Barry
Washington
Junior.
Say.
His.
Name.
Barry Washington Junior.
Another soul another
Boy another boy’s
Life another mother’s
baby another father’s
son, another name
another black
body.
“It wasn’t police this time”.
Wasn’t it, though?
Define police—do police only
come in uniforms? In
cars and stations?
Or do they come in
raised pickups with
American flags,
blue lives matter
decals, code for:
we’re watching.
Aka we’re
policing.
Policing is: anything, anyone, that
serves and protects
White Supremacy.
Serves and protects
White Leniency.
The perp, he got out.
Out on $1000
bail. His gun
probably
costs as
much.
Policing is your body believing,
that it needs a gun
to dance.
Needs a gun
to protect your
jealousy your
fragility
when someone
dares
compliment
your girlfriend.
How dare he?
Bang bang.
Sirens. Silence.
White silence.
Bend’s silence.
A culture
of violence
of fear
underneath all that
Patagonia, inside your
sprinter vans, your
REI tents.
“But we vote blue! Or
purple, at least”.
Words mean nothing
anymore, haven’t
you heard? Radical
change, policy,
is the language
we speak.
And
we can’t
understand you.
We can’t
hear you.
Will you learn our language?
This way there’s no more
miscommunications, no more
Black, brown, trans, immigrant
bodies.
In Bend.
Barry Washington Jr. moved to Bend ~1 month ago from the San Francisco Bay Area. He was shot and killed by 27 year old Ian Cranston in downtown Bend, who pulled a permitted concealed weapon after a finished scuffle outside a nightclub and shot Barry to death. Barry had simply complimented Cranston's girlfriend and was reported as not being aggressive or inappropriate. Cranston was arrested and then released on $1000 bail, with a charge of only second degree manslaughter. His first court date is slated for October 5, 2021.