Many brilliant and painful songs, which documented injustices in society and even implied a certain level of police compliance (like Strange Fruit or The Death of Emmett Till and others), have become anthems for resistance to police (like Get Up, Stand Up by Bob Marley), but weren't originally intended as such, and so are not included on this list.

Every song that follows was written and performed to tell a story about police injustice in one form or another. They span the globe.

Starting first with a 1958 performance by Paul Robeson and followed by one of the boldest performances of the 20th century in "Mississippi Goddam" by Nina Simone and moving on to a blues song of a police murder in Jim Crow Alabama and on through many rock and folk anthems of the '70s and '80s in the United States, South Africa, and the UK, early police protest songs tended to tell one story about one very particular incident of police brutality. But in 1988 when NWA released "Fuck the Police," everything changed. Perhaps the most controversial song of the 1980s, "Fuck the Police" gave hip hop artists full permission to boldly describe what life was like under the often brutal thumb of police in inner city America. With a confidence never before found in American music, rappers simultaneously told stories of injustice and let you know, in no uncertain terms, how they felt about it.

These songs give voice to people who feel that those who are paid to protect them have violated a sacred trust. Jump below the fold for the list.