A Song for a City Worker, and the Community That Saved Him
Photo via Gonzalez family
The sun was bright on 56th and Elm,
In the heart of North Long Beach, his local realm.
Ricardo Gonzalez, a working man’s pride,
Took his e-bike out for a Saturday ride.
He’d served the city, he’d put in his time,
Local government work is no crime.
A father, a neighbor, a citizen true,
Just feeling the breeze beneath California blue.
But down from the shadows the federal men came,
The heavy-hand thugs of a ruthless regime.
No flashing lights on their unmarked machine,
The coldest enforcers this city has seen.
They didn’t see service, they didn’t see grace,
Just a man on an e-bike they decided to chase.
A wayward patrol with a mandate of dread,
They rammed him right over, intending to tread.
He hit the hard gutter, the streets he once served,
Met with a violence no man had deserved.
They swarmed him and pinned him, knee to the spine,
The thugs of the state crossing every line.
Two blasts of the Taser, a sickening crack,
As the full weight of tyranny sat on his back.
"My arm is broken!" he screamed from the dirt,
But the agents of ICE didn’t care that he hurt.
Here is a man who worked for the town,
Now chained like a dog and beaten right down.
While local democracy builds up the street,
The US regime brings the boot to the beat.
They claim they bring order, they claim they bring law,
But a gang of state bullies was all that we saw.
Attacking a dad on his neighborhood spin?
In the city of Long Beach, we won’t let them win.
For the people poured out to the scene of the crime,
The neighbors, the city, uniting in time.
From the streets to the Mayor, the rally cry rose:
"Get out of our city, you cowardly foes!"
Rex Richardson stood up and laid down the line,
Demanding these agents be stripped of their shine.
His daughter, his family, the whole town awoke,
To care for the citizen whose arm they had broke.
So sing for Ricardo, who just took a ride,
With the spirit of Long Beach right there by his side.
Let the capital know, let the cruelty see,
You can't break the arm of our community.
The regime may have power, the regime may have might,
But they hit the wrong city on Saturday bright.
We stand with our worker, we stand with our own,
And the heart of Long Beach will never bow down.
