Stop Snitching Campaign

How many times did your mom have to squeeze your arm or smack you on the butt because you were being a tattle-tale? Ya' know, the one who tells on everything and everybody; in other words, our friends who can't seem to hold water for nothing.

I remember those days, just like they were yesterday. Unfortunately, what is the urban rage today in many cities across America is a Stop-Snitching campaign, one that basically holds with contempt anyone who relates information, or 'snitches' ,to an authority figure concerning illegal conduct. Simply put, it's not ratting out to the police.

This movement is highly interesting, and troubling, because it holds particular dominance in communities of color. And communities of color disproportionately suffer higher rates of illegal activity, namely homicides, burglaries, theft and battery.

A few years back, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper interviewed the New York rapper Cam'ron concerning the campaign.

Rap star Cameron Giles, known as Cam'ron or "Killa Cam," got shot in both arms back in 2005. The shooting occurred in front of members of Cam'ron's entourage, but to this day neither they, nor the rapper, have cooperated with police. Click the link below to view the interview:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTwipn-Fp_U

It's important to remember that this whole phenomenon, often labeled 'new' by mainstream media, isn't new at all, nor was it founded by Black people.

Criminal elements worldwide all hold a set code of conduct amongst themselves, and breaching that code results in serious penalties. If a Russian in 1950 witnessed a murder, he would unlikely sit on trial as a key witness for fear of a KGB backlash, be he a member of the KGB or not. The same holds true for the mobster culture and even non-illegal organizations like the fraternal culture, Masons, military, politics, police...arguably in any given organization, if someone breaks an esteemed code of conduct, either for the good or bad, it's highly discouraged for someone to leak to outsiders that inside information, or snitch. We see it happening all of the time: policemen covering up for their comrades, even if their comrades broke the law. Politicians hiding (or not snitching) on their colleagues for reasons X, Y and Z.

My point is, telling the truth in the face of disrupting the status quo has always been highly discouraged. It's been discouraged in many groups. The same holds true for the street gang culture.

The big problem is the fact that the street gang culture is often synonymous with young Black culture as a whole, and it often involves innocent individuals who have nothing to do with the culture.

The problem is those who aren't 'snitching' often aren't doing so not only because of fear, but because of their general dislike and mistrust of policemen.

The problem is this campaign holds captive a drive in the community to do right and live free. So in order to live in a sane environment, Black folk who "make it" move out of the 'hood and spend their dollars out of the 'hood. Therefore the characteristics that make up Black neighborhoods all across America are high-crime, high-birth and high-boarded up home rates.

The problem is, amongst too many black, poor and undeserved populations in America, youngsters choose to withhold vital information from authorities because their identity is more closely identified with wrong instead of right. They'd rather befriend the thug than the cop. Their mentality is illegal rather than legal. It's law-disrupting rather than law-abiding.

It's also crucial to realize that their is a whole generation being raised to believe that normal behavior comprises of not snitching, no matter how illegal the activity.

I don't want to place the blame of this campaign solely on rappers and HipHop music, although they are the main promoters of this culture, particularly as it applies to Blacks. Popular culture aids in promoting a general culture of violence and lies. Movies filled with glorified violence are called blockbusters. We all root for the villains. So-called 'mainstream' and legit individuals getting away with money-laundering, tax evasion and other so-called 'white-collar' crimes, definitely do nothing to heighten one's esteem in "telling the truth so help you God."

Yet in other groups, that same blockbuster is fictional; moviegoers are generally able to separate entertainment from reality. They like their violence, but love their law-abiding community. It's like the villain in the movie is a stress reliever for the true-life hard working 9 to 5er.

Yet in too many Black communities, that blockbuster violence is a reality, both on and off the screen.

This 'Stop Snitching' mentality, for a fact, has such a hold in urban poor Black neighborhoods. Old ladies, children and even pets are all held captive to a culture that insinuates fear, distrust, hypertension and hatred.

That's why I have a particular chip on my shoulder aimed at rappers like Cam'ron, who should know better. They knowingly make money by promoting a mentality that does nothing but create thugs who rob, sell drugs and commit murder and dare anyone to say anything about it. They'd most likely sing the blues on a police official committing a crime (acting in excessive force), but they are silent if one of their homies commits a murder, robs a store, or rapes a girl.

As it should, this type of REALITY in turn promotes a mistrust and suspiciousness in policemen about Black people. Cops on edge can easily succumb to a Gestapo mindset (i.e. police brutality). Cops are trained to clump things together; their trained to follow profiles. How would you group together Black men in similar environments who all wear doo-rags, wear white T-shirts and Black jeans? Yup, you'd call them all thugs, no questions asked.

As such, since those thugs don't like/cooperate with the policemen anyway, cops are more trigger-happy when dealing with Black males. They are overly-rough and aggressive to establish their dominance over Black males. Thus, there is a popular notion amongst laypeople nationwide that police brutality is a necessity, because the enemy (i.e. Black males) is openly hostile and difficult.

Not only does something like not snitching actually do a great disservice to Black men, it also kills the community. Women grow up thinking that a thug is a real man, and have babies by thugs and teach the boys to be thugs and the girls to only love thugs. So those children grow up and don't even realize that not snitching, they don't realize that not telling the truth and ridding their community of criminal elements, is a mentality of the oppressed.

True oppression is living your life unbeknowest to the fact that you are indeed being oppressed. It's raising your offspring to be enslaved by a mentality that promotes THE definition of manhood as self- suicidal, a definition easily defined in any Cam'ron CD.