by Susan Vespoli
I want to thank you for the 126-page report
you finally released after three years
of gathering evidence
about Phoenix cops who bully
the homeless, teargas
protesters, taunt, “Let’s
jack ‘em up dude, fuck it,”
and “Hit ‘em, hit ‘em, fuck ‘em,
hit ‘em” while firing 1,000s
of Pepperballs into crowds like it’s a sport.
A sergeant’s ecstatic, “Holy crap,
we’ve got peeps.” Gagging. Choking.
Tasers. Attack dogs. “Nice job, boys.”
Challenge coins imprinted with testicles
and the words: Make America Great
Again One Nut at a Time.
False statements and bogus felony
charges, arresting the unhoused
for sleeping, slamming them to the ground
like I watched them do to my now dead
son on body cam after he said, “We didn’t
do anything wrong.” I want to scream
YES, THEY DO to City of Phoenix
council members who say the police
don’t need oversight
but I just had skin cancer
removed as the report was released,
a swath of squamous cells that ironically
spread across the flesh above my heart
and I am just so tired
of meanness.
And I am trying to heal.
Susan Vespoli writes from Phoenix, AZ, where she has experienced firsthand the brutality of Phoenix cops and the denial of City of Phoenix. Oh, let the DOJ's report make a difference in how future humans are treated by the police.
