Certain Kind of Monster by Bad Cop, Bad Cop (2020)

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Bad Cop Bad Cop Deliver Politics and Positivity

An American pop punk band, Bad Cop/Bad Cop released a song, Certain Kind of Monster as a direct response to Shaun King’s Instagram, a clip of a family being raided by ICE, “It’s hard to explain how angry it makes me feel and how sad it makes me feel for them. Noticing the refugee crisis, and the people coming from Central and South America trying to flee their country—because they are in a position where they have to, and have no other choice…If you don’t know what that’s like, you should be more compassionate to their situation. I think I would have talked about it regardless of whether my family had their own story or not. This topic, and the intensity of the situation, is still swept under the rug," Linh Le said. [1] [2]

Key Lyrics

How can you justify

Destroying all their lives

When all they want to do is thrive

Don’t take them away

From all their families

Give them another chance to stay alive

It takes a certain kind of monster

To force someone, out of their home

Will you wake up, and join the resistance?

Or deny them their existence

You don’t have to sink so low just because you’ve been told

Tell me how can you get through your day

Knowing that you are involved in the raids

Unlawful rules you don’t have to obey

The choice is yours to make, let’s hope it’s not inhumane [3]

Black Empowerment

The song’s final moments are powerful along with the repetition lines of “Don’t call people illegal / When they’ve done nothing wrong.”

“America has a long history of racism and that permeates into the way that people are treating immigrants and refugees coming into this country,” Said Le. “While this song touches on a specific comparison, its overall message was to try and humanize refugees and immigrants so people can understand that they all deserve a chance at the better life that they’re desperately seeking.” [4]

The song shows disgust at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids, the word “illegals” are taken away from their families, as well as their homes, it shows on the song’s line “Don’t call people illegal, when they’ve been here all along.” [5]

The song also can relate to the current situation towards police and Black Lives Matter, though the song was originally written about two ICE agents who separating families and putting babies in cages, it was confirmed by one of the personnels, Dee in an interview, “All this needs to stop. Trump is a fucking piece of shit and anybody that backs him probably is too. But it has opened up the conversation in this country, and now marginalized people are speaking up and demanding equality greater than it’s ever been. I believe that we really are at the crux of change here — finally, some real change. I saw stuff in the ‘90s and people weren’t ready.” [6]

References

  1. Certain Kind of Monster Bad Cop/Bad Cop. Genius. Retrieved January 19, 2021
  2. Bad Cop/Bad Cop. Wikipedia. Retrieved January 19, 2021
  3. Certain Kind of Monster Bad Cop/Bad Cop. Genius. Retrieved January 19, 2021
  4. Briggs, D'Arcy. Bad Cop Bad Cop Deliver Politics and Positivity. August 1, 2020. Retrieved January 19, 2021
  5. Macdonald, Lesley. BAD COP/BAD COP – ‘THE RIDE’ (FAT WRECK CHORDS). Uber-Rock. June 19, 2020. Retrieved January 19, 2021
  6. Callwood, Brett. BAD COP/BAD COP FIGHT FOR THE MARGINALIZED WHILE PRACTICING SELF-LOVE. LA Weekly. July 2, 2020. Retrieved January 19, 2021