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


  • Dylan Sullivan , Jason Hickel
    Plundering Africa – Income Deflation and Unequal Ecological Exchange Under Structural Adjustment Programmes
    12 Mar 2025
    Presenting new research, Dylan Sullivan and Jason Hickel mount a devastating critique of the impact of structural adjustment in Africa in the 1980s and 1990s. Drawing on recent data on Africa’s…
  • The Mapping Project
    The Revolution Will Not Be Signaled
    12 Mar 2025
    The messaging app Signal is touted as being a safe harbor from state surveillance. However, its connections to large corporate entities make organizers more vulnerable than they may think.
  • Briahna Joy Gray
    Why Did MSNBC Cancel Joy Reid?
    12 Mar 2025
    Some speculated that racism explains the firing of the liberal anchor. But MSNBC doesn't have a problem with Black hosts. They have a problem with pro-Palestine ones.
  • Sharon Zhang
    Israel Wiped Out at Least 1,200 Entire Families in Gaza, Analysis Finds
    12 Mar 2025
    The horrible toll of Israel's genocide in Gaza is still being revealed. There are also at least 3,400 families with only one surviving member, Palestinian officials have said.
  • Working Families Party
    David K. Cobb
    The Working Families Party and Fusion Voting: A Historical and Political Analysis
    12 Mar 2025
    The Working Families Party presents itself as a political party that works for the interest of working class people. However, the party behaves more like a sheepdog for the Democratic party.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us