Freedom Of Speech In America Is A Pipe Dream

     Way back in 1993 when I was a young man trying to find his way in this world, I owned a record label and managed groups.  One of the groups, The Line, which was a combination of two groups, created a song called "Don't cross the Line!"  This particular song dealt with the abuses that police inflicted upon members of the group, including wrongful imprisonment, beatings, harassment, and the list continues.  Also in this song were lyrics describing the fictional shooting death of a Reno police officer:
"Pop(open)the trunk is what he(police) said but I wouldn't do it, I've got no keys to the lock so you can't get to it,"
"Plus, you've got no good reason to look through my shit, my name is on the papers(registration) and my car's legit"
"He just laughed though, like he heard a joke, reached into his coat and pulled a key(kilo) of coke"
"And said, "Ya, it's what you think, I'm 'bout to set you up, he put a cap(bullet) in my trunk and it opened up,"
"But what he saw he wasn't expecting, he just stood still, because my boy was in the trunk, I told him "SHOOT TO KILL!"
"POP,POP,POP, was the sound to his forehead, three more shots to the chest he's pronounced dead,"
"See cops they break the law, it happens all the time, but this is what happens WHEN THEY CROSS THE LINE!"
     Pretty powerful lyrics written at a time when our country was seeing an extremely high rate of police brutality.  Gangster rap music was a manifestation of the anger minority youths were experiencing from dealing with a justice system and society that was actively and purposely trying to exterminate them through violent tactics and by legal sanctions.  This particular song caused some controversy in Reno, first, getting the attention of the police who then had the album pulled out of a privately owned record store, Mirabelli's.  The owner either felt loyalty to the police department, or was pressured to remove the album.  Either way, there was an active movement to shut this album down.  However, it backfired and more copies were sold, BECAUSE OF THE POLICE ACTIONS.  The owner of Recycled Records allowed me to place my album in his store because he felt our right to freedom of speech was being infringed upon.  Police are such idiots.  Their own fear and hate caused more copies to be sold than probably would've been had they not have brought any attention to the album.

     There were repercussions though.  After the smoke settled, I had detectives following my family and I for a period of time.  I remember being arrested for disturbing the peace, which I was not, and police slamming me into the back of the squad car laughing and saying, "hey, you can write a song about this too!"  Some of the other members of the group also experienced harassment which stemmed from the making of that album.  I had trouble booking venues for any of my groups after that, which cut into my livelihood.  The cost of freedom of speech was high.

     At any rate, this was just a small example of what takes place around the entire nation were rogue groups of people with a little authority are allowed to suppress the rights and voices of those who have no authority.  America was founded on a set of ideals and principles that were to allow people to pursue a life of freedom and happiness, but you've got to read the fine print at the bottom of the constitution:

                                                                                              

                                                                                             You've got to be the right color!