Think Serpico

fear, paranoia, the grinding media machine of looping video. caught on smart phone. posted on Instagram. tweets gone round the world.

if only. if only. if only. watch it again. he was shot in the back.
didn’t see it, watch again. again. again.
he was a young man. the world in front of him. watch it again.
don’t worry about the community and his mother crying. watch it again.
they want you to watch it again. the world in front of him.

if only there were more cameras. secure. locked down. no deleting. no editing reality. we’d see the hate that fuels the world for what it is. an us vs. them. an our kind. our color. our friends. our brothers. tribe vs. tribe. pack vs. pack. team vs. team.

a game of survival in the machine, when survival is far from what is needed. we need our youth NOT to be discarded. project the video. put it in theaters. brand it into your eye balls. tattoo it on your arm. remember the fear from the evil hearted. discharged and fired.

put on trial. put behind bars. to heal the broken bones. the pierced flesh of so many trials gone wrong. to pay for so many crimes unknown. unrecorded. before there was video. the sheriff was out of town. leaving his deputies to clown around. to turn a blind eye to justice. to plant the weapon. to get their stories straight. to never delineate.

think Serpico. how could we know. but didn’t you already know. watch it again. another young man dies. is shot in the back (again) as America cries.