There's blacks with knives and whites with guns
fighting in Howard Beach
There's no such thing as human rights
when you walk the N.Y. streets
A cop was shot in the head by a 10 year old kid named Buddah in
Central Park last week
The fathers are lined up by
the coffins by the Statue of Bigotry
You better hold on something's happening here
You better hold on---meet you in Tompkins Square
The dopers sent a message to the cops last weekend
They shot him in the car where he sat
And Eleanor Bumpres and Michael Stewart must have appreciated that
There's a rampaging rage rising up like a plague of bloody vials
washing up on the beach
It'll take more than the Angels or Iron Mike Tyson
to heal this bloody breach
A junkie ran down a lady a pregnant dancer
she'll never dance but the baby was saved
He shot up some China White and nodded out at the wheel
and he doesn't even remember a thing
They shot that old lady
'cause they thought she was a witness
to a crime she didn't even see
Whose home is the home of the brave by the Statue of Bigotry
You got a black .38 and a gravity knife
You still have to ride the train
There's the smelly essence of N.Y. down there
but you ain't no Bernard Goetz
There's no Mafia lawyer
to fight in your corner
for that 15 minutes of fame
The have and the have nots are bleeding in the tub
That's New York's future not mine
Oh you better hold on---something's happening here.

Copyright: Songtrust Ave, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Writer(s): LOU REED