While in high school a group of us started a student rights group called JOE. We hosted bi-monthly meetings where we discussed student issues, organized for local demonstrations, and hosted speakers on anything from keeping the youth from joining the military to how to distribute free food. Our meetings had an attendance of anywhere from 20 to 100 students. We had a quarterly zine called the curse of joe that was entirely written by the students. During a sit in I was arrested and assaulted by a campus police officer. I still remember being pulled in that room, having my arm pulled up behind my back, and having my head slammed into the desk. I thought to myself, “what the fuck did I get myself into”. I ended up being expelled from the district, and spent much of that year in court rooms. After, my life became more centered around drugs and alcohol, but that’s another story.
For the next several years to come I would do most anything possible to avoid police, I made myself blend into society and stopped most all activism. It was from that time that I realized that as a white heterosexual male it was easy to “blend” into society. I got a job and moved on with my life. The point I am trying to get to is that for many people in this world they can never do this. I can stop rabble rousing and be left alone. A trans person cannot stop being trans. A black man cannot stop being black. Many people experience police violence regardless of anything that they do. While my experience is real it is totally different. It was through this realization that I concluded either I stand in solidarity with those who face systemic violence or I don’t. My actions are important, without them I live a lie.
(tommy danger)
lyrics
When I was young, with some friends of mine, well we started we started to organize.
Started groups, student rights, discussions trying to bring these things to light.
ACLU cards, this is high school, treating everyone like their some sort of criminal.
Oh and who was left, yeah they got military recruiters for them.
Oh the cops, on the street, they are beating people begging for peace. Yea they call them peace keepers, but they’re really just the rich man’s bullies.
Near the end of that, oh I got beat down, cops were sick of us making them look like clowns.
Expulsions, court hearings, taking everything that we ever worked for. Officer Lima, yeah you lost your job, but you ruined my life at that point I was lost.
Drugs, alcohol, everything around me changed.
Oh the cops, on the street, they are beating people begging for peace. Yea they call them peace keepers, but they’re really just the rich man’s bullies.
Every day it seems another person’s screaming that there’s police violence in the streets. It ain’t safe to say anything, and I’ll tell you that’s a fear that nobody outta face, yeah.
Lost some friends of mine, they did serious time, they never come back the same.
Oh, I hope that one day our society gets sick of making excuses for all this pain.
Yea, the cops, on the street, they are beating people begging for peace. Yea they call them peace keepers, but they’re really just the rich man’s bullies.
Oh the cops, on the street, they are KILLING people begging for peace. Yea they call them peace keepers, but they’re really just the rich man’s bullies.
fell into Days n' Daze when I was travelling, thanks to some of my road dogs. I don't have that freedom anymore but I feel a piece of it Everytime I listen to their music. love y'all! thefool309
Scratchy DIY punk from Philadelphia with an impeccable list of inspirations. Think Crass, Flux of Pink Indians, This Heat, and Chronophage. Bandcamp New & Notable Jun 22, 2023