No Snitching for Me but not for Thee?
Two factors never heard regarding the snitching issues is the role modeling
of public officials and professionals. (Maria Cramer, "Judge targets
no-snitching culture," Boston Globe, November 23, 2007) Why are youths expected
to snitch on their colleagues? How many police snitch on other police officers?
How many lawyers? How many doctors? How many politicians? This suggests that
young people will experience no retaliation.
It is very difficult to fool young people these days with easy access to
the internet and TV. They know how the world works at a much younger age. If you
want to change the way the courts work you need to begin with the folks who run
the courts and then the folks who write the laws.
Roy Bercaw, Editor ENOUGH ROOM
Judge targets no-snitching culture
Invites city teens to court for video and straight talk
By Maria Cramer
Boston Globe Staff
November 23, 2007
The 12 middle school students had just finished watching an instructional video
produced to help break down the "no snitching" culture in Boston when a court
volunteer asked them a series of questions.
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How many have heard shootings at night?
Every hand went up.
How many knew someone who had been shot?
At least seven raised their hands.
Finally, how many have ever reported gunfire to police?
This time, no one raised an arm.
The children's response is why court officials have been showing the video "You
Be the Judge" to hundreds of fifth- and sixth-graders since January. The video,
filmed by the Huntington Theatre Company, tells the fictional story of a Boston
teenager named Bobby Wilson who is left holding a gun his friend used to shoot
another teenager after a drug deal gone wrong. Bobby is arrested when his
girlfriend, who had urged him to go to the police, refuses to hide the gun for
him. His fear of "snitching" leads to a first-degree murder charge and he is
left sitting morosely in a courtroom, filled with regret, as a jury decides his
fate.
On Monday, the 12 students - sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders from the
McCormack Middle School in Dorchester - gathered in West Roxbury District Court
for a viewing.
The children were older than most of the students who have watched the video,
and some had already had brushes with the law. Court officials were worried they
would react cynically to the video.
As it played, the children did snicker occasionally, mocking the sometimes stiff
acting and melodramatic courtroom scenes. But they paid attention and stayed
quiet for most of the film.
"It was good," said Shawn Rowe, a serious, hazel-eyed 15-year-old, afterward.
"It seemed like something that could happen."
For others, the video lacked credibility.
"That video wasn't real. It was made by adults," said one 14-year-old
eighth-grader who declined to give his name. "If it had been done by kids, it
would have been way different."
Asked what he meant, he said that for one thing, most girls he knows would have
hidden their boyfriend's gun.
"My girl would take that hammy," he said, referring to the slang word for gun.
"I wouldn't," retorted Myiesha, a 14-year-old girl who asked that her last name
be withheld.
The video unleashed a torrent of discussion inside the judges lobby, where
Kathleen Coffey, the first justice of the West Roxbury court, had invited them
to view the film with probation and police officers.
The children debated whether Wilson should be found guilty and if his girlfriend
did the right thing - most of them believed she did. They then peppered Coffey
and the officers with questions about mandatory gun sentences, why juveniles are
sometimes charged as adults, and why police shoot to kill. In turn, the
officials asked the children why they do not turn to authority figures when they
witness an assault or are the victims of one.
"If you go to the principal, that's going to make things worse," Rowe said.
"Because they're going to come after you even more."
The video, which features police officers, court officials, and teenagers from
across the city, is part of Reinventing Justice, a volunteer program of police
officers, lawyers, and others run by Coffey and designed to make the courts more
accessible to the community.
Coffey said they decided to show the film to middle school students because they
are more likely influenced by its message than high school students, who have
formed firmer opinions about cooperating with police.
Middle school students are at "the turning point," she said. "You still have
their attention."
As the students prepared to leave her conference room for a tour of the
courthouse, Coffey told them she hoped they would reflect on what they discussed
that morning. They would be heading into her courtroom to watch defendants plead
their cases. Many of them, Coffey told them, are good people who made "bad
decisions."
"What we're talking about is serious," she said. "I pray every night and I'm
sure your parents pray every night that you will make good decisions."
Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com.
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.
