking it Down with Barron: The New York City Mayoral Race, New York City Politics, and a Primer for an Independent Black Revolutionary Polity
30 July 2025
Charles Barron dissects the NYC mayoral race, Mamdani’s struggles with Black voters, and why independent Black radical politics are e
Jon Jeter
Mamdani’s Train is Running But Blacks Wonder if There is Space for Them
02 July 2025
Zohran Mamdani’s democratic socialist vision won NYC’s primary but lost Black voters to scandal-plagued Cuomo by 20 points, exposing the l
Black Alliance For Peace
From George Floyd Back to the Structural Violence of Capitalism
28 May 2025
With the ritualistic murder of George Floyd by the occupation forces referred to as the police that roam the streets and barrios of the Black a
Jon Jeter
The Only Language the White Settler Speaks: Ohio Police Say Grieving Black Father Avenges Son’s Slaying By Killing One of Theirs
07 May 2025
The killing of Timothy Thomas in 2001 ignited Cincinnati’s long-simmering tensions over police violence.
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
ESSAY: Racism and the American University, Addison Gayle, Jr., 1971
16 April 2025
The appraisal of American universities as liberal institutions remains one of the purest examples
Abayomi Azikiwe, Black Agenda Report Contributor
Malcolm X, Black Nationalism and the Cold War
19 February 2025
United States intelligence agencies kept close watch over developments in the African American struggle for freedom, justice, equality and self
JP Sloan
all their deaths were ruled suicide
15 January 2025
for Aiyana, for Tommie, for Jordan
Jon Jeter
From Bernhard Getz to George Zimmerman to Daniel Penny: Using Vigilantes to Police a Racist Social Order
18 December 2024
The state and vigilante lynchings of Black men and boys in the U.S.
Black Alliance For Peace
The Biden Administration Fails to Win Imprisonment of the Uhuru 3
18 December 2024
The U.S. sought to once again target Black radical forces, by charging violations of the Foreign Agent Registration Act.

More Stories


  • Black Alliance for Peace
    Afghanistan News Update #24
    20 Nov 2024
    In its usual pattern of pillaging and plundering, the U.S. seized billions of dollars of Afghanistan's assets after its withdrawal from the nation years ago. Now, the U.S. has created…
  • Black Agenda Radio
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio November 15, 2024
    15 Nov 2024
    This week, we discuss the UK, where a Black woman was chosen to lead the conservative party. First, we cover the U.S. presidential election and the angry reactions within the Black community.
  • TikTokers bragging about going to starbucks
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Voters Angry After Another Trump Victory
    15 Nov 2024
    Afeni provides analysis on the results of the presidential election and the reaction of many angry Black voters who have expressed reactionary and racist commentary in the wake of these results.
  • Kemi Badenoch
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Woman Chosen to Lead UK Conservative Party
    15 Nov 2024
    Roger McKenzie joins us to discuss Kemi Badenoch, a member of parliament in the UK, who was recently chosen to lead the Tories, the conservative party.
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Liberal Arrogance and Hatred on Display After Trump Victory
    13 Nov 2024
    While Donald Trump is frequently called a fascist and is even compared to Adolph Hitler, some angry democrats are engaging in their own racist and eliminationist rhetoric in the wake of his impending…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us