Several years ago, I heard Al Sharpton speak to a convention of black male college students. Before the speech, I never cared for Sharpton. I thought he owed his celebrity to lies he told for Tawana Brawley. Then, Sharpton issued an uncompromised challenge that changed my mind.
“Who speaks for you?” Sharpton asked the nation’s best young black men.
In Aurora these days, T-shirts emblazoned “Stop Snitch’n” are hot sellers. Whether they admit it, people wearing these shirts help guys like the animals who murdered Javad Marshall-Fields and his fiancée, Vivian Wolfe. The couple died as Marshall-Fields was set to testify in a murder trial. They died in what police suspect was a gang hit.
If you prefer a life controlled by the Crips, the Bloods or the Gangster Disciples instead of the cops, by all means buy a “Stop Snitch’n” T-shirt.
“Stop Snitch’n” means it’s not cool to help solve crimes. “Stop Snitch’n” means you need not distinguish wrong from right. “Stop Snitch’n” means thugs rule.
A lot of issues must be resolved in the deaths of Marshall-Fields and Wolfe, said the Rev. Larry Brown of Lowry Community Christian Church. A philosophy that lets their assassins run free is not one.
“Kids say, ‘The police are not on our side. It’s not in our best interest to work with them,”‘ said Brown, who acts as a liaison between Aurora’s black community and its police. “If we don’t do something now, it only gets worse. Let’s come to the table and talk about what we can do to feel safe in our communities and what we can do to feel safe when we come forward with information (about a crime).”
Let’s also level with young people about who their real enemies are.
“Honest people cannot afford to harbor criminals,” said the Rev. Acen Phillips, a community activist. The “Stop Snitch’n” mantra is “a direct affront to what we’re trying to do.”
Friends don’t put you in a position where you have to go to jail for what they did, added the Rev. Leon Kelly, executive director of Open Door Youth Gang Alternatives in Denver.
“If you got a friend about to do something, you tell them, ‘I’m not going to take the fall for you,”‘ Kelly said. “You tell them that before they do it. This isn’t about snitching. It’s about not doing something that sends you to jail.”
It’s also about responsibility. Marshall-Fields chose to tell police what he saw at a July 4, 2004, party where someone got killed. He did what was right.
Of course, authorities can protect witnesses better.
“I know kids who did speak up (about crimes) and things happened to them,” Kelly said.
Added Brown: “Police and the district attorney do owe protection to people who come forward.”
Because that doesn’t always happen, is anyone safer siding with killers?
“These shirts advocate a behavior that’s bad for the community,” said Aurora Councilman Ryan Frazier. “It takes us backward. Imagine the kids next door who won’t talk to police when someone breaks into your home.”
Refusing to deal with the cops gets you nowhere.
“Police work for the community, not the other way around,” Brown said. “But you have to work together to reduce crime.”
While he negotiates for better witness protection, Kelly also invites officers from the Denver police gang unit to his afterschool program.
His reasoning is simple: Kids, especially minority kids, need to see police where there is no crime or adversity.
On the other hand, kids – especially minority kids – would be better off never seeing the Crips, Bloods or Gangster Disciples in any circumstance.
People with self-esteem, pride and a future understand that. They know the difference between community and chaos. So they answer Sharpton’s challenge. They speak for themselves.
And when they talk about “Stop Snitch’n,” this is what they say:
Accommodating criminals instead of cops never makes anybody safer.
Jim Spencer’s column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He can be reached at 303-820-1771 or jspencer@denverpost.com.
