Issue 2, February 2007

A man was murdered by police
Admittedly when I initially became aware of it
I questioned his identity.
He may have been family for all I know.
Fortunately he wasn't..
At least that's how I felt
after his death became
CNN's approved version of BREAKING NEWS;
Appropriately named for it's ability to
Consistently Narrate News1
in ways intended to break the spirit-.
I speak from nearly 30 years
of broken spirit experience.
I can attest to its effectiveness.
I've even memorized the script.
It goes something like this:
"Reportedly...
he allegedly fit the description
of a suspect accused of
potentially being guilty of something"?
the one thing you don't wanna be
accused of in this country.
And he was — guilty of something.
But not the thing For which he was hunted
But you don't need to be
when you run from police.
They automatically equate fleeing
with being guilty.
Trust me!
It's only been 6 minutes since his death
And already they've concluded their investigation.
They've acquired the Information
needed to begin the breaking process.
Next,
nearly 2 1/2 decades of Black male experience
gets compressed into a space
the size of a sound byte --
A trigger phrase: "Former convicted felon.
Suddenly his Innocence is irrelevant-
"Former convicted felon…”
That's what they keep tell in' us.
Unfortunately that's all they gotta say
to break the bond;
the bond between the community
and it's recently deceased.
The rest is his-story,
past tense
his version of events; BREAKING NEWS