I Applaud The Idea & Effort

Although I think that rather than "Snitching: Who's it Helping, Who's it Hurting?" it should have been called "Accepting Responsibility For Your Actions" which is something that has been lost in a small segment of our population.

How speaking up fights crime
Youth urged to do `the right thing' through unique new witness hotline where lawyers guide them to police
March 14, 2007
Betsy Powell
Crime Reporter

The phenomenon of the street code of silence is not always a case of someone being scared – although fear of retribution is often a major reason why witnesses don't identify criminals.

Witnesses can also stay silent for other reasons: apathy, a mistrust of police or, in some cases, a victim may refuse to co-operate because he wants to regain respect and be seen as someone who has taken his lumps and survived violence, his reputation unsullied by the label of "snitch."

That was the consensus during a lively and freewheeling workshop called "Snitching: Who's it Helping, Who's it Hurting?" at the two-day, city-sponsored Safe Cities for Youth conference which wrapped up yesterday.

The conference was sponsored by Pro Bono Law Ontario, which recently established the Witness Advice Line to offer free legal advice to callers who have witnessed a violent crime. Yellow and green posters and cards advertising the 1-888-448-6667 number include the tag line: "zero connection to the police." While anonymity is also extended, callers are advised to dial *67 to block their identities.

"The program is staffed by volunteers who will connect you with a lawyer to help you understand your legal rights in the event you are questioned by the police or are considering coming forward with information about a crime," reads the website, http://www.witnessadvice.com.

Dozens of homicides have gone unsolved over the past decade and investigators often cite a lack of co-operative witnesses. While Toronto police say they are receiving more co-operation of late, yesterday Staff Supt. Peter Sloly, at a conference plenary session on alternative justice, noted how the rate of solving homicides plummeted over the years while relations between minority communities and police deteriorated.

Witness intimidation is also a real problem. Just last week the Ontario Provincial Police charged a married couple with threatening a witness. Several alleged gang members facing an upcoming trial are also accused of witness intimidation.

A teacher, probation officer, and community and outreach workers attending yesterday's workshop all agreed change is needed to persuade young people in particular that "doing the right thing" – and the interpretation of that was also debated – is "bigger than snitching."

Too often when people do go to the police there aren't the social services available to protect or guide them, the conference heard. Nor does the broader community recognize the "sensitivity" of what it means "to stand up and speak out," observed a community worker.

But for some, it's simply a code that can't be broken, in accordance with the "Stop Snitchin'" movement. "Maybe stealing an old lady's purse?" asked one man of another. He shook his head no, prompting a revision of the scenario, to someone "beating up an old lady." That elicited a "maybe."

"If somebody robs my mom, I'd like someone to stand up," piped up another.

A youth worker and self-admitted "snitch" said her eyes were opened when she went to visit one of her charges in hospital recovering from a stab wound.

She found him in bed, surrounded by friends, including one wearing a "Stop Snitchin'" T-shirt. He also had no intention of telling the police who did it, though he "told me everything," she said. She, in turn, told police because that's part "of my job," and they told her they'd still need the youth to corroborate the story.

A worker from a youth detention centre said the "shrugging off" of an injury seems to be part of self-esteem building, where surviving violence is seen to be a "feather in your cap" though the outward bravado doesn't represent what's going on inside.

University of Toronto criminologist Scot Wortley said there are other examples of refusing to snitch, such as not reporting tax evaders, students cheating, or within policing where there exists the sacrosanct principle of protecting "your own."

Another attendee questioned police and media accounts that suggest there are hundreds of potential witnesses after say, a nightclub shooting, when it could just be a case of most people actually not seeing anything.