The Man Who Loved Sunsets

By: Bill the Butcher

That’s just the way it is

The desert is full of scorpions. You expect it. They hide from the heat during the day, and forage at night. If you encroach on them, they will encroach on you. That’s just the way it is.

Memphis is full of police. You expect it. They come out at night, to enforce the law. They serve and protect . . . Each other. In the city that gave the world Elvis, the police became scorpions. They came out at night, and foraged. They crumbled up the Bill of Rights, and one young man going home to his mother.

••••

Special Crimes Units

America is tired of violent crime, cartels, active shooters, and perverse behavior. No matter who does it! In 1776 America was tired of the same things. Back in those days it was the British. Now it’s Special Crimes Units. While there may be a reason for these men when going against a Mexican Cartel in Del Rio, but why were they even involved in a simple traffic stop? License and registration please kind of stuff. And why so many? I mean, I know they run in gangs, but are they that weak? God forbid Tyre had a gun, and was a real Home Boy. Then the cops would have been screaming for they mamas, huh?

Policemen (and women). are human. Well, mostly. They have good days, and bad days. Good calls, and bad ones. Those who became law enforcement for the right reasons, and those who have an axe to grind. The officers who stop a speeding motorist and end up delivering a baby in the back seat of the car . . . and then there are the ones who kill a citizen while he’s going home to his mother. More popularly known as systemic racism.

••••

The division of America

The division of America has gone far enough! When a young man is murdered by a street gang on his way home it doesn’t matter if you call the gang The Bloods, or Sinaloa, or Scorpions! The song remains the same, and dead is dead! And here come the opinions. I had breakfast with an idiot yesterday who was justifying the perpetrators of The Murder in Memphis. He actually told me this was only one incident. Crime in Memphis was out of control, and the cops had good reason to act like that. All I could think of was the fact that I was paying for this jack ass’s breakfast, and then found out that his wife was putting food from the buffet in her purse to take home for later. God Bless ‘Murica!

••••

With a long tall tree an five short pieces of rope

I’m just A Simple Ol’ Boy From Austin, but I could save the State of Tennessee a lot of money with a long tall tree and five short pieces of rope! Then there’d be a few less Scorpions prowling the streets looking for victims. Did that hurt your feelings? Did that chase you to your safe rooms. Tyre’s mother didn’t have a safe room. Her safe room is in some Memphis Funeral home, and in the words of Lisa Presley, another Memphis mother, you never get over this particular kind of grief. A mother’s loss of her child never goes away. Lisa rests beside her son today. Tyre’s mother will lay beside her’s after the lawyers construct a defense for the indefensible!

Today is Sunday. A day of rest. A day of prayer. Pray for Memphis. Pray for America. Pray for yourselves. This is not going to go away. It will only get worse. When Scorpions become Officer O’Malley again the tide may begin to turn, but it will never go away, and Tyre will never come up out of the ground. Only one man did that, after licensed police officers killed Him. Two thousand years later they are still a bunch of Pharisees misinterpreting the letter of man’s law and the spirit of G-d’s law, but it’s a short walk from G-d to G-d Damn! May G-d Damn those men who murdered that boy! To serve and protect! My Texas ass!