The Austin American Statesman just published an article making the claim that there is a thing called a “Stop Snitching” sentiment that has spread to the Austin area.
The article states that “fear that people who cooperate with police will be viewed by their neighbors as snitches has more frequently affected local investigations.” There is a clear distinction drawn between this type of ‘fear’ and the fear of getting shot for being a snitch. This is more like … bad PR for the snitcher.
I like the Statesman, I really do, but what is the point of this article written by Joshunda Sanders? Perhaps if ’snitch fear’ were a serious problem, it might be worth talking about, or if the article were actually aimed at doing something about the problem. But neither is true. The police speculate that 3 cases last year fell through due to ’snitch fear’ and that is just speculation.
The three cases in question were all homicides and I really doubt that the neighbors didn’t report what they knew because they were concerned with being viewed as someone who turned in the adorable murderers.
Fear for your life is one thing, but fear of bad PR in the case of homicides? Unlikely…
This topic might require you to think outside your techie shell a bit and try to empathize with the people living in the areas where homicide actually occurs in Austin. I can imagine that someone whose blog focuses on making sports conversation at the office and the latest I-Phone would have trouble believing that a neighbor wouldn’t cooperate in a murder investigation in their North Austin condo or Circle C gated community. But take a trip down Montopolis way or up to the Rundberg area and see what it’s like to have the police at your house investigating a complaint about drug dealers in your yard, or even a noise or barking dog complaint (much less a murder investigation) and I think you won’t dismiss this article so quickly. While I confess that I haven’t seen the Statesman article yet, I have seen the neighborhood politics and power dynamics in southeast Austin at work and the snitch fear factor is not a small issue. At best it’s a quick route to getting your house or fence tagged, on the scarier side there’s vandalism, theft, harrassment and violence.
@Reese, I hope you aren’t judging the issue as quickly as you judged me based solely on 2 posts (you forgot to mention the one about my registering nadmaharg.com by the way)
I think it’s deplorable to suggest any reasonableness for not reporting murder, rape or other heinous crimes due to a fear of being labeled a snitch. As I said in my article, I think that fear of being hurt or retaliated against is different, and those fears weren’t the fears the article was reporting on.
We’re talking about the article that said this right?
“People generally fear intimidation if they are even seen talking to police in some communities, she said. ”
I’m not suggesting “reasonableness”– I was suggesting “empathizing”, as in trying to put yourself in someone else’s shoes… shoes that, I’m going to go out on a limb again and “judge” you, I don’t think you have much experience wearing.
It seems that your premise for this posting is to deny that snitch fear is really an issue anywhere in Austin. I contend that it is, even if it is foreign or unthinkable to you.
Nope, my purpose for posting was to say that I thought the article space in the paper could have been better occupied by a different article.