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clevelandcatastrophe · 5 years

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Don’t Be A Snitch

Geoffrey Canada once said, “When I was growing up, kids used to talk about snitching. It never extended as a cultural norm outside of the gangsters.” In gang ridden towns, the streets run on codes like this. It all began with the mafia, where people quickly learned that if you mind your own business, nothing really happens to you. This leads to a lot of other problems within the justice system. Cleveland’s streets are run by the gangs and the police have a hard time controlling that, so they’re quick to turn brutal. Simply put, street-codes are the problem. Due to strict codes amongst civilians like this, there’s a rise in police brutality, innocent people can get the brunt of it, and criminals are never caught.

It’s no secret that police brutality is a very serious problem, especially in cities with a lot of criminal activity and cities with high minority population. Brutality from officers can be caused by a lot of things, from discrimination, an abuse of power, to stress response. In my personal life, I’ve witnessed it many times, all due to an abuse of power because police officers tend to sometimes think that they may be above the law. Police officers are sworn to serve and protect civilians, not hurt them. I’ve seen street-codes severely impact how officers respond to people. When I was much, much younger, I ran the streets. I won’t get into too much detail, but I’ve been in an interrogation room being questioned by police more than once. The first time, I refused to say anything about what I knew (for explanation’s sake, I was involved in gang activities because I was born into it) and ended up with a broken nose. Police officers get extremely frustrated when people wont rat on what they know. They’ll do anything to get information. Anything. A lot of the time, if the crime is severe enough, they offer shorter or better sentences for those already arrested, and those that take the plea, have a huge problem after that. They wear the title of a snitch, and once police have the information they want, they don’t care. Many people who do give information end up getting beaten or killed in prison, and the police and guards often times just don’t care – they got what they wanted. As if police brutality already wasn’t common enough with the discrimination, street-codes just add more reason for brutality. It’s a vicious cycle.

The decline of witnesses coming forward and victims reporting crimes is due to this is well. Innocent people get hurt and people just don’t care. I’ve seen it happen and so have many people I know. Coming forth to report crimes is a less common occurrence now, due to the commonness of victim blaming. People on the streets see things all the time, but the percentage of people who actually come forth as a witness is at an all-time low. This is due to the overlying issue in Cleveland – the honor that resides in the streets. Word gets around quickly in cities like this, and people are very quick to learn what happens when someone rats. People would rather innocent people get framed and go to jail than be marked as a snitch – and while it’s insanely wrong and immoral, its how many crime ridden cities like Cleveland tend to be. The saying Honor Among Thieves comes into play within this, because it’s an extremely true statement. Gangs have honor within them and people know that, so they’re much less likely to rat on what they see and just let someone innocent get framed. People tend not to care about anything other than their own hide because at the end of the day, most people are selfish and only care about themselves – especially when it means that being marked as a snitch could mean your death.

Lastly, and arguably the biggest underlying issue within the major problem of street codes is a simple one: people don’t get caught. While not completely proven, it is argued that this began with the mafia – people wouldn’t mess with the mafia because if they ratted on the mafia, it met a hit was put out on them and probably their family, and people couldn’t risk that for the sake of a stranger. It only took someone doing it once or twice for word to get around that the mafia was not to be trifled with. This same conduct continues today, despite less mafia being around; it just continues within gangs and street thugs. Police have always had a hard time catching the mafia in the middle of acts to be able to frame them because people don’t give tips to the police on the mafia – their families were more important. If the police don’t get tips, people don’t get caught. Criminals still run through the streets everyday even though plenty of people saw what they did – the case of Aavielle Wakefield is a fitting example of this.

Overall, while there are other issues in the streets of Cleveland, codes among civilians tends to be one of the biggest factors in many of the issues. Crime is at an all time high due to this because people don’t report crimes anymore because they don’t want to be labelled as a snitch. Criminals can’t get caught if there’s no witnesses – circumstance isn’t enough to convict. Police think that they have the upmost power because they’re the law, but people are more afraid of gangs than they are the police.

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