First, they came for the opium dealers, the first war on drugs,
And we pretended it wasn’t because they were Chinese.
Then, they came for the pot dealers, reefer madness,
And we pretended it wasn’t because they were Mexicans.
They ignored the cocaine dealers in the US.
It was okay to go after Colombians but not Wall Street coke dealers, oh, no,
And we focused on crack, saying it was a hundred times worse.
We pretended it wasn’t because crack dealers were poor and black.
They came for them, though.

Here, at least, I can stop. Personally.
It is not “we.” It’s “you.”
I said, “This is wrong. This is a police state.
“We must elect politicians who are willing to fight for justice.”
I told everyone I could.
I still am.

They exported it. Two-ish million Americans were already in jails
And prisons.
They started a torture camp to stop terrorism.
They came for the Muslims all over the world.
You’re not Muslim, either.

There’s a torture facility run by Americans.
The country had conversations about “torture,”
Redefining it. Refining it.
Simulating death wasn’t torture, they said.
Major organ failure was necessary,
Which sounds more like “attempted murder.”
But simulating death was fine.
Death was simulated all day, every day,
By Americans who bragged that they’d stopped such things.
That we were above such things.
You were okay with that, too.

Cops are murdering Americans.  Mostly black, all poor.
One thousand a year!
You did nothing because you weren’t black or poor.
You ignore a lot of black and poor people.

A pithy German pastor made a nice quotation.
You love it.
You believe that you’re the people’d stand up.
You’d say, “Not on my watch!”
You said it when they came for the Chinese,
the Mexicans,
black people,
poor people
and Muslims.
You said it when the torture facilities opened.
You said it when the videos of cops murdering children surfaced.
You kept quoting that fucking quotation.

Yes, they are now starting to come for you.