Member: JekyllAndHyde

JekyllAndHyde I am greatness personified. Yes, I am a cartoon Rat.

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JUNE 3, 2008 @ 10:50 AM

I posted this in the HBO group, but few people respond there so I thought I'd post it here too. Just a heads up: this regards my recent obsession, the TV show The Wire, but you don't have to watch it to get what I'm talking about here.

I just finished watching Season 4 (and I'm pissed that I have to wait until August 12 to see Season 5), but I wanted to bring up something about the "snitch" label. I really started thinking about it when

SPOILERS! (Click to view)

the kids in Randy's group home wrote "Snitch Bitch" on his bed before beating the shit out of him.



I can understand why some of the older blacks would mistrust the police -- hell, as corrupt and racist as a lot of major city police departments were in the '60s and '70s, who could blame them? -- but the younger generation doing the same... I don't know. I should offer the caveat that I'm white and I grew up in a decent middle class neighborhood in Indiana, so I've never been to some of the places in life these people have, but it seems to me that the whole "don't snitch" ethos is created by manipulative gang leaders to protect their own assess.

I mean, as Bodie said in the Season 4 finale, he sacrificed a lot to protect his bosses, but when it was time for them to help him, they fucked him over. Gang leaders like Marlo seem like cult leaders to me: they take impressionable kids and fill their heads with this "don't snitch" crap and make it sound all honorable and noble, but all they're really doing is using them. And the kids who take that ideal to heart completely buy into it. It's one thing to not talk to the police; it's another to actively hunt down anyone who does talk to them.

I don't know, I may not have the right to critique this mindset, but after seeing what happened to Randy, I just got to thinking about the whole thing and it really made me sick. Anyone else have any ideas on this?

Comments
shirt_weiner

shirt_weiner

Santa Monica, CA
December 2007

JUN 03, 2008 11:23 PM

Go get a drink, my dear.

Ash

Ash

SUICIDEGIRL

Illinois, USA

JUN 05, 2008 11:09 AM

Ive never seen the wire since I dont have special channels like that, only basic cable .. so I dont know exactly what you're talking abt, but I DO live in a bigt city and know a lot abt racial favoritism and profiling, coming from a state where there were very little to no black ppl, then moving to a state where white ppl are the minority, its definitely an eye opener.

The fact is, cops still do use racial profiling, and are more apt to think a blk man is doing something bad than a white man, even in this city where blacks are the majority. However, if a white person is ever seen in a black neighborhood, that alone is cause for a complete body search and is considered justified "probable cause" for having drugs on them. Heh. My man lived in an all blk neighborhood, so that was HELL for us being antagonized by the police every time u turned around. It made u want to hide even tho u werent doing anything!!

MrChairman

MrChairman

Chicago, IL
March 2005

JUN 05, 2008 12:22 PM

The Wire kicks ass, I've been addicted to that series from the get go.

As for cops know a days, it seems things still have a long way to go. My brother is an officer here in Chicago and to here some of his co-workers talk you'd think it was the '60s and '70s.

coleen

coleen

Austin, TX
January 2007

JUN 06, 2008 08:22 AM

Yes sir, she did:

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