Good Day My true friends of M2 , like I promise this year I'm bringing total controversy but before I get into it I like to acknowledge my " Opinion Minions" who post my forums weekly , you guys are very appreciated keep spilling it...okay, love you guys. Okay, I want to hit you over the head with a juicy piece of hot steak with a problem that festers over the minority community today is this infamous " ah ah, Don't tell" Rule. If you from middle America , the Ozarks, the valleys, low lands to the beaches that may not understand too much about the " No Snitch Rule" I will explain it to you. Okay, I'm give you a scenario, mind you I'm not a criminal so don't think this is based on me or anybody I know but just a visual picture. Okay, the "No Snitch Rule" is a dark gray cloud that affect everybody's communites even spilling over in the suburbs now a days. Not talked about too much there but rare cases it does happens. If you witness a crime or assault or even a sexual crime as being part in your community you see nothing, you heard nothing, you taste nothing about what you saw fear of retaliation. Scenario scene,okay lets just say I mastered mind a bank robbery. 6 guys did what they was supposed to do , you know like you see in old gangster flicks rousing the bank, the getaway driver, the gunmen and ect. during the robbery it went terribly wrong. 2 out of the six was caught by the cops, arrested. another two got away but was identified by security officer and know wanted for capture. the last totally got away scoot clean and then me the master mind in a old warehouse waiting for the crew to return with the taking. the two that gets caught in a interrogation room the officer asks " who's your boss, who's responsible for all this?" this is were the Rule hovers our community, if you was apprehended and you questioned about this crime and you know in your heart who you working with , question, would you tell? or would you say I'm not saying anything? or if a parent of violent crime and they want answers to what happen to they loved one, do you think you would help that family and tell what you know or remain out of it and why? so lets talk America , whats your take on this issue.
later!

All that **** goes out the window when CHILDREN start dying.

to germanchocolate1981,

you right , we have to think about what you have to loose, but would you tell?

snitches get stitches

nobody likes a rat.. not even the cops.. for the day to day neighborhood stuff... small stuff.

But

that does not apply when violence or children's safety is at stake. I don't see that as rating someone out. I see it as a moral obligation.

Sorry, but I have NO respect for that viewpoint. Criminals have a corrosive, degrading effect on society, whether it's a small effect or a large one. Any legal/ethical methods that diminish criminals' ability to operate make lives better for the majority of society.

If you look the other way or keep silent then you are as guilty as the criminal. Maybe more so because you have no excuse and you have been blessed enough to have a way without committing a crime. And you betray the people who trust you.

The reason many poor neighborhoods which often are neighbor hoods with minorities suffer like they do is because criminals have no rules and they will hurt anyone and not have a second thought. They don't care about race or family or fairness on any level and if it comes down to telling anything on you true or not they will let you take the fall and save their own worthless hide.

I don't see it as a matter of degree either. If someone will steal a penny they will steal a pound. If they will hurt a working capable adult you know they will rip off the weaker and defenseless be it child or elderly or other wise defenseless.

ever come to mind i was being sarcastic

Somebody being sarcastic on the interwebz?

Say it isn't so.

Am I reading this right? You're asking what I would do if I were a criminal working as a part of a team of criminals?

To start with, I would never GET involved in such a crime. The scenario you chose doesn't fit with the rest of your post. The strategy that criminals follow is anti-community to begin with, and so whatever "code" they choose is likely to be equally destructive.

As for the "no snitching" culture you describe, it's my understanding that this grew out of a racism and resentment filled past. When it was originally established, it wasn't a matter of not telling EACH OTHER what was going on, it was a matter of protecting community members from police who were from outside the community, and who's loyalty of service was to other people outside the community, at the expense of the community.

That culture SHOULD have changed, when it stopped being true that that the police represented outsider persecution. My opinion is that anyone who insists on RETAINING this entirely outmoded behavior, needs to be woken up.

Ahh. OK, my apologies, but nuance is frequently lost in written communication.

Nicely written Igor.

If I witnessed the death of a child an innocent teen, an innocent bystander, an elderly person, YES.
I don't care who the offenders are.

This is a big part of what is wrong in this country, not black, white, north south east west, police, immigrant.
It's not a new problem. It's two things, 1 the "Good ole' boy" system and 2 the "bystander effect" that stems from it.
_____ protects ______ (plug in any demographic value it all works the same). When someone outside that group sees what happens when insiders testify and the group retaliates <listen close> outsiders are CONTROLLED BY FEAR. Controlled by fear, not a bond, not concern for human life, nothing but FEAR.

Here's the question, do you want to protect people who kill children? Teens? Elderly men and women?
By protecting KILLERS and CRIMINALS, what GOOD comes from THAT decision. It is a decision, even if you unconsciously repeat catch phrases like 'snitches get stitches'.

Remember that the word snitch is part of the criminal lexicon.
Does it make any difference to you if a kid in your neighborhood is killed by a white person, a police officer, an immigrant, a native American, any other demographic? Would you 'snitch' on them?

You're getting very close to the roots of this 'culture' but think about this. It doesn't represent the entire country or any part of it. People who don't commit crimes don't care if you testify because they have nothing to hide. The people with something to hide are USING YOU to protect THEIR CRIME. THEIR MURDERS, RAPES, DRUG TRAFFICKING, THEFT, ASSAULTS. If you don't 'snitch' like you're programmed, you're VOLUNTEERING your services to protect those crimes FOR FREE. Plus you can be held CRIMINALLY LIABLE as an accomplice.

Programmed, that word was intentionally chosen. If your next door neighbor had a toddler and all of a sudden they aren't around playing or going to school and you find out that child was kkilled in the home would you still want to live next to them? What if you had a toddler? Hell yes I'd tell, all day any day of the week. I'm not PROGRAMMED to accept the death of an INNOCENT infant toddler child teen man woman elder or athlete. AMERICA white black Latino immigrant police, all of US need to REALize this. The people dying on the news on our t.v's are REAL HUMAN BEINGS. Or you can accept an strengthen the programming by protecting the next murderer or rapist and ENSURE they will continue killing and raping.

If I was dumb or desperate enough to rob a bank, then I'm dumb or desperate enough to save my own butt.

The OP doesn't seem to be making me Robin Hood holding up the bank for altruistic purposes.
I'm not robbing a bank because it's Thursday and I just don't have anything better to do.

If giving up my boss seemed like the best way to cover my butt, I'd do it.
If giving up my boss is going to lead to greater potential negative consequences than not, then no, I wouldn't do it.

If I'm robbing the bank because I'm part of a tightly knit group of people, where it's an integral part of my identity, my personality, my self image e.g. gang/cult, then I'm not giving them up, that would be self harm. I wouldn't be me without that relationship, so betraying that relationship would just be betraying myself.

If I'm sort of helping out this guy I'm kinda connected with because my second cousin I met once told a guy to call me and offer me quick money, then I'm probably going to give him up.


Depends on what I know, it depends on if they are asking me, depends on what they could do with the information.

I wouldn't take a random Saturday to drive over to a victims house and have a conversation that incriminates me.

as is the case with most responses,, it truly does depend upon the 'offense'


if I do not have reason to believe the person will harm or hurt others, I take my own consequence and have the 'authority' do their job in making a case on anyone else


if I know a loved one or friend has committed some crime, I try my best to get them to admit it, and if asked directly, I tell the truth of what I know

because friends and family know me and should respect me enough not to EXPECT me to lie for them,, under any circumstance,,,

I grew up In Detroit and if you snitched you had to remember the police will eventually go away but you live in that neighborhood so you need to mind your own business or else.If I was a criminal and got caught I would stay true old school and never snitch, do the crime do the time my choice,anything crazy or demented like a sex crime or murder all bets are off, time to talk.

misstina,

snitches get stitches....ong so I take it you don't get involved type of gal...huh?

Ms. Harmony my favorite "Opinion Minion"

you right it is a level to degree to what a lot of folks may draw a line between the right thing and a rat....lol.

the right thing is okay, example, if you testifying against a sex pedophile or a serial killer whereabouts for the sake of justice that's one thing.

a rat is okay, he did it...I seen him or her no doubt that's your person. now that's a rat or okay, okay, I talk if you make me a plea deal, I have names, times and locations. that's a rat!

devildog,

I see you very passionate in your view on this . you put me in my in a mafia figure. I like where you going with your view.