Stop Snitchin'

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Stop Snitchin' refers to a controversial campaign to convince criminal informants to stop "snitching," or informing, to law enforcement. Some public officials and others say that it is a campaign used by criminals to frighten people with information from reporting their activities to the police.

It became mainstream in the hip-hop community as many rappers express support for this method. It specifically refers to a Baltimore-based home-made DVD that threatened violence against would-be informants.

Contents

[edit] Origin

[edit] National Prominence

The Stop Snitching campaign first gained national attention in late 2004 in Baltimore, Maryland, when a DVD released by Rodney Bethea [1] titled "Stop Snitching!", began to circulate. In some footage, a number of men claiming to be drug dealers address the camera, and threaten violence against anyone who reports what they know about their crimes to the authorities. This threat is directed especially towards those who inform on others to get a lighter sentence for their own crimes. Notably, NBA star Carmelo Anthony, a former Baltimore resident and now a part of the Denver Nuggets basketball team, appeared in the video.[2] In subsequent interviews, Anthony claimed that his appearance in the video was a joke,[3] the product of his neighborhood friends' making a home movie. Anthony claims that the film's message should not be taken seriously.[4]

As the DVD spread across the country, corresponding shirts became popular in urban youth fashion. The shirts typically show a stop sign emblazoned with the words "Stop Snitchin'." Some shirts bear bullet holes, implying that snitches should (or will) be shot, thus referencing its associated catchphrase "snitches get stitches". The shirts have been more widely circulated than the original DVD.[citation needed] The Diplomats, a Harlem, New York-based rap group, made their own version of the Stop Snitchin' shirts, with their logo on the end of the short sleeves. Another such shirt says "I'll never Tell".

The video's creator, Rodney Thomas, a.k.a. "Skinny Suge," pleaded guilty to first degree assault on January 17, 2006 in Baltimore and was sentenced to 15 years in prison, with all but 3 years suspended.[5]

National examples of killings due to "snitching" include Angela Dawson of Baltimore, who was killed along with her five children and husband when their house was firebombed after she alerted police to illegal activities in the area.

[edit] Public reaction

In response to the video, the Baltimore Police department created their own campaign, "Keep Talkin'", which used free DVDs and T-shirts in a method similar to that of the Stop Snitchin' campaign.[6] Its goal was to assure potential state witnesses of their safety from retaliation and stress the importance of cleaning up Baltimore's streets.

In Pittsburgh, a witness was ejected from a courtroom for wearing the Stop Snitchin' shirt, forcing prosecutors to drop the charges against three defendants accused of conspiring to murder the witness.[7]

Boston mayor, Thomas Menino announced that he would begin confiscating Stop Snitchin' shirts from local stores. Though Menino rapidly backed away from mandatory confiscation to endorse voluntary removal of the shirts by store owners, his proposals sparked considerable controversy locally and nationally. Though many saw the initiative as ineffective, counterproductive, or misleading, some community members of high crime inner city areas such as Dorchester defended the move as important to conquering fear on the streets and assisting in criminal prosecutions. [8]

A spokesperson for the American Civil Liberties Union rapidly opposed Menino's confiscation plan, claiming that it would violate the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment guarantee of free speech, in addition to violating rights granted by the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments.[citation needed] The shirts gained attention in Boston in 2004 when the mother of an alleged gang member (and a number of other spectators) wore the shirt during her son's trial for the shooting death of 10-year-old Trina Persad. [2]. Suffolk Superior Court Judge Margaret R. Hinkle successfully banned the shirts from the courtroom as a witness intimidation tactic.

An Antonio Ansaldi store in Dorchester, Massachusetts removed Stop Snitchin' shirts from shelves after Marco Antonio Ennis, who owns the store and manufactures the shirts, met with the mayor, community members, and relatives of recent homicide victims.[9] Other stores, including Bargain T and T in Roxbury have agreed to cease selling the shirts.[citation needed] The controversy, however, seems to have increased the demand for the shirts, though changed the demographic of their wearers towards the suburbs and away from the inner city.

The Stop Snitchin' debate was revived when a Boston judge banned the shirts from all state courthouses, also disallowing cameraphones in the interest of witness protection.[10]

The Stop Snitchin' shirts have inspired parodies including "Stop Menino", "Start Snitchin'", "STOP Stop Snitching", "Yield to Snitching", and "Stop Stop Stop Snitching" shirt.[citation needed]

Fox News have began airing responses to Stop Snitchin' called "Step Up and Speak Out".[citation needed]

Left-wing activist rapper Immortal Technique gave a well-known interview to XXL in which he contended that Blacks and Latinos should not snitch until police officers begin informing on each other for brutality and agents of the American government take responsibility for their actions. [3]

Rapper Cam'ron was featured on the April 22, 2007 edition of the television news program 60 Minutes, and was interviewed by Anderson Cooper about the "Stop Snitching" campaign. When asked if he would tell the police if a serial killer was living next to him, he replied "I would probably move," but he wouldn't inform the police.[11] Cam'ron was a victim of a shooting that revealed no leads or clues because he refused to give police information about the suspect, claiming it would hurt his business and violate his "code of ethics."[12] According to NYPD records, Cam'ron has cooperated with police in the past.[13]

Some Stop Snitching activists say they are not opposed to concerned citizens going to the police with accurate information and don't consider them snitches. They say that snitches are people who give the government favorable testimony in exchange for a plea bargain, money, or some other kind of reward. They point out that these snitches tend to embellish the truth if necessary. According to a study by Northwestern University Law School's Center on Wrongful Convictions informants are responsible for 46% of wrongful capital convictions from false testimony.[14]

The entire Stop Snitching campaign has been parodied by an episode of the television series The Boondocks.

[edit] The Snitching Project

The Snitching Project, led by Dr. Rick Frei at the Community College of Philadelphia, is an ongoing student-driven interdisciplinary research initiative aimed at developing a better understanding of the snitching phenomenon and facilitating community discussion through education. The project uses focus groups, surveys, and interviews to collect data regarding attitudes towards snitching, as well as dispositional and situational variables that might influence a person's propensity to cooperate with police. [15]

The Project also sponsors an interactive wiki, which includes results from the data collection effort, as well as an extensive history of snitching, links to relevant web sites and articles, an on-line version of the survey, and a forum for discussing snitching. [16]

[edit] References

[edit] See also

[edit] Source notes

  1. ^ "'Stop Snitching' Auteur Sentenced To Three Years, Assault", WJLA, Jan 19, 2006
  2. ^ Phil Mushnick, "Tales of the Gun Poorly Covered", New York Post, Dec 31, 2006, also "Carmelo Anthony Featured In Drug Video", The Denver Channel, Dec 2, 2004
  3. ^ Victor Blaswell, "Stop Snitchin' Movement Keeps Criminals on the Streets", First Coast News, Jul 24, 2006
  4. ^ "Carmelo Anthony Featured In Drug Video", The Denver Channel, Dec 2, 2004
  5. ^ "'Stop Snitching' Auteur Sentenced To Three Years, Assault", WJLA, Jan 19, 2006
  6. ^ "'Keep Talking' part of strategy using direct communication to fight crime", Baltimore Police Department, Nov.5, 2005
  7. ^ Banks, Gabrielle (2005-10-08). 'Stop Snitchin' shirts stopping criminal trials. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved on 2007-05-08.
  8. ^ "ACLU says T-shirt tied to free speech" [1]
  9. ^ "Despite city crackdown, interest in T-shirts high, store owners say", Boston Globe, December 10, 2006
  10. ^ Top judge fights courtroom intimidation. Associated Press via Boston Herald (2006-01-11).
  11. ^ DRUDGE REPORT FLASH 2008
  12. ^ DRUDGE REPORT FLASH 2008
  13. ^ Rapper's Change Of Face - April 19, 2007
  14. ^ http://november.org/stayinfo/breaking07/SnitchContext.html Concerned Citizen, Witness, Or Snitch?
  15. ^ Doron Taussig, "To Snitch, or Not to Snitch? A Community College class tries to understand the question that's dividing the city", Philadelphia City Paper, 2008-02-20
  16. ^ lawandsocietyweek - The Snitching Study

[edit] External links

  • Stop Snitching DVD One of the main websites responsible for selling the Stop Snitching DVDs.
  • Stop Snitchin.com One of the websites of 'Let Us Live Entertainment,' a Boston based recording label whose artists promote noncooperation with the police.
  • Grits for Breakfast is weblog whose author, Scott Henson, has written extensively on the topic of use and abuse of informants by law enforcement as well as the "stop snitching" movement.
  • Fields/Wolfe Crime Stopper Memorial Fund A mother's website created after her son was murdered for being a witness in a murder trail in which the accused were seen wearing Stop Snitchin' t-shirts. The mothers were resilient in their search for the current defendants and have been involved in creating legislation to protect witnesses of violent crimes in Colorado.