Faith in Action

Conservative Baltimore Sun columnist makes a living off of stating his opinion through print. Over the years I’ve agreed with him at times and disagreed at other times. In most cases there is disagreement and that pattern continues with his latest piece that I believe mischaracterizes the meaningful exchange had on Thursday, January 31, 2008 at New Life United Methodist Church around the issue of “Snitchin”, witness intimidation, and community-police partnership. In his latest piece, “Fighting the Code of Street Silence“, Kane basically states that nothing of note came out of the Stop Snitchin’ Townhall organized by Jamye Wooten, Founder of Kinetics: Faith in Motion. An interesting conclusion given the fact that Kane was not there! Highlighting the tragic case of Zach Sowers and his wife’s call for 25 Black Leaders to decry the “Stop Snitchin’” code; Kane plays to the cultural ignorance of a significant portion of his readers and perpetuates mainstream stereotypes of Black Humanity by drumming up in dramatic detail extremely violent crimes involving Black men and presents them as if they are the norm for all Black men.

His column produced the desired result from his readers. The comment section is extremely troubling to say the least. There is one Black Feminist on the message board challenging this article and those who agree with it. I found this response to her by someone who calls him/her self “No Hope For Baltimore” quite interesting:

With words like this there is no hope for Baltimore. How on earth can Africans expect to fix this evil by themselves? Name one place on earth- throughout history, where Africans left to their own devices improved anything? There is no example anywhere- I already scoured the world through thousands of years. There are literally thousands of examples where Africans have corrupted everything. Look at any predominantly African institution, city, country and you’ll see a failure with people trying to leave it vs. join it.

This arrogant woman doesn’t have enough sense to know that she should shut up when assistance is offered. For that rude, thoughtless act may she be condemned to rectify the African problem solely with those of her own race. That means she’ll never succeed. Just more murder, fatherless kids born to lose, drug addiction, and misery by the truckload. May she be a victim of her own people for eternity.

There is no hope for Africans in this City as long as militant, ignorant, and dangerous exclusionists like this lady are allowed to participate. She’s part of the problem and may she fail always. In the meantime non-Africans protect yourself from those who think “not snitching” serves a purpose- to intimidate whites etc. We know exactly your shallow thought process. And it’s hilarious because for every one non-African murdered by black thugs 100 Africans are dieing by their own brother’s hands.

Now do you understand you’ve been world-class dupes? The world is laughing at the buffoonery and profound lack of higher understanding monopolized by Africans.

In a far more thoughtful and skillful way, Jamye Wooten responds to Kane’s position in the following editorial:

First let me say that my thoughts and prayers go out to Mrs. Sowers and her husband, Zach who was viciously beaten. The sad reality in Baltimore City is the beating of her husband is just one of many cases. Therefore, I think before she ask for 25 Black leaders to publicly condemn the stop snitching culture, which was done at the town hall meeting, I invite her to join mothers, wives, and grandmothers, and community leaders who have committed their lives to working on issues concerning public safety.

It is unfortunate that Mr. Kane, who was not in attendance, would write about the town hall meeting and suggest that witness intimidation was not condemned. One of the reasons I held the town hall meeting was to discuss the policy of snitching, witness intimidation, and police corruption. Let’s not forget that two corrupt Cops appeared on the first Stop Snitching DVD. Attorney Dwight Pettit said he gets 50 calls a week related to mistreatment by police and I receive emails everyday from across the nation dealing with police misconduct. Dr. Tyrone Powers stated “In our community people are afraid of both the Cops and the Robbers,” it is very difficult to ask a community that lacks trust in the police to cooperate when they have to live in those communities.

Before I go any further I think it is important that we first make the distinction between Criminal Informants (Snitches) and Citizen Witnesses.

Criminal Informant (Snitch) - is a person (criminal) who trades information about others in order to obtain lenience for his or her own crimes.

Citizen Witness- an innocent citizen who has witnessed criminal activity.

And let’s not forget the Blue Code of Silence

The Blue Code of Silence is an unwritten code of honor among police officers in which reporting another officer’s errors, misconduct, or crimes is regarded as a betrayal.

The Dawson Family, Edna McAbier, Quartrina Johnson were all victims of witness intimidation. I am sure most leaders, white and black, would not have a problem condemning those acts.

Professor Alexandra Natapoff, professor of law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles and a nationally-recognized expert on snitching, ask the question “Does the use of criminal informants “snitches” as opposed to citizen witnesses, improve safety and law enforcement effectiveness in these vulnerable urban communities?”

The answer is no.

Professor Natapoff continues,

Because most jurisdictions have no mechanism for keeping track of how many informants there are, how many crimes they solve, or how many crimes they commit, more data and oversight is desperately needed.

The heart of the snitching problem lies in the secret deals that police and prosecutors make with criminals. In investigating drug offenses, police and prosecutors rely heavily-and sometimes exclusively-on criminals willing to trade information about other criminals in exchange for leniency. Many snitches avoid arrest altogether, thus continuing to use and deal drugs and commit other crimes in their neighborhoods, while providing information to the police. As drug dockets swell and police and prosecutors become increasingly dependent on snitches, high-crime communities are filling up with these active criminals who will turn in friends, family, and neighbors in order to “work off” their own crimes.

Snitching thus puts us right through the looking glass: Criminals direct police investigations while avoiding arrest and punishment. Nevertheless, snitching is ever more popular with law enforcement: It is easier to “flip” defendants and turn them into snitches than it is to fight over their cases. For a criminal system that has more cases than it can litigate, and more defendants than it can incarcerate, snitching has become a convenient case-management tool for an institution that has bitten off more than it can chew.

Outcomes

One of the suggestions that were made was to have places of worship be used as “Snitch Houses” or places where citizens could inform community leaders about illegal activity without being identified.

I have also been in contact with The Police Complaint Center, Black Cops Against Police Brutality, and will meet with the National Black Police Association on next week to discuss policing issues. I also plan on working with a group of local lawyers who have been volunteering their time and give legal advice to the community.

Witness Intimidation can’t be tolerated; we need courageous black men to return to the community and create safe neighborhoods for our women and children. We also need courageous cops to stand up against the Blue Code of Silence.

In Love and Service,

Jamye Wooten
KineticFaith