In our eternal battle against perceived snitching, I received another lesson in reality.
Here's the relevant portion of a conversation:
PD: You're going to have to testify.
Witness: I ain't snitchin. I ain't the one that got shot. I been shot four times.
PD: Did you ever tell the police who shot you?
Witness: No. I ain't tryin to put no one in jail.
PD: You think that's right to just let everyone out on the street solving their own problems with guns?
Witness: Don't mix me up in this.
PD: So no one should ever call the police?
Witness: No.
PD: What about these families with young kids getting killed or hurt when people shoot or their houses getting broken into all the time. Everyone knows who is doing it. Should they call the police? What should they do?
Witness: Move.
More like this:
The Law of Snitching
You know, this attitude goes way back to being little kids, where you did not want to get branded as a tattletale. That was a kiss of death socially.
ReplyDeleteOf course, there's a big difference between "John pushed Cindy and made her fall down" and "Joe Blow pulled the trigger." I can also say, if I were in the shoes of the witness and had to live in that environment, I know what I'd *like* to do, but if I thought it could get me killed, I'm not sure I'd do it. That's a hard thing to admit, but it's the truth.