Drop Dime

Printed on: Thu, May 03, 2007

Don't close your eyes to crime

By Kelvin Wade

It was reported that over the weekend, a 19-year-old Fairfield man was stabbed while trying to break up a fight at a raucous party. You know, one of those parties that neighbors just love where drunken guests spill out onto the street like ants from an anthill.

The part that shouldn't have surprised me was the end of the Daily Republic's article on the incident: "The victim didn't give police a description of the suspect."

Perhaps there was too much commotion that night at the hospital for the victim to give a description. Of course, there were 30 to 40 people in the street at the time of the incident. Surely they saw something. They probably even gave the police the name of the suspect. Anyone?

"60 Minutes" recently highlighted a disturbing trend in inner-city crime and that's the fact that so few people talk to the police. We've seen it here. Bullets fly in broad daylight or there's a melee at a party with dozens of witnesses, yet no one sees a thing.

I get it. The criminal element doesn't snitch. Organized crime members don't rat or at least they're not supposed to. Gang bangers never talk to the police. If they've got a beef with a rival, they will handle it on their own. No one snitches. Snitches get stitches. But somehow that mindset has migrated to average citizens.

The "60 Minutes" piece connected this mindset to hip-hop culture. Rapper Cam'Ron, fearing a loss of street cred, made the absurd assertion that even if he knew a serial killer lived next door, he wouldn't turn him in to the police. If I knew my neighbor was a serial killer, I'm speed dialing the FBI while videotaping his every move. However, hip-hop is just the latest whipping boy for all that is wrong with America. But it goes further back and deeper than rap culture, which is relatively new. From Jesse James to D.B. Cooper, Americans have loved outlaws.

Too many Americans loved John Gotti and hated his underboss Sammy the Bull Gravano who testified against him and put him away.

We don't like snitches. We're raised from kids not to be a tattletale. C'mon, I'd rather hang out with Bill Clinton the liar than Linda Tripp, the conniving snitch.

Now there's no question this prohibition against snitching is being heavily reinforced in the inner city. Some of this animosity between the public and the police in those areas are due to racial profiling and lingering institutional distrust. Some is just plain old fear of getting involved.

But if we don't talk to the police, we become complicit in the crime. If not legally, then morally. And we become complicit in the next crime the perpetrator commits. The bad guys are counting on you being intimidated. For them to succeed, all you've got to do is nothing. It's pretty easy, huh? If you don't talk to the police when I'm being victimized and I act deaf, dumb and blind when you're in harm's way, what kind of community do we have? A community that's only safe for thugs. New Police Chief Kenton Rainey says he wants the community to get involved, that law enforcement can't do it alone. We need to give the new chief a chance to combat our serious gang and crime problem. And we have to be ready to do our part and not give cover to criminals.