Jose-Campos-Torres-Tyre-Nichols…

QUIT PLAYIN’

BY VINCENT L. HALL

“I had said I wasn't going to write no more poems like this.

I had confessed to myself all along, tracer of life, poetry trends,

That awareness, consciousness, poems that screamed of pain and the origins of pain and death had blanketed my tablets. But brother Torres, common ancient bloodline brother Torres is dead!

Gil Scott-Heron - Jose Campos Torres

While I grappled with the kidnapping and execution of Tyre Nichols in Memphis, Tennessee, my mind sped toward the words of Gil Scott-Heron. Heron's 1978 album, "The Mind of Gil Scott-Heron," featured the iconic and symphonic soliloquy, "Jose Campos Torres."

Let me refresh the Boomers' memories while enlightening the spirits of Generations X, Y, and Z! Here’s the short version of it.

In 1977, Jose Campos Torres, a 23-year-old Vietnam veteran, was beaten to death by White Houston police officers. After the guilty verdict was rendered, the officers were sentenced to a one-year probation and a $1 fine. The public outcry was deafening, and Gil summarized it in a poem/song. But the story was so much more profound.

Check out a fuller version from Wikipedia.

“Jose Campos Torres returned home to Houston after completing three tours in Viet

Nam with an elite combat unit. Like many of his Chicano peers, he came to detest the way Houston police authorities treated "Mexicans."

On May 5, 1977, when Alberto Vela, the owner of the 21 Club, called the police to remove Torres from their bar, six different officers arrived to subdue and detain him. After he demonstrated some resistance to this order, the six of- report. A few days later, the police found his body floating in the bayou, catalyzing a series of protests and petitions from Mexican American organizations across the political spectrum.”

I had said I wasn’t going to write down no more articles like this. I said it after Tamir Rice and George Floyd, and Botham Jean, and I will say it again.