Stop Snitchin'

[Pangloss]

60 Minutes ran a fascinating piece this past week about the movement, primarily in poor African American communities, called "Stop Snitchin'". The general idea of this movement, which has widespread support, is to stop people from cooperating with police in any way, from plea agreements to eyewitness testimony.

 

You can watch the entire 13-minute video segment at this URL:

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?channel=60Sunday

 

A "print" version of the story is available here:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/19/60minutes/main2704565.shtml

 

The Wikipedia has a writeup of the phenomenon here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_snitchin

 

The 60 Minutes story featured video clips of rapper after rapper passing the slogan on not only in their music lyrics, but also during interviews and awards ceremony speeches.

 

This isn't just something that a few malcontents are playing around with. It's a real influence on the community. Fortunately it's being opposed by some in mainstream black leadership. But it's also being ignored by other black leaders.

 

One of the more interesting aspects of it is the charge of corporate involvement. Rappers can get away with this, essentially, because the music industry polices itself through its content ratings system, which ostensibly warns parents of dangerous influences, but which prevents nothing. But even accepting a first-amendment argument here, there would seem to be a point to be made that corporations are benefitting at the expense of real harm that's being done to the institution of justice in America.

 

Frankly I think it's one of the most eggregious cases of "two wrongs making a right" that one can imagine.

 

What do you all think?

[ParanoiA]

This has long been a problem here in KC. Last year, we topped over 100 murders before July, if I remember correctly. And these idiots are gauranteeing their dead brothers don't get justice.

 

They started another program backed by the school system, where they gave out awards for the best "slogan" to fight back with. 'Break The Silence' won out but I haven't heard a single thing about it since.

 

I guess my question is...where's the logic? I mean if you have dead white kids, killed by black kids that won't cooperate with police or whatever then at least I can see faint signs of logic there. But, when black kids are being killed and no one is cooperating, then how in the hell is that logical in the least? I don't get it.

[thechronic]

Snitches get stitches in my town.

[Glider]

Uh huh...and if you or yours get to be the victims, who'll be the first to complain when nothing gets done about it?

[john5746]

Snitches get stitches in my town.

 

Man, what are you smoking?.... Oh, I forgot

[ParanoiA]

Snitches get stitches in my town.

 

Where's your town? Murder capital of the world I'll bet. Funny how you can read and write and yet perpetuate ignorance proudly. You know that reading and writing isn't cool right? If your buddies find out, you might get stitches...

[Phi for All]

I see this as an attempt by unorganized crime to get organized. Face it, anyone who doesn't want you to help the police has a vested interest.

 

This is extortion and should be viewed as such, particularly for those who are plugging it in the media and entertainment venues. They are trying to coerce certain behavior through implied threat of violence.

[Haezed]

Did you see Anderson Cooper last night? They discussed the Busta Rymes case:

 

Take the case of Busta Rhymes.

 

The hip-hop star has refused to cooperate with police investigating the slaying of his bodyguard Feb. 5 outside a Brooklyn studio where Rhymes was recording a video with performers such as Missy Elliott and Mary J. Blige. Police say that although Rhymes and as many as 50 others may have seen the shooting, no one came forward — an echo of the silence that followed the unsolved murders of rappers Tupac Shakur, the Notorious B.I.G. and Run-DMC's Jam Master Jay.

 

It's the code of the street: To be a credible rapper, you have to know when to shut up.

 

"Under pressure, I lie for ya, die for ya," Lil' Kim once rapped. Now she's in a federal jail in Philadelphia for failing to tell a grand jury what she knew about some friends involved in a shooting.

 

Rhymes' silence in the death of Israel Ramirez seemed to puzzle New York's seen-it-all police commissioner, Ray Kelly, an ex-Marine, career NYPD cop and U.S. Customs chief. "Your employee is murdered in front of you," he told reporters, so "you'd think he might want to talk to the police."

 

Not necessarily, says David Kennedy, director of the Center for Crime Prevention and Control at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. "There's such animosity toward the police in some urban communities that even people who aren't afraid, and who hate crime, still feel cooperating is something good people don't do," Kennedy says. "That's the Busta Rhymes story. He has nothing to fear. He just doesn't want to talk. His reputation would take a dive if he did."

 

The code of silence, he says, "is breaking out in a way we've never seen before."

 

Saunders agrees: "It's a movement, that's what it is — a stop snitching movement."

 

The man's faithful employee is gunned down and he won't even talk to the police. Cooper had on Al Sharpton and the partner of the slain bodyguard (and mother of his child). For once I agreed with Sharpton who condemned the practice and is planning protests. The girlfriend was especially puzzled. She said that Busta loved her partner and, in fact, there is a homage to him at the end of one of Busta's songs. Yet, he's not talked to police.

 

Sharpton actually referenced the Imus affair which shows that some good may come from the Imus afair.

[Haezed]

Thank you Pangloss for brining this to my attention; this "movement's" implications are absolutely chilling

[Sisyphus]

That's a pretty crazy trend. I can only assume it's a manifestation of defiance against the same frustrations that gave us "**** da police." The police represent The Man, and The Man, with infinite resources and subtle racism, is seen as keeping them down. It's a wildly unfair accusation, of course, but it also doesn't exist for no reason. This appears to be just a particularly misguided and self-destructive manifestation.

[Phi for All]

Has there been any mention to the other side of this particularly nasty coin? One side is omerta (silence) and the other is vendetta (vengeance). Is the idea to keep the police out of it so you can hunt down the perpetrator yourself and make him pay? Is this a national vigilante movement?

[Sisyphus]

Is this a national vigilante movement?

 

Sounds like it. Or at least, a movement in gang culture, and the poseurs who imitate it. It's always bad for organized crime to involve law enforcement.

[Haezed]

The sickening part of this is the commercialization of an obviously unhealthy and downright frightening trend; I am not for censorship but I would like Congress to haul those responsible to capital hill for a "Big tobacco" type lineup. Will the Dems have the nerve, or the desire to shift from Bush bashing, to take this issue head on while they still can?

[john5746]

Sharpton actually referenced the Imus affair which shows that some good may come from the Imus afair.

 

I wonder in what context? This has nothing to do with him or his comment. Or is this the white man's fault as well?

[ParanoiA]

I wonder in what context? This has nothing to do with him or his comment. Or is this the white man's fault as well?

 

Well you know..the white man has done so much evil in the world. How could anything not be our fault at this point?

[john5746]

Well you know..the white man has done so much evil in the world. How could anything not be our fault at this point?

 

Maybe we need some guilt redistribution!

[Pangloss]

There are definitely some liberal-versus-conservative overtones in the way this debate has played out in the public discourse and media. Some on the extreme left have lept to the defense of the "Stop Snitchin'" crowd without thinking (Rosie O'Donnell did), and some on the extreme right have tried to pawn this off as a mainstream liberal point of view (which is completely unwarranted).

[Haezed]

I wonder in what context? This has nothing to do with him or his comment. Or is this the white man's fault as well?

 

To the contrary, the gist of Sharpton's comment was that Imus was canned for saying ho and that it was time to take rappers on for using words like B**** and ho.