The Blue Shadows at Night
em = By Peter Hicks and Geoff Francis
Rodney King was driving home on the freeway one night,
He was guilty of nothing, 'cept not being white,
There were four of LA's finest there, out to have fun,
So for this Black American the nightmare begun.
And the video was seen on the TV worldwide,
Fifty-six baton blows and boots in his head,
Unconscious and bleeding, King lay there on the ground,
But the cops kept right at it, like blood-hungry hounds.
For the cops dress in blue, while the Klan dress in white,
'Cause it's harder to see the blue shadows at night,
With these race-hating lynch-mobs all sanctioned by law,
It leaves me asking what Martin Luther King died for.
And the police chief said what his men did was right,
They'd only been keeping the streets safe at night,
It's always the same when their own commit crime,
It's a choice between anarchy and their thin blue line.
And the scales of justice, they were loaded and stacked,
There were twelve on the jury, not one of them black,
And the court gave its verdict, it's never a sin
To beat up on a man with the wrong coloured skin.
For the cops dress in blue, while the Klan dress in white ...
Yeah, and on their acquittal, the cops stood outside,
They were leering and laughing, not for the first time,
But a fuse had been lit, and a blaze was to start,
That would ignite this nation and burn out its heart.
And watching them all on TV, Rodney King,
In a one-room apartment his life is locked in,
He's been beaten and broken, he's afraid to go out,
'Cause he never knows when there's blue shadows about.
For the cops dress in blue, while the Klan dress in white ...
And the president called for respect for the law,
For the law that rains terror on the black and the poor,
For the law that looks after the wealthy and strong
And keeps everyone else where they're told they belong.
Now your cities are blazing and the flames reach the sky,
And it's fear that I see in the whites of your eyes,
'Cause you've built a whole nation on bigotry and hate,
You've had time enough to change it, now I think you're too late.
For the cops dress in blue, while the Klan dress in white ...