Oh to be a Policeman

Note: 

Originally I was going to post this poem a couple of months ago. Tragically, at that time, two young female police officers were murdered in Greater Manchester. I therefore delayed posting until now  as I do not wish for any of my poetry to be perceived as attacking ordinary working people doing their jobs.

Oh to be a Policeman was written in1984 during the miners strike, when I personally experienced how the police were being used to perpetrate class warfare.

 Has anything changed since then? Hardly: Consider how the South Yorkshire police force covered up evidence from the Hillsborough tragedy, Remember how  the Metropolitan police were complicit in the recent phone tapping scandal. Routinely, innocent demonstrators are attacked and beaten up by police officers.  Disgracefully; armed police continue to shoot unarmed civilians on the streets of this country.

So, read the poem, but don't enjoy it!

I didn't enjoy writting it. In 1984 I was bloody angry!:

Oh to be a Policeman

Oh to be a Policeman

under the Thatcher regime,

swinging a solid truncheon

ignoring pickets scream,

confronting all those 'nig nogs'

smiling as you do,

whispering under your breath;

" I'll get you".

Oh to be a Policeman

in 1984,

the community face of fascism

in the British civil war.

Stormtroopers in the SPG,

gestapo at the station,

blitzkreig on the picket line,

then comes the interrogation:

"political beliefs?"

" at elections, how do you vote?"

a tape playing under the desk

 and a sergeant taking notes.

Oh to be a Policeman

whilst children disappear,

maniacs get away with murder

and women live in fear.

Those stoic faceless fiends

known as the boys in blue,

no time to catch criminals.

They're too busy watching you.

Oh to be a Policeman

in a hovering eye in the sky

a data bank in Hendon,

the end of freedom is nigh.

Oh to be a Policeman

with the working class as bait,

caught hook line and sinker

by the poachers of the state.

Capability Red        1984