Not to defend Zantzinger, who clearly had some problems, but the song isn't really about him. It's about injustice and corrupt government.

"The time for your tears" is not when you hear about the attack and arrest, and not when you hear background information on the attacker or the victim, but when you learn how the justice system handled a murder when the killer was white, wealthy, and well-connected and the victim was black.

The recent HBO TV series "The Wire" is about present-day corruption in Baltimore. Apparently it's racially integrated now, but at least as bad as it was when Hattie Carroll was killed.