Ok, let me first start by saying that if you're involved in a crime with other people, I fully understand why snitching on your partners would be dirty business.

However, I really have a hard time understanding why people get so worked up if a non-involved person reports a criminal to the police. What loyalty are they violating? They have no obligation to the criminal. Why does the criminal feel entitled to protection from non-related persons?

If anything, a bystander should have more loyalty to general society in most situations, inducing them to snitch whenever they see a crime being committed, whether it be open container violations, petty theft, murder, drug deals, whatever!

What am I missing? Why is a person expected to show more loyalty to a random criminal than to society?

12/4/2007 10:30:52 AM

This thread is retarded.

12/4/2007 10:34:33 AM

aside from the fact that this thread was done probably 6 months ago,

Quote :

"I really have a hard time understanding why people get so worked up if a non-involved person reports a criminal to the police. What loyalty are they violating?"

if you're talking about in the hood/ghetto/projects etc, the police are viewed as the biggest villains around, and someone not to be trusted...so in a sense, the criminal you're not reporting might just be "a neighbor'...you like your neighbors better than your villains/enemies, right?

12/4/2007 10:38:16 AM

I don't like my neighbors if they're increasing the amount of crime in my 'hood.

Also, I made this thread because I see the "don't snitch" attitude in non-ghetto aspects of life, for instance TWW (ok maybe it is kind of ghetto here). But also with other middle-class people I've heard this attitude and its always mystified me.

[Edited on December 4, 2007 at 10:43 AM. Reason : s]

12/4/2007 10:43:08 AM

Depends on the crime. I couldn't image reporting my buddies for smoking weed and similar offenses. Honestly, I have a hard time thinking of a situation in which involving the cops would be a good idea. Property crime? Yeah, right. The last thing I want is someone shipped off to the torture center over an candy bar or whatnot.

12/4/2007 10:48:23 AM

well, I can understand not snitching on your friends, but if you see someone steal a candy-bar, why not report them? they're increasing the rate of crime and attacking the orderliness of your own society right in your own neighborhood.

12/4/2007 10:56:12 AM

Quote :

"if you see someone steal a candy-bar, why not report them? "

cause its a candy bar? if you see somebody speeding on the highway do you call it in to the highway patrol? or do you just try and avoid that car and mind your own business?

now granted seeing a murder is a lot different than seeing somebody steal a candy bar...and people would be more likely to come forward...however lets say hypothetically it was a drug dealer who killed another drug dealer...do you call the cops? or just chalk it up to the game since thats part of the game

12/4/2007 11:00:15 AM

Quote :

"However, I really have a hard time understanding why people get so worked up if a non-involved person reports a criminal to the police."

us homies gotta stick together and fight the white power.

Quote :

"But also with other middle-class people I've heard this attitude and its always mystified me."

Depends on the law. If you go outside and see your neighbor smoking a joint on his back porch then you'd
be a pretty big douche calling the cops to report "drug activity". On the other hand if you go out back and
see your neighbor dumping a dead body into a big ass hole then that is a different story.

12/4/2007 11:00:51 AM

Quote :

"well, I can understand not snitching on your friends, but if you see someone steal a candy-bar, why not report them? they're increasing the rate of crime and attacking the orderliness of your own society right in your own neighborhood."

I don't necessarily believe in property rights. The last thing I'd want is a human being getting brutalized by the system over a candy bar. I certainly would not report it.

12/4/2007 11:05:30 AM

I probably wouldn't alert store security over a someone pocketing a candy bar; however, if I caught someone walking out of my neighbor's house w/ a big screen TV or saw a thug ripping a car stereo in a parking lot then i'd have issues.

12/4/2007 11:46:40 AM

Quote :

"lets say hypothetically it was a drug dealer who killed another drug dealer...do you call the cops? or just chalk it up to the game since thats part of the game"

do you really want stray bullets flying around your neighborhood just because its "part of the game?"

12/4/2007 12:05:03 PM

no my point is part of the drug dealing game is getting shot and killed...its completely different if you have a bunch of innocent people getting hurt...but i dont have sympathy when criminals who choose to lead lives of crime get caught up in what that life entails, ie getting shot and killed...knew the risks

12/4/2007 12:11:24 PM

I always figured that 'snitches get stitches' had a lot more to do with force projection on the part of criminals as opposed to some sense of entitlement.

Certainly, there are those who believe that the police are the worse of two evils (police and criminals). But I have to believe that the majority of people don't like crime any more than you do.

12/4/2007 12:23:25 PM

- i see john selling drugs
- i call the cops on john
- the cops come out and dont find anything on john
- john finds out who called the cops
- john sends some hardcore motherfuckers to my tenement to fuck me up, maybe kill me

is it starting to make sense yet?

12/4/2007 12:44:15 PM

yes, i understand that, but frequently you will see a third party who knows neither the criminal nor the informant who acts outraged that someone snitched

that's what i'm talking about

[Edited on December 4, 2007 at 12:47 PM. Reason : s]

12/4/2007 12:46:50 PM

there are those who believe that the police are the worse of two evils (police and criminals).

while you may not agree with that sentiment (I don't), it's not hard to understand how they arrived at that point of view.

12/4/2007 1:03:13 PM

Full Disclaimer: The OP is a white man from a middle-class background.

12/4/2007 4:56:45 PM

Quote :

"What am I missing? Why is a person expected to show more loyalty to a random criminal than to society?"

It's not loyalty as much as fear of retribution.

random anecdote: I was on a jury on a murder trial in Baltimore, stabbing in a nightclub. One hundred or more people in the club, and there were three (very bad) witnesses, including only one person who was a partygoer. we never got any information on the defendant or backstory on how the two might be related. It seemed as if people were basically scared to go on the record about this guy.

but the whole "nobody likes a tattletale" from elementary school? If you're constantly expecting authority to protect and defend you, you won't get all that far in life.

12/4/2007 6:41:29 PM

Here's a good example:

In the Elder Abuse thread message_topic.aspx?topic=505244

Smath74 says, "it really isn't your business."


Really? Why not?

12/7/2007 12:04:36 AM

some people wonder why their neighborhood is a complete shithole

12/7/2007 12:05:32 AM