I wrote this song in the summer of 2016 amidst all of the shooting, killings, and violent actions taken out on innocent men and women of color by police officers. There seems to be little to no accountability for these horrendous acts and no real way to protect oneself.
You can obey orders and still be gunned down,
You can be smoking in your own car and be thrown from your vehicle onto the ground and arrested for refusing to put it out.
You can be broken down in the street and be approached and shot.
You can be helping a person with special needs and still be shot at.
You can be detained and shot in the back while handcuffed.
You can be selling music in front of a convenience store (with the owner's permission) and be tackled to the ground, shot and killed.
You can be suffocated for selling cigarettes.
You can explain that you are reaching for your firearm and license and be shot and killed in front of your woman and child.
You can send your son out to play with a toy gun and never see him alive again.
You can walk through Wal-Mart and mind your business and just because someone deems you as suspicious, it can cost you your life.
You can be walking down the street with candy and be shot by someone who is not trained, nor certified to serve and protect and he can get off free with a slap on the wrist.
You can be shot dead in the middle of the street lying face down on cement and receive no medical attention because the person holding the gun thought his life was in danger.
You can be beaten up as an off duty officer by your own colleagues.
You can be handcuffed and thrown into the back of a police van with no seat belt or care and have your spine severed...
And these are only the few cases that have been broad-casted on national television, not including the cases that are never brought to light and reported. Yet and still, very little has been done.
If anything, the killings are insensitively justified or dismissed by comparing it to "black on black" crime (that's an entirely different discussion), or talking about what that person did to get in trouble in the first place. Walking down the street in a hoodie and holding skittles, playing outside with a toy gun, selling cigarettes, failing to signal when turning, walking around Wal-Mart, cooperating with officers, or an number of examples, both included and not, should never cost anyone their life.
It doesn't matter if you obey the law, how "civil" you are, how educated,whether you have a wife and children, whether you communicate what you're doing, whether you're recording the entire incident... lives are lost and blood is shed... and there is still no justice.
I wrote this song to express how helpless and hopeless I can feel.
lyrics
We don't want no problems
We're just tryna live
Afraid to leave my house and
Our kids can't just be kids
Can you hear the cries in the air?
The coldest summer nights
I don't know where I'm living
They say "land of the free"
I admit that I've been ignorant
'False sense of security
See the blood on pavement?
The coldest summer nights
I understand it's just a song
No melody can right these wrongs
Helpless, I'm so Helpless
Life is gone within a blink
They've got guns but they don't think
Helpless, Lord Their Helpless
Afraid to show you scare me,
'Afraid to look too proud
Afraid to be alone with you
but there's no ease in crowds
Hear the gunshots fire?
The coldest summer nights
I understand it's just a song
No melody can right these wrongs
Save us, Lord Save us
We're running out -- there are no choices
We have words, but don't have voices
Save Us, Lord, Save us
"Hands up, don't shoot!"
They still kill you
(Save Us, Save Us)
No scare tactics needed
I saw him slain and bleeding
There's nothing to prevent this
(It's just a song)
Nothing I can do
(Can right these wrongs)
"Hands up, don't shoot!"
They still kill you
(Save Us, Save Us)
No scare tactics needed
I saw her scared and pleading
There's nothing to prevent this
(It's just a song)
There's nothing I can do
credits
released January 26, 2017
written and produced by: Alecia Renece
Mixed by: Jamiel Cal-Pin
hi there! my name is Alecia and I am an artist whose mission is to tell the truth, create space for vulnerability and
healing within my music, and spreading love to beautiful folks like you. One song at a time.
As long as there is breath in my body, there will be a song on my lips.
supported by 19 fans who also own “Coldest Summer Nights”
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