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Police Brutality Blues

from Roubles and Kopecks by Sam Steffen

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lyrics

Another young black man is dead
before the age of twenty-one
Shot to death by an officer
who claimed he thought he had a gun
They’re talking bout it on the radio
There’s footage on the nightly news
Just can’t seem to get away
From the police brutality blues

The cops are dressed in riot gear
they say my neighborhood’s secure
I used to think they were protectin me,
now they’re just wagin war
the officers are trained to kill
self-defense is their excuse
the whole nation’s coming down with
the police brutality blues

If a black man kills a cop
Someone will see that he will swing
If a cop kills a black-skinned kid
It doesn’t mean a goddam thing
Nevermind that he was unarmed
the ruling somehow always proves
Courts still haven’t found a cure
For the police brutality blues

Now we’re a civilized society
That we need laws, I can understand
That don’t explain why it takes six white cops
To write a ticket to one black man
It don’t explain why he must get out
Or why he’s guilty if he refuse
It don’t explain why so many got
The police brutality blues

A mother lays her child to rest
She’s been stricken dumb
The unarmed man they shot to death
Was a husband, a father, a son
There’s a baby in his mother’s arms
too young to know the truth
That his father had a fatal case of
the police brutality blues

credits

from Roubles and Kopecks, released September 14, 2020

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Sam Steffen Boise, Idaho

Sam Steffen is a Pennsylvania-bred, Boise-based singer-songwriter whose songs are the torch-wood for a new generation of folk music that has learned from the best stuff in the tradition and aims in spite of everything to keep the human spirit alive and kicking. A versatile musician and skilled finger-picker, Sam is at heart a story-teller, and a prolific one. ... more

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