Glass Ceiling Records

Now Is the Time — GCR Song Profile

Song Title: Now Is the Time
Artist: Protyus
Release Context: A bass‑and‑drums metal ballad from It’s Messy, written as a direct indictment of the lethal intersection between policing and mental health crises. It sits in the “systemic harm exposure” arc — the songs that refuse silence and force listeners to confront the structural violence baked into everyday life.
Core Themes: state violence, neurodivergent vulnerability, systemic neglect, community responsibility, urgency
Emotional Function: Channels outrage into clarity, giving listeners a framework for understanding why these deaths keep happening and why reform requires more than individual accountability.

Survivor Literacy Lens:

Signal: “People in crisis are being hunted, not helped.”
System: The policing apparatus that interprets confusion, stimming, dementia, or panic as threat — and uses force as the default response.
Repair: Naming the need for alternative responders, de‑escalation teams, and community‑based safety models that don’t criminalize mental illness.

Why It Resonates:
Listeners recognize the pattern: the glitchy body cams, the “noncompliance” narrative, the cover‑ups, the excuses, the families left grieving. The song articulates what many feel but struggle to say — that the system is functioning exactly as designed, and that vulnerable people pay the price. It becomes a rallying cry for those who have seen these stories repeat endlessly.

For New Listeners:
This track shows the “metal‑truth‑telling” side of your catalog — the songs that blend raw emotion with structural critique, using heaviness and rhythm to carry the weight of the message without numbing it.

Best For:

protest playlists
processing anger into clarity
anyone who’s witnessed institutional harm and needed language for it

GCR Notes:
The metal ballad structure gives the lyrics gravity without sacrificing intelligibility. The repeated refrain “Now’s the time” functions as both a warning and a call to action, anchoring the track as one of your most urgent pieces in the It’s Messy cycle.

Lyrics

Now is the Time 

Another battle between Mental Health and Police 

Is lost on our streets 

Using any excuse in their hunt for those failing “normalcy” 

More lives ending 

More defending 

Of the bullies with badges that sought out that life 

So, they have excuses, and the law to hide behind 

 

A law that’s blind  

demanding silence 

Law that’s far behind the times and 

How on Earth do we refine it 

Let’s draw the line then 

 

There’s never a convenient time to break with reality 

Doesn’t happen in opportune moments of safety 

But someone calls the cops to come on the scene 

And it gets messy 

 

An autistic doesn’t fare well in a school shooting 

A target for both sides if your stims are self-soothing 

Triggered responses aren’t compliant enough 

Before understanding of what the situation was 

 

Dementia steals minds 

Leaving them absent minded 

It's confusion not defiance 

So beaten and broken without a trial then 

How do the badges face her family and friends 

And still their actions they defend 

We don’t give a shit about your evidence 

You’re telling me 13 dollars and some cents 

Is worthy of your offense 

Fuck this 

Systemic ignorance  

is not bliss 

And the stories like this  

are endless 

 

Cops on the scene 

Body cameras somehow glitchy 

Trigger finger feeling itchy 

Any excuse and it starts twitching 

You’re only hope is a smart phone 

Someone walking by so you’re not alone 

Someone to stop and take video 

Taking risks with the life their own 

 

Bystanders affected 

Responsibility no longer deflected 

A community must get involved 

Before this problem can be solved 

But how do we oppose the system’s enforcers 

Who treat taking lives like it’s a daily chore? 

Who spent centuries building the system that bore them? 

 

It’s 2021, and don’t we know better 

Than to think “Safety,” somehow means a cop on every corner? 

If instead a social worker had shown up to get her 

Probably would not have been such a horror 

We’re talking about someone who needed some help 

Instead, they saw weakness and put her through hell 

 

The cover up goes on for months, over and over again 

How many more to be sacrificed, in a system that is broken? 

 

The solutions are right there before us 

Echoing loud like a chorus 

We need a team of responders 

Who deescalate in ways that are harmless, 

 

Until then the mentally ill are targets 

These badges need a harness 

It’s long overdue that we downsize 

The force put in place to terrorize 

Why is it so hard to empathize 

And do what’s right? 

Now’s the time 

Now's the time

We have to make this right

Now is the time