“Protect and Serve” & Police Accountability

In Truth’s music video “Protect and Serve” Truth expresses how he experienced altercations with the New Orleans Police Department in his earlier years while living here. He continues to support police accountability and believes that police should be responsible for their actions. His life growing up in New Orleans and his strive to express his life in his music is presented here in a cumulative collaboration of information gathered from the web.

Truth is originally born Tajiri Kamauin in Diego Martin, Trinidad; he moved to the Big Easy in 1977 at age four. Initially wanting to DJ, he dove head first into hip-hop culture in the mid-‘80s. His parents’ tastes in political reggae and calypso, including that of Mighty Sparrow, Calypso Rose, and Bob Marley, informed his hip-hop collection and guided him towards artists influenced by the Islamic Five Percent Nation.

Truth uses personal experiences and observation to put this professional educational analysis into perspective. On the creation of the song and video Truth says, “I’ve been through quite a bit with police growing up in New Orleans. I’ve had firsthand experience with everything from outright harassment and assault, to wrongful incarceration at the hands of NOPD officers. It’s easy to write an F…The Police (anti-police) song being Black, (to whatever degree) disadvantaged, and a resident of New Orleans. I wanted to bring something different to the table, and I feel I accomplished that by presenting the incidents in the song, questioning police motives, and attempting to intelligently answer those XXXX questions.”

Truth Universal’s “Serve & Protect” music video is heavy on the content and visuals depict a gripping companion piece. Protect and Serve focuses on police accountability and examines the roles of police forces in the United Sates and around the world. The song is based on the book, The Velvet Glove and the Iron Fist: An Analysis of U.S. Police by Tony Platt et al. The book is a highly informative history and now classic analysis of the U.S. police from a critical perspective. It addresses all aspects of the subject, from special weapons teams and political surveillance to pacification programs and women on patrol.

Truth cites October 22^nd as the National Day of Action Against Police Brutality and Terrorism. In honor of this day, he has released his music video Protect and Serve just in time. The October 22 Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation has been mobilizing every year since 1996 for a National Day of Protest on October 22, bringing together those under the gun and those not under the gun as a powerful voice to expose the epidemic of police brutality. http://www.october22.org/index.html

Police accountability involves holding both individual police officers, as well as law enforcement agencies responsible for effectively delivering basic services of crime control and maintaining order, while treating individuals fairly and within the bounds of law. Police are expected to uphold laws, regarding due process, search and seizure, arrests, discrimination, as well as other laws relating to equal employment, sexual harassment, etc. In a democratic society, the political process and elected officials serve to keep the police accountable and that they reflect the “will of the people”. In turn, holding police accountable is important for maintaining the public’s “faith in the system”.

Truth has dedicated this song to all of those who have been wrongfully victimized by police. Most of all, this song and video is dedicated to those innocent citizens who have lost their lives at the hands of the police.

Citations:

Universal, Truth New Orleans Hip Hop Artist Universal’s ‘ Protect and Serve Video Release Tuesday, October 26, 2010 readersupportednews.org/…/3737-new

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police accountability

music.aol.com/artist/truth-universal/biography

http://www.october22.org/index.html