Published: June 20, 2020
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After reading “Please Just Follow the Rules” by Keith Giles in the 6/13/2020 issue of Extra Extra Western Friend, I feel the need to send you the following poem, which I wrote about five years ago. Granted, it may be too bitter and sarcastic for Western Friend.
Dedicated to the small fraction of the police who give the rest a bad reputation, with dishonorable mention to those of their fellows who allow them to get away with it by observing the “Code of Silence.”
He was in truth no threat to me,
nor anyone that I could see;
he might be challenged mentally,
but I’ll just say “He frightened me.”
I shot him in the back, you see
he dared to run away from me.
The real reason’s plain to see:
he has much darker skin than me.
I’ll say “He threw a rock at me”
— or tried to grab my weaponry —
And no one in authority
will seriously question me.
I’ll testify misleadingly
yet ne’er be charged with perjury;
injustice is my legacy —
cops seldom face much scrutiny.
I sense his criminality
for I can see his ancestry;
I’ve no regard for decency,
nor constitutionality.
I’ll charge him with a felony
because he spoke his mind to me.
Policing is my destiny.
I do it so amazingly.
– Perry Hutchison © 2015
from Perry Hutchinson, Fanno Creek Worship Group Multnomah Meeting (6/13/2020)