Newspoem
26 February 2000
Joe Futrelle
Joe Futrelle
 

WANTED


The NYPD

For the death of Amadou Diallo,
a harmless man
who they in an instant misjudged
undeniably mostly because of
the color of his skin as
dangerous

delivering their terrible,
irrevocable,
arbitrary judgement in
a sneeze of bullets.

Today our judgement, as awful,
has failed Diallo
again;
when will it be too late to judge
racist killers
by the content of their character?

A jury of their peers
is a jury also of killers

 

Newspoetry, the Whole Story