A bad dude with his hands up

"Looks like a bad dude," one officer said to another,
     watching the scene from far away.

"Have to make quick decisions in this line of work, you know."

"Never know what he might have been planning."

And so, they watched --
    from afar --
       as an innocent man,
          with his hands up,
               hung on a cross, dying
                     on a grim hill in Palestine.

And it was only a soldier closer,
    with blood
        spattered on their uniform,
              who muttered the truth
                   perhaps under their breath:

"Truly, this was a Child of God."

---
On Friday, 16 September 2016, yet another unarmed black man -- Terence Crutcher -- was killed by police in Tulsa, OK. An officer watching the scene from a helicopter can be heard in a video referring to Mr. Crutcher, a father of 4, community college student, and member of his church choir, as a "bad dude." On Saturday, a spokesperson for the police department stated: "Every situation is different. Officers are involved in typically fast-moving situations, and officers who choose to use force, base (those decisions) on the situation involved that they are facing."