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
  • omnibus

Save The Overtime…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
19 Sep 2018
🖨️ Print Article
this is what we do as cops
in praise of rotten apples and police overtime

“…hear me now, five, four, three, two, one…

Runnin' to the door, peepin' out the window
Hopin' to see only you
Listenin’ for the phone, checkin' out the tick tock
Countin' if it's a certain time
Darling, don't stay away too long
Pretty baby, I know you're working hard for me
Darling, baby, don't stay away too long
Pretty baby, save the overtime…”

Thin blue line of condoms
Protecting, serving our
finest in harm’s way—
Hot pursuit—wetly, warmly
fearing for their safety:
Chlamydia, Herpes,
Gonorrhea—scornful
shrieks of wives—keeping
Sex in the city safe…

It’s a tough job—but
someone must Just do
It under capitalism—
When not firing 41
shots in vestibules;
Ignoring pleas, “I
can’t breathe…”
Tackling cyclists;
Kettle-ing marchers,
Crushing Occupy;
Breaking strikes; putting
cases on people—planting
contraband and throwaway
Guns…
Writing fiction, acting
Shakespearean—
Testi-lying in court…
imagining men and women upstate

Today, they threw a few into the
fire until the next sizzling scandal
of Red Squad surveillance, Mosque
crawlers, dirty ‘detectives,’ street
Executions by walking-hate crimes…

But who was crossed in the wicked
world where useless thugs are
Untouchable, and the few good men
and women with spines are ‘rats?’

Whose palm went un-greased?
Whose beak was left bone dry in
the fraternal order of Vitamin S—
Nips-fueled failed jocks, sadists,
Killers, bullies back from free-
fire zones in oil wars?

Maybe, OverTime’s up—
for a “few bad apples…”
from a rotten orchard?

© 2018. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

Our poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner is an acclaimed performing artist. Find much more of his work at http://upsurgejazz.com.

policing

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


Related Stories

Black Alliance For Peace
End the Colonial Occupation of Washington D.C.: The People Demand Self-Determination and Self-Governance
13 August 2025
Washington, D.C.'s political subjugation exposes America's democratic facade. While claiming to champion self-rule globally, the U.S.
Justin Fenton , Ben Conarck , Pamela Wood
Forensic Failures: 36 Police-Custody Deaths Should Have Been Ruled a Homicide, Audit Finds
28 May 2025
Oliver Robinson
Trump Terror, Complicit Local Leadership, and the Assault Against Southeast D.C.
09 April 2025
Donald Trump’s new “Safe and Beautiful” task force is little more than a thinly veiled assault on Black working-class communities in Southeast
Jacqueline Luqman
Defeat The Fascist War On African People In The US And Abroad!
19 June 2024
The struggle to defeat the war on African people can be understood through an analysis of the ongoing relationship between African people and t
Natasha Lennard
New York Spends $225 Million on Its Own “Cop City” — to Make the Whole City Run on Cops
12 June 2024
A proposed New York training facility shows how establishment politicians only understand governance through policing.
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Papa Cop’s Pedagogy of the Oppressor (Apartheid state professors or SS students?)
15 May 2024
“The policeman isn't there to create disorder;
Investigation Shows Hundreds of US Cops Being Trained by Far-Right Extremists
Kenny Stancil
Investigation Shows Hundreds of US Cops Being Trained by Far-Right Extremists
11 May 2022
Policing in the United States is inherently racist and right wing.
BAR Book Forum: Interview with Calvin Warren
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Interview with Calvin Warren
12 January 2022
As part of the Black Agenda Report Book Forum, we interview scholars about a recent article they’ve written for either an academic journal
jackson ms
Adofo Minka
Jackson MS: Police Killings Continue Amid Mayoral Silence in the "Most Radical City on the Planet"
15 February 2018
In the last few months Jackson's supposedly radical mayor has lifted residency requirements for city police officers, and remained silent o

More Stories


  • Jon Jeter
    Tell No Lies, Claim No Easy Victories: Liberal Media Blames Trump for Economic Woes That Began Years Ago
    23 Apr 2025
    Corporate media peddle the myth of a pre-Trump economic golden age, but for working-class Americans, especially Black families, the struggle began long before he took office.
  • Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    Neo-Kautskyism: Exposing the Bernie/AOC “Fight Oligarchy” Tour de Farce
    23 Apr 2025
    Lenin called out Kautsky’s fake socialism more than a century ago—today, Bernie and AOC are playing the same game, trading radical change for liberal theatrics.
  • Tunde Osazua
    Dictating Security, Ignoring Sovereignty: The Arrogance Behind AFRICOM’s Strategy
    23 Apr 2025
    African Command's (AFRICOM) heavy-handed tactics in Africa have backfired, exposing U.S. arrogance and fueling a wave of resistance. As Sahel nations reject neocolonial bullying, Washington’s…
  • Essam Elkorghli
    NATO’s Depleted Uranium: The Health Consequences of Freedom and Democracy in Iraq, Libya and the Former Yugoslavia
    23 Apr 2025
    NATO’s depleted uranium weapons leave a deadly legacy—cancer, birth defects, and environmental ruin in war-torn regions. The silent genocide continues long after the bombs stop falling.
  • Jocelyn Figueroa
    Working Homeless People: Laboring Without a Roof
    23 Apr 2025
    For millions, a job is no longer enough to afford housing—yet the myth that homeless people don’t work still dominates public opinion.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us