Ninety Days

Ninety Days [Intro — lone acoustic guitar, fiddle enters bar 3, dusty and slow] [acoustic guitar riff x4] [fiddle enters bar 3 low] [dobro slide underneath] [808 kick soft bar 5] [Verse 1 — first person narrator, cold, factual, southern drawl, receipts only] Let me tell you bout a man named Arganbright Westminster police officer on the night He picked up a woman handcuffed from the hospital Drove her home Pulled over Made her get out On the hood of that patrol car Still in cuffs Still in cuffs Then he handed her his card Said call me sometime Like he did not just do what he did She went back to the hospital The next morning And told them what happened He pleaded guilty Unlawful sexual contact Official misconduct Both misdemeanors Both The judge gave him ninety days Ninety days And four years probation For that [Pre-Chorus — fiddle rises, 808 kick doubles, trap hi-hats lock in] Now I want you to hold that number in your head Ninety days Hold it right there Do not let it go yet We are not done with the math [Chorus — 808 drops hard, banjo chop stabs, fiddle over trap beat, raw and cold] NINETY DAYS FOR RAPE IN CUFFS TWELVE YEARS FOR WORDS ON A PHONE TELL ME HOW THAT MATH WORKS TELL ME WHO THAT SCALE IS FOR ARGANBRIGHT GOT NINETY DAYS ERIC BRANDT GOT TWELVE YEARS ONE MAN USED HIS BODY AS A WEAPON ONE MAN USED HIS MOUTH YOU DO THE MATH YOU DO THE MATH [Drop 1 — 808 hard, banjo stab chops, fiddle riff, no warmth just facts] [808 drop hard] [banjo chop x4] [trap hi-hat roll] [fiddle riff over bass] [breathe cold] [Verse 2 — still cold, still factual, Brandt receipts named against Arganbright] Now Eric Brandt same town Westminster Same department that Arganbright worked Eric rode his bicycle With his sign Two hundred arrests For a sign and a mouth He won court cases Changed the law Made them put body cameras On the very department That Arganbright worked for When he said the wrong words About a judge He got twelve years Twelve years The man who raped a handcuffed woman on his own hood Got ninety days and a treatment program And Eric Brandt got twelve years for words that were wrong but were words Just words [Pre-Chorus — dobro slides hard, snare tightens, something cold arriving] Now I want you to hold both numbers at the same time Ninety days Twelve years Tell me what that says about who this system was built to protect [Chorus — fuller than first, every element locked, harder this time] NINETY DAYS FOR RAPE IN CUFFS TWELVE YEARS FOR WORDS ON A PHONE TELL ME HOW THAT MATH WORKS TELL ME WHO THAT SCALE IS FOR ARGANBRIGHT GOT NINETY DAYS ERIC BRANDT GOT TWELVE YEARS ONE MAN USED HIS BODY AS A WEAPON ONE MAN USED HIS MOUTH YOU DO THE MATH YOU DO THE MATH [Drop 2 — hardest drop in the track, 808 and fiddle collision, banjo stabs wide] [massive 808 drop] [fiddle surge over trap] [banjo stab x6] [dobro slide bar 4] [one beat silence] [full return cold and wide] [Bridge — harmonica and dobro only, narrator quiet and direct] I am not saying what Eric said was right I am saying ninety days and twelve years do not exist in the same justice system They exist in a system that knows whose words to fear and whose body does not count Arganbright walked out in three months The woman he cuffed still had the PTSD The math is not complicated It is just uncomfortable So we put it in a song and let it sit there where nobody can look away from it [Final Chorus — every element, harmonica under the mix, full hick-hop locked] NINETY DAYS FOR RAPE IN CUFFS TWELVE YEARS FOR WORDS ON A PHONE TELL ME HOW THAT MATH WORKS TELL ME WHO THAT SCALE IS FOR ARGANBRIGHT GOT NINETY DAYS ERIC BRANDT GOT TWELVE YEARS ONE MAN USED HIS BODY AS A WEAPON ONE MAN USED HIS MOUTH YOU DO THE MATH YOU DO THE MATH [Outro — acoustic guitar returns alone, fiddle fades last, harmonica holds one note] [acoustic guitar riff x4] [fiddle fades bar 3] [harmonica single note holds] [silence] [one acoustic note] [ninety days]