Tough On Crime
Tune: I've Been Working on the Railroad
Songwriter: Nora Freeman
Gaggle: New York City Metro
Business & Economy Human & Civil Rights
You’ve been serving time in prison
For lo, these many long years
Too bad you didn’t snort powdered coke
Like the Wall Street billionaires
You’re not jailed for rape or murder
Or other atrocities
You didn’t do the widespread fraud
That crashed our economy
You’re black and you smoked crack
Now you’re never coming back
You’re far away from home
We got tough on crime
You’re doing lots of time
Many miles from home
The prison-industrial complex
Keeps the upstate economy going
It gets its raw materials
From inner-city neighborhoods
This, is, the war on drugs
It’s eating young people of color alive
Bust those laws wide ohhh-pen
This has got to stop