Criminal
It's Criminal
Kidnapping, rob'ry, and torture …
A triad of capital crimes
Add blackmail, libel, and slander
Consensually bought with your dimes …
I suppose you could argue the logic
For special ops or CIA …
The "end versus means" is persuasive.
It's all good at the end of the day.
That's a topic for future discussion --
Pros and cons even I understand.
But against fellow U-of-S citizens?
In the home of the free? Our homeland?
Yet a common enough situation
A daily occurrence times ten
At all levels of our jurisprudence
No respecter of women or men.
Prior to my own arrival
At one of the better men's zoos
I thought prisons were just full of whiners
Johnny Cash types, just singin' the blues.
Nobody's guilty of nothin'
We all got hit by the Man
They're all twisted, but us, we're all innocent --
It's one big nefarious plan!
Ironic'ly that's not what happened.
Very few even bother with trial.
Nine out of ten take the deal --
Of the one in ten? Few in denial.
The ones, shall we say, with an attitude --
Not the ones dressed in green, but in blue --
Not a lot, but enough to have impact
Have the aptitude -- what -- of a shrew?
But a mean shrew who as a small child
Liked tearing the wings off of flies,
Who kicked dogs and set cat hair on fire,
Got good at creating bold lies.
They would revel at flaunting their power --
Intimidate, hassle, demand.
Little mind games to throw you off balance
And for that earn fifty-plus grand.
That's torture, according to
Webster,
Since it's "anguish of body or mind."
Constant fear of erratic reprisal
Can eventually make one resigned.
What of blackmail? According to
Webster,
"Extortion, coercion by threats"
Take the deal, or not only you go,
But your wife and your kids -- no regrets?
"We could put you away for forever.
"Take the deal -- it's 20 percent.
"Even if you didn't do it, it's cheaper."
Which, of course, was designed with intent.
If you're innocent (how could that happen?),
You fight it by going to court.
It's your nickel against several million.
They just smile with that insolent snort.
No question, the ultimate outcome:
Feds win almost all of their bets.
That's when kidnapping, rob'ry, and then some
Become more than mere troublesome threats.
What's left after paying your lawyer
Is taken with full court consent
Your house and your car and your earnings,
And no one seems troubled or bent.
You must be a bonafide felon.
Twelve people -- allegedly peers --
Decided you surely deserve this.
The press leads the pack with its jeers.
Thus, libel and slander are added
To government-sanctioned disgrace.
You're handcuffed, escorted by marshals
At first to some fed-holding place.
Which brings us back here to Camp Sheridan
Where inmates are kinder than cops,
Where what you might think as atrocities
Go on and on -- it never stops.
Yet, if you could somehow get glasses
To see things from my point of view,
It wouldn't be the inmates you'd question
Or size up as often we do …
The inmates who live here are people --
Good neighbors with families and friends
Who help out each other with warm hearts
In spite of what justice pretends.
To be fair, many cops here are people
Although they're restricted by law
To be caring beyond job descriptions,
Most are happy their pensions to draw.
I said kidnapping.
Webster defines it
As "seizing or keeping by fraud."
After seeing it firsthand from inside,
I think
Webster might somewhat be flawed.
What's missing is taking you somewhere
That's certainly against your will.
Whether or not it is "legal"
Is debatable. Why? Here's the drill:
Change those glasses for some that are godlike.
Look down upon earth to divine
Is the person just kidnapped unjustly,
Truly innocent or simply a swine?
If, in fact, the now guilty is innocent,
But regardless, he's now put away,
Is it not more than merely a travesty
To say "all the same" anyway?
So, too, rob'ry through rose-tinted glasses
Stands justified too -- bought and paid
As does slander and libel 'mongst other
Atrocities prev'iously made.
Who judges the judges and juries?
Prosecutes prosecutors who fail
By sending away useful citizens
To rot for ten years in some jail?
I'm sorry I come off so whiny.
It's just when it happens to you
And you see how so often it happens
To thousands and thousands more, too --
It then sudd'nly becomes a bit personal.
It's no longer an int'resting stat.
I can say as I see a change coming
It's not reached an awareness for that.
If you haven't been there to observe it
Or know someone up close now who has,
It's just something for writers of novels
To write but will never surpass
The injustice of sending an innocent
(Though later we might hear an "oops!")
To grind in the wheels of justice
While jumping through ten years' of hoops.
Go back to your paper and coffee.
I'm sorry I took up your time.
It is, as I said to begin with,
My nickel, but surely your dime.