The policemen of the city wear a uniform of blue

Walkin' within the city's border

Protecting all the people

That's what they're paid to do,

Maintaining law and order.



You see them walkin' down the street

Swingin' around the club

Pistols hangin' loosely from the holster

And the something of the soldier

In the shedding of the blood

Maintaining law and order.



And at the police academy

They're trainin' for the day

Where the rookies are training to be colder

Learning to be as hard as the hard world they face

Maintaining law and order.



Now in many southern cities

They don't need to use their hands

Oh, they throw them roughly in the corner

And tell the other prisoners "here's a nigger-lovin' man"

While maintaining law and order.



Now i'll be the first to tell you

That their pay is not the best

For they all have a wife and must support her

So the gamblers and the prostitutes pay them the rest

While they maintain law and order.



These are bitter words of warning

And they have to leave you sad

Cause a cop may save my life tomorrow

But it's really for the good man that i'm singing about the bad

Who are maintaining law and order.



Now they ask for greater power

From the bottom to the top

Their demands daily growing bolder

But who maintain the police and who maintain the cops

While they maintain law law and order.




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