The Stop Snitching Phenomenon: Breaking the Code of Silence
DoJ Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. Feb 09:
The Stop Snitching Phenomenon: Breaking the Code of Silence
Quote:
The “stop snitching” phenomenon that has been glorified in entertainment and sports industries and is a significant issue in some law enforcement jurisdictions. The threatening nature of the stop snitching message intimidates witnesses and erodes trust between communities and police by undermining police efforts to involve communities in preventing and combating crime. This threatens police agencies’ ability to prevent and solve crime because it impedes investigations, arrests, and convictions, and could severely erode the criminal justice system. This problem exceeds the boundaries of traditional witness intimidation and is overwhelming for many police departments.
On numerous occasions, the COPS Office has brought together federal agencies, representatives from the private sector, law enforcement leaders from around the country, and neighborhood leaders invested in their communities to explore solutions to violent crime and social disorder issues. Most recently, on March 6, 2008 in a COPS Office-supported PERF Executive Session titled “Stop Snitching: Policing in a New Era,” key stakeholders explored the issues of the stop snitching phenomenon, identified promising practices, and developed potential solutions to the problem. The discussions included innovative methods for counteracting the intimidating messages and the central role that community policing principles play in responding to this unspoken code of silence.
Stop Snitchin on Hizbollah...
Seems like there are some strong parallels between connecting with communities in our own cities, breaking down the barriers to law enforcement, and effective counter-insurgency practice. Is the code of silence on the streets of America much different from trying to get Iraqis to point out the insurgents in their midst?
The discussion made me think of this profile of Carmelo Anthony of the Denver Nuggets.
"For months after last winter's PR storm, Anthony's handlers wouldn't grant interviews with him unless a reporter agreed not to ask about Stop Snitching. No more. Anthony never felt he'd done anything wrong, nothing big at least. Now, he wants to talk about where he comes from, the hand he was dealt.
In the Pepsi Center, he sets down a PDA he has been tapping away at and leans back in his chair. "Drug dealers funded our programs," he says. "Drug dealers bought our uniforms." They were just about the only guys in the hood with the cash to outfit a team. They did it for three years beginning in late elementary school, he says, and never asked Anthony for anything in return, like carrying product. "They just wanted to see you do good."
When the cops took over the nearby rec center and nailed a Police Athletic League sign on the front, Anthony and his friends boycotted. The goal may have been to clear out the dealers, but to him it felt like one more act of harassment, another form of bullying by some Charm City cop who doesn't especially trust loitering young black males. More than once, Anthony says, men in blue left him black-and-blue. "Nothing major," he says. "They'd just choke me, drag me around." It was enough to seal the kind of resentment that could one day lead to five minutes of face time on a fire-starter DVD."
Not condoning it. But there are similarities between the impact of guys kicking down the wrong Iraqi door in the middle of the night looking for a guy who builds IEDs probably and grabbing the wrong guys on the street of an American city.