Free Speech

He exercised free speech
To say he’d been denied free speech
There are things, he said, I’m not allowed to say

And then he said them anyway

We told him, you can say anything you want to say
There’s just one thing you really ought to know
If you set out to harm somebody else with your words
Then we reserve the right to tell you so

He said, oh

But there are crime crimes
Things that I know to be a crime
Then there are hate crimes
That I’m not sure are actually a crime

We took our time

If your crime’s linked to the colour of your poor victim’s skin
Or motivated by the relationship they’re in
Then what you did is a crime just the same
It’s just your hate has given it a name

But then, he said, there’s non-crime hate
We just said, mate
It’s your hate that you should be working on

He balled his fists, he stamped his feet
He said, you see, there’s no free speech
And with the rattle of a red pill
He was gone