He was acquitted by his peers,
The man who shot Philando,
And put a stop to all his years,
The man who killed Philando,
For (so the solemn jury said)
When panic filled his fearful head
He had to shoot Philando dead,
The man who shot Philando.
Why was he armed, the traffic cop,
The man who shot Philando?
So ill-equipped to make that stop,
The cop who killed Philando?
Philando, deferential, cool,
Obeyed instruction, not a fool,
Yet ended in a bloody pool
As bullets claimed Philando.
Acquitted by his peers, perhaps,
The man who killed Philando,
“Another one of life’s mishaps”
His killing of Philando,
Yet jury verdicts falling wide
Cannot conceal the rift inside,
Nor human conscience will abide
The murder of Philando.
A man’s acquittal by the Court,
The man who killed Philando,
As though it were a deadly sport,
The killing of Philando,
Was never justifiable,
However laws be pliable—
Armed cops proved unreliable
By more than one “Philando.”
What small infringement, what mistake
Is worthy execution?
Nor any did Philando make,
Yet death by execution
Deprived him of all life for good,
Of kinship, love, and fatherhood,
By what injustice, understood
Revealed in execution.
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