Thugs (A Poem About Men In Uniform Who Shove The Elderly)

They’re doing what
They’re supposed to do;
The Bible even says that
The role of cops is to

Wield the sword with
Terror so people live
In perpetual fear and
In that way there

Can be law and order.
The rich understand
The cops aren’t for
Them; they’re nephews

Out making all of us
Proud on the other
Side of town. So when
A cop throws a 75

Year old man to the
Ground and makes
Him bleed from his
Ear and half the

Battalion resigns in
Protest when he gets
Disciplined, what did
We expect? They’re

Supposed to be a
Herd of wild pigs
Tearing through a
South Texas prairie.

If you stay out of their
Way, you’ll be fine;
If you’re in their way,
You must have been

Doing something wrong;
The problem being those
Colonists got the strange
Idea that people are

Citizens who vote rather
Than subjects who obey,
And while they understood
This only applied to white

Men, eventually other
Races demanded they
Be given a seat at
The grownup table too,

And so now we have
A mess because kings
With absolute power
Can unleash dogs on

Mass herds in order
To pacify them through
Terror, but when you
Build a nation on the

Premise that kings
Should not exist, you
Can only get away
With using the king’s

Tools for so long;
Training men how to
Be thugs who terrorize
As their method of

Subduing a neighborhood
Will no longer work in
This country and Karen
And Becky may mourn

But it’s time to rethink
Everything about how
We keep people safe;
Giving traumatized

Boys the authority to
End the lives of other
Traumatized boys is
An idea that has reached

Its lifespan; I want
To hold their hands
And look in their eyes
And say you’re not a thug.