the lyrics refer to an incident in England on 17 May 1989 where the police were pursuing a youth called Nicholas Bramble, who was riding a moped, in the mistaken belief that he had stolen the moped. Bramble lost control of the moped (which it turns out was his) in the chase, and crashed it, killing himself. His death was ruled accidental, but O’Connor felt that the police, a “representative of state authority”, caused his death, and the incident (re)sparked accusations of racism in the police force, on the grounds that the police would not have assumed that the youth had stolen the bike, or pursued him so aggressively, had he been white.
I grabbed this bit of a web page ..
the lyrics refer to an incident in England on 17 May 1989 where the police were pursuing a youth called Nicholas Bramble, who was riding a moped, in the mistaken belief that he had stolen the moped. Bramble lost control of the moped (which it turns out was his) in the chase, and crashed it, killing himself. His death was ruled accidental, but O’Connor felt that the police, a “representative of state authority”, caused his death, and the incident (re)sparked accusations of racism in the police force, on the grounds that the police would not have assumed that the youth had stolen the bike, or pursued him so aggressively, had he been white.