The speaker is a murderer, probably a serial killer--schizophrenic, or at least suffering from blackouts, as is finally revealed in the last line, "I found a kid's head on my bike." In spite of this proof, he's distanced from his actions, can't handle the truth of what he is, and will not ask himself how the head got there--he chooses to blame the police, asking them to "get out of the sky and stop them."
The first couple of lines show us that the police are looking for a bicyclist, someone who fits this description, which leads me to the serial killer theory--he's done this enough to be caught in the act at some point.
The police shining their lights on the speaker are like stars, which parallels with the killer's own description of himself as "a star with a rocket launcher on my shoulder." The next line, "a placeholder for some inflicter of criminal intent," stresses this parallel: thus, a juxtaposition b/w the police and the lawbreaker is established--they're both symptoms of the same problem. Before the last line of the song, it looks as though the police are wasting their time on the speaker, who criticizes their distance from society, "Why don't you get out of the sky and stop them." This is a criticism of our system of law and government--the police, and society, are so concerned with laws and minutiae (such as arresting potheads and ticketing people for rolling through stop signs) that rapists and killers and other sociopaths get away, literally, with murder. The police do not act to protect us; they are blind agents of the law, thus the separateness and the alienation. The fact that they are higher, in the sky, shows how our government feels about us, the "common" people--they don't care what happens to us.
Of course, though on the surface this song is essentially an urban legend, a retelling of a legend (in which man has an encounter with the supernatural), it is also an extended metaphor (which I've already touched on). There are no werewolves in the literal sense, but there are predators, and they don't have to literally "tear up the children"--they can fuck up society just as easily by raping, pimping, and selling hard drugs such as meth, heroin, and crack to kids.
I love this song.
The speaker is a murderer, probably a serial killer--schizophrenic, or at least suffering from blackouts, as is finally revealed in the last line, "I found a kid's head on my bike." In spite of this proof, he's distanced from his actions, can't handle the truth of what he is, and will not ask himself how the head got there--he chooses to blame the police, asking them to "get out of the sky and stop them."
The first couple of lines show us that the police are looking for a bicyclist, someone who fits this description, which leads me to the serial killer theory--he's done this enough to be caught in the act at some point.
The police shining their lights on the speaker are like stars, which parallels with the killer's own description of himself as "a star with a rocket launcher on my shoulder." The next line, "a placeholder for some inflicter of criminal intent," stresses this parallel: thus, a juxtaposition b/w the police and the lawbreaker is established--they're both symptoms of the same problem. Before the last line of the song, it looks as though the police are wasting their time on the speaker, who criticizes their distance from society, "Why don't you get out of the sky and stop them." This is a criticism of our system of law and government--the police, and society, are so concerned with laws and minutiae (such as arresting potheads and ticketing people for rolling through stop signs) that rapists and killers and other sociopaths get away, literally, with murder. The police do not act to protect us; they are blind agents of the law, thus the separateness and the alienation. The fact that they are higher, in the sky, shows how our government feels about us, the "common" people--they don't care what happens to us.
Of course, though on the surface this song is essentially an urban legend, a retelling of a legend (in which man has an encounter with the supernatural), it is also an extended metaphor (which I've already touched on). There are no werewolves in the literal sense, but there are predators, and they don't have to literally "tear up the children"--they can fuck up society just as easily by raping, pimping, and selling hard drugs such as meth, heroin, and crack to kids.