Many adults will resort to saying "stop tattletelling"
Some kids will take it as "Don't report incidents, no matter how major it is".
You might think I'm exaggerating.
Well, why do so many domestic violence victims don't report incidents to the police?
Why do so many rape victims suffer in silence, not even notifying the police?
Why did the murder of Biggie and 2pac, which occurred in front of many witnesses, go unsolved?
It's because many of us have heard "no tattle-telling" and took it to mean "don't report incidents, no matter how major".
You still might be shaking your head and think I'm just jumping to conclusion.
Well, a few years back "60 Minutes" had a segment on the "No Snitching" message preached to many inner-city youth.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/stop-snitchin/
Harlem activist Goeffrey Canada has stated this about how the "no snitching" message has hurt his community
So this slogan, this 'stop snitchin'.' It now extends to rape, robbery, murder, really any crime?" Cooper asks.
"Any crime," Canada says. "It's like we're saying to the criminals, 'You can have our community. Just have our community. Do anything you want, and we will either deal with it ourselves, or we'll simply ignore it.'"
But don't just take it from the activists.
Anderson Cooper then interviewed a bunch of teenagers from Harlem about this same issue.
Cooper met Victoria, Alex, Derrick, Darnell, and Tess through a church-based organization called Uth Turn. They're 14 through 19 years old, and they told 60 Minutes the "stop snitchin'" code doesn't just apply to rappers.
"A snitch is a tattletale, a rat, somebody who goes around telling other people business instead of minding they own," Alex tells Cooper.
Asked if he believes that, Alex says, "Yes.
"Anybody who comes forward and talks to the police about something they witnessed, a murder or a crime, are they a snitch?" Cooper asks.
"Yes… It's a crime, remember, in our community, to snitch," says Tess.
Most of these kids had witnessed at least one violent crime but had not helped the police identify the culprits. Victoria saw someone get shot a few years ago; she says she was scared to talk to the police then, and she wouldn't identify the shooter if the same thing happened today.
Asked why, Victoria says, "Because that's the rules."
Then Anderson Cooper interviewed rapper Camron who survived a car robbery attempt, but refused to talk to the cops about what happened! Cooper asked Camron if a serial killer moved next door, would you tell the cops. Camron said "I'll just move".
That got so much controversy, that even gangsta rap legend Ice-T criticized Camron. Ice-T said if you know someone who had a bomb about to board a plane, you shouldn't be like "I'm just not going on the plane", you should tell the authorities right away!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HHptNp5F7E
After that, Camron had to apologize to crime victims in general for sounding insensitive to those who reported crimes to the police!
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/19/60minutes/main2704565.shtml?tag=currentVideoInfo;segmentTitle
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So, what to do, what to do?
How do we tell kids to report serious incidents?
How do we tell kids the difference between minor issues (that don't need reporting) and major incidents (that DO need to be reported.
Well, one elementary school that I have worked at has posted this sign.
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photo by Pablo Wegesend
via BlackBerry Q10
I wish we had this sign posted at my schools when I was a student.
A sign like this should be posted at EVERY school!
A sign like this should be posted at EVERY home!
Kids need to be repeatedly exposed to a message of when is an issue important enough to report to parents/authorities.
Otherwise, we'll just continue to have another generation of "no snitching" believers!
