Does A Snitch In Time Save Nine?

Soon after I moved to Washington Heights, I saw someone that caught my eye. It was a big Dominican guy with a black t-shirt bearing a large yellow happy face. However, instead of a smile, the happy face had a zipper where the mouth should have been, and the shirt had the slogan "Stop Snitchin" on it. The more I walked around, the more I saw the shirt, both on the backs of locals as well as sold in the shops all along the streets. Another shirt that caught my attention was one that had the well-known Warner Brothers logo, the WB shaped like a shield. Above the logo, it said "When you see the police," and across the logo were the words "Warn A Brother". At the time, I thought it was a very catchy shirt.

Apparently, Oakland has experienced a boom in the sales of "Stop Snitchin" shirts, as well as, according to this article, other similar shirts with slogans like "Ditches Are For Snitches" and "Snitches Get Stitches". The concern of city officials and some residents is that the shirts are stirring a culture of fear in the neighborhood, that it is adversely affecting the concept of community. This is a valid point, but this phenomenon also reflects the general level of distrust that these individuals have towards law enforcement and the justice system. The fact that these shirts are more prevalent in communities of color is no accident. The shirts did not create the chasm between poor people of color and the legal system, and I don't envision society altering itself in any drastic way to bridge that gap, so the t-shirts are probably here to stay. The wearers of these shirts clearly don't feel like the police have their community's best interests at heart, so they don't feel that they need to contribute to the police's efforts to "clean up the streets".

Depending on where you live, look around and see if you notice the shirts. I know I do.