Despite the cultures of secrecy permeating all levels of American culture of government, the "Stop Snitchin'" phenomenon has managed to generate questions in the media as to whether or not refusing to cooperate with the authorities is an exclusively black American cultural phenomenon.
In the interest of ending this argument, and providing the resources for those who are also interested in doing so, the first part of this diary will be devoted to establishing both an understanding of the valid reasons why snitching is looked down upon in urban communities and why it isn't that essential to effective law enforcement in the first place.
The second part will deal with the presumption that cultures of secrecy are the exclusive domain of black Americans.
A. The case against snitching
The problem with snitching is that while it makes for a great climax in an episode of Law and Order, a case that relies on a snitch or even an eyewitness is a weak case.The fact is that eyewitness identification is one of the least reliable forms of evidence.
While eyewitness testimony can be persuasive evidence before a judge or jury, 30 years of strong social science research has proven that eyewitness identification is often unreliable. Research shows that the human mind is not like a tape recorder; it neither records events exactly as it sees them, nor recalls events like a tape recorder that has been rewound. Instead, witness memory is like any other evidence at a crime scene; it must be preserved carefully and retrieved methodically, or it can be contaminated.
Coerced and false confessions are a reality of law enforcement. They happen all the time, and often, they result in innocent people being convicted for crimes they did not commit. Officers can often intimidate an innocent person into confessing to a crime they did not commit for fear of a greater punishment upon conviction.
Sometimes law enforcement use harsh interrogation tactics with uncooperative suspects. But some police officers, convinced of a suspect's guilt, occasionally use tactics so persuasive that an innocent person feels compelled to confess. Some suspects have confessed to avoid physical harm or discomfort. Others are told they will be convicted with or without a confession, and that their sentence will be more lenient if they confess. Some are told a confession is the only way to avoid the death penalty.
The American Justice system is famously biased against blacks. Considering the trouble that white people have telling us apart, and the unfortunate reliance on eyewitness testimony in criminal cases, and you have the very real of being convicted of something you didn't do just because of how you look.
Known as the "own-race" effect or "own-race" bias, eyewitnesses experience the "cross-racial impairment" when attempting to identify individuals of another race. The "own-race effect" is "strongest when white witnesses attempt to recognize black subjects," and apparently less influential to black witnesses. In fact, four separate studies found that black eyewitnesses do not experience any cross- racial impairment.
Those who present the "Stop Snitchin'" phenomenon as exemplary of the self destructive nature of black culture almost always mistake what is an attempt to sell t-shirts and make rap stars look cool for an actual "movement". The problem is there is no grassroots, no organization, and really, no cause other than capitalism. There are just t-shirts and celebrity spokesmen.
But at the heart of the argument that the "Stop Snitchin'" culture is at the root of African-American suffering is the idea that there aren't enough black people in prison. The problem is not that blacks are not being arrested for crimes, because we are, in huge numbers. The reality is that not only are we arrested and convicted often, but that the American prison system makes a killer out of a car thief. Until prison becomes about rehabilitation rather than simply punishment, recidivism rates mean sending a criminal to jail is like sending Med student to Harvard Medical.
The fact is that informants, "snitches", are quite unreliable to begin with, and are often manipulated by law enforcement into providing false testimony.
In more than 15% of cases of wrongful conviction overturned by DNA testing, an informant or jailhouse snitch testified against the defendant. Often, statements from people with incentives to testify – particularly incentives that are not disclosed to the jury – are the central evidence in convicting an innocent person.
[...]
In some cases, snitches or informants come forward voluntarily, often seeking deals or special treatment. But sometimes law enforcement officials seek out snitches and give them extensive background on cases — essentially feeding them the information they need to provide false testimony.
The problems in the black community don't come down to the fact that enough black people are getting arrested. Blaming crime for the results of institutionalized and cultural racism simply exonerates those responsible and discourages those who might be interested in making a difference.
B. The truth about snitching and who does it
"Stop Snitchin'" is a great nightmare for white America. Like Willie Horton, it exemplifies the fear that there is a black man out there who wants to hurt you and your family, and all that stands between you and annihilation is the thin blue line.
But the truth is that "Stop Snitchin" is an American value, practiced at all levels of government and society, including law enforcement. Consider the Police's Blue Wall of Silence.
The Blue Wall of Silence is the name coined to describe the perceived propensity of Police Officers to unite by limiting their cooperation with investigators when one of their own is accused of impropriety. Police officers refusing to testify against another police officer are said to be saying the "Standard Police Answer", that they can not recall anything that has happened.
But it would be one thing if the culture of secrecy with regard to wrongdoing in America was restricted to the Police. We've also discovered recently that the Armed Forces also harbor a "Stop > Snitchin'" mentality.
In addition, about two-thirds of Marines and half the Army troops surveyed said they would not report a team member for mistreating a civilian or for destroying civilian property unnecessarily. "Less than half of Soldiers and Marines believed that non-combatants should be treated with dignity and respect," the Army report stated.
But the most pious adherents to not snitching have to be our elected officials, who's devotion to preserving each other's secrets crosses party lines.
Resentment boiled among senior Republicans for a second day on Tuesday after a team of warrant-bearing agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation turned up at a closed House office building on Saturday evening, demanded entry to the office of a lawmaker and spent the night going through his files.
The episode prompted cries of constitutional foul from Republicans — even though the lawmaker in question, Representative William J. Jefferson of Louisiana, is a Democrat whose involvement in a bribery case has made him an obvious partisan political target.
To say nothing of the Bush Administration, who has taken the Reagan Administration's tradition of lyingto a new level. Stop Snitchin' is more than a slogan in the Bush Administration, it is a job qualification.
The truth about Stop Snitchin' is that it plays to white fears of being the victims of black criminality. The outrage over Stop Snitchin' provides another opportunity for Americans to blame African-Americans for universally American cultural foibles. Rather than use Stop Snitchin' as a convenient way to blame the black community for the pervasive effects of institutionalized racism contained in abysmal public schools, a draconian penal system, and white privilege in everything from hiring to admissions, we should be occupied with dealing with the root causes of race based inequality.
Despite secrecy and deception in both the Police and the Armed Forces, in addition to the Bush Administration regarding the war in Iraq,the U.S. Attorney Scandal, Reproductive Rights, Torture, and Global Warming, no one ever questions whether "white culture" is responsible. But a million keyboard social scientists a day diagnose the ills of the black community based on images they see on television and the internet.
The problem is not that too few black people are "snitching" or reporting crimes. The problem is that the seems to be the only conversation about race some white Americans are willing to have with black Americans is a fundamentally dishonest one.
UPDATE: Another thing I forgot to discuss is the Bush Administration's culture of secrecy and its effects on the press. A few months ago I was at an even with a panel that Dana Priest from the Washington Post was on. I asked her about the trend of anonymous sources and how they've contributed to inaccurate reporting, and she told me that regrettably, anonymous sources are the only way to gain information from the inside of the Administration because the Bush Admin. officials all fear reprisal.