Sometimes Blue Knights Wear Black Hats is a poetry collection by William E. Waters examining law-enforcement excesses, institutional power, race, accountability, and the human consequences of misconduct carried out under authority of the state.
About the Collection
Many poems were inspired by actual cases. The collection examines encounters between individuals and law-enforcement institutions, asking what happens when authority, legitimacy, violence, fear, race, and accountability collide. Within Waters’s larger criminal-justice body of work, the book approaches state power through the compression and moral urgency of poetry.
National Poetry Series Recognition
An earlier version of the manuscript was among the finalists in the 2000 National Poetry Series competition. The published collection was issued by AuthorHouse in 2013.
Major Themes
- Law-enforcement power and misconduct
- Race and criminal justice
- State authority and individual vulnerability
- Violence, accountability, and public trust
- Law, morality, and institutional legitimacy
Related Writing on Ezwwaters.com
The site’s extensive Blue Knights archive includes “About the Book — Sometimes Blue Knights Wear Black Hats”, “A Bibliography of Police Misconduct for Sometimes Blue Knights Wear Black Hats”, and individual poems including “Stolen Lives”.
Publication Details
Author: William E. Waters
Genre: Poetry collection
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Publication: March 2013
Length: 88 pages
Distinction: Earlier manuscript finalist, 2000 National Poetry Series competition
ISBN-10: 1481722867
ISBN-13: 9781481722865
Also known as: William Eric Waters
William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters 