They've Betrayed Us - III, Part I
III.
Do you know of naïve Martin
who saw a report on the news
of how a young, black man was killed,
that the police had shot the dude!
Now protestors were raising hell,
he saw a large mob on TV,
and he agreed with what they said,
he’d fight this racism bravely!
But when he went to the protest
the numbers seemed to be quite small,
fifty-odd people with black masks,
and not one of them dark-skinned at all.
A few of them carried bear Mace,
several more carried heavy poles,
it didn’t seem all that peaceful,
it seemed on the edge of control.
A rock flew out and hit a cop,
it struck the man square in the face,
if anyone had any sense
they all would have fled from that place.
But then the cops came wading in,
and Martin found himself in cuffs,
the black-masked folk chose to fight back,
the all got treated far more rough.
Later, sitting in the jail cell,
he heard from a quite annoyed cop,
the young, black man they’re gathered for
opened fire when told to stop.
He had been caught stealing new cellphones,
shot six bullets running away,
a cop was still in the ICU,
the youth was innocent in no way.
This had all been in the blotter,
but in no newscast did appear,
they had a narrative to push,
so Martin had ended up here.
He’d lose his job the coming day,
and since he had a record now
employers would not take the chance,
his finances quickly went down.
It seems like such a simple thing,
to go on and just tell the truth,
trust the people to judge on their own,
but sadly, that’s not what they do.
That old temptation for control,
to tell people what they will think…
seems to consume all media,
there’s no depths to which they won’t sink.
They tell you that a criminal
was a victim and then in turn,
fell no shame when the riots come,
when people and businesses burn.
They’ll ignore when a president
did stuff in showers with his kid,
if he’s on the same side as them
they’ll pretend that he never did.
Then they’ll look at the other side,
latch onto any awkward words,
then act like it’s the end of days,
no matter how blindly absurd,
leaving us all in confusion,
unable to know what goes on,
or misinformed but confident
as we head down a path that’s wrong.
Their duty to help the public
forgotten in their power games,
leading to people like Martin
with ill-formed notions in his brain.
And do they ever pay a price
for choosing to broadcast this sh-t?
Oh now, they hide behind free speech
(When not trying to destroy it!)...
Copyright © David Welch | Year Posted 2024
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