Beyond Boundaries pt. 2: Complex, Sagon Penn, and Police Brutality
This second excerpt from Professor Mychal Odom’s essay, “Beyond Boundaries: The History, Culture and Politics of San Diego Gangsta Rap,” examines music from Complex of the E-Mortal Gang. Odom speaks on Complex’s critique of police brutality and illuminates us on the story of Sagon Penn.
Yesterday’s excerpt focused on Gangsta Ern and the history of street gangs in San Diego. You can download the essay in full by clicking here. If you’d like to contact Odom, you can reach him via Facebook here.
Complex ft. Big Will “SDPDK”
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Complex “Face The Nation”
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Two intriguing extensions of [the "rap as social critique"] tradition were “SDPDK” and “Face the Nation” by Complex. In the “nine-to-five” world, Complex doubles as Jermaine Simpson, a social worker with a BA in Sociology and M.Ed. in Counseling. His family and friends are affiliated with the West Coast Crips Rollin 30s and Neighborhood Crips Rollin’ 40s. He uses his professional, personal and familial relationships as inspiration for his music. In “SDPDK,” Complex (accompanied by Big Will) questions who the real threat to the community is. “SDPDK” highlights the San Diego Police Department’s history of corruption and abuse. In the second verse, Complex warns:
Look out for the Boys in Blue, not the Crips but the cops
The niggas that bust shots and run niggas off the blocks
Keep they shit cocked and ready for niggas that clock fetti
When we see the Babylons we break, like Rocksteady
They got heavy artillery/Work for Bill and Hillary
And SWATs comin’ deep wit’ they mind set on killin’ me …
They trained to kill Blacks then hide the facts, cover they tracks
Plant keys of cocaine in niggas ‘lacs
Wit’ a knack for using excessive force, quick triggers
Kick your door down and send the dog in to sic niggas.
Furthermore, Complex uses this song to chronicle a series of high-profiled accounts of police-brutality and officer-related shootings brought on by two decades of over policing. “SDPDK” and “Face the Nation” make reference to the cases of Demetrius Dubose, William Miller and Sagon Penn. On 24 July 1999, Dubose, a Notre Dame Alumnus and former NFL player, was shot twelve times by the police, including five bullets in the back. William Miller, a 42 year-old mentally disabled man, was shot to death by the San Diego police for reportedly hitting people with a stick on 8 February 2000. Interestingly, Miller was not Black but many people felt that his status of being homeless and mentally disabled rendered him non-white and undesirable. Similarly, Big Will asked, “They killed ‘Homeless Joe’ for carrying a stick; he [wasn’t] a threat to a pinky toe. What the fuck? Do you shoot first and ask questions later? What makes your life greater than the average couch potato?” Big Will concludes, by saying if the police attempt to assault him, he would use force to protect himself echoing the case of Sagon Penn.
Sagon Penn is nothing less than a folk-hero for Blacks in San Diego and other parts of California. On 31 March 1985, Penn was pulled by officers Thomas Riggs and Donovan Jacobs of the San Diego Police because he “fit the description” of an armed gang member they were looking for. However, the 23 year-old Penn was not a gang member and unarmed yet the officers continued to harass Penn. Penn decided to walk away. While he was walking away, Officer Jacobs attacked Penn, a well trained martial artist, from the back. In self-defense, Penn began to wrestle with Jacobs. During the scuffle Penn grabbed ahold of Jacobs’ pistol and fired shots at Jacobs, Riggs and Sara Pena-Ruiz a civilian ride-along. Pena-Ruiz and Jacobs were injured while Riggs died.
Penn’s trial was taken to court where he was found to be acting in self-defense. It was also found that Riggs and Jacobs had a long history of biased policing. Unfortunately, despite his acquittal Penn experienced continuous harassment from the police. On 4 July 2002, Penn committed suicide. Penn’s family and pastor were saddened and essentially felt his life had been forever changed by from the shooting incident in 1985 and expressed sympathy for him. Contrarily, Bill Farrar, president of the San Diego Police Officer’s Association declared, “The world is better off without him.”
This case was larger than Penn and the San Diego Police Department. It was the summation of decades of loose-gripped policies that turned a blind eye to possible infractions as long as “bad guys” were brought in. As explained earlier, these policies did not simply intimidate criminals. The Demetrius Dubose, William Miller and Sagon Penn cases and countless others all work as examples of how entire populations experienced the over-policing of their bodies and space.
Be sure to download the entire essay in PDF above. And I know I said there’d be three excerpts but I’m just going with two now.
Reading be fun though:
