Why Some Blacks Don't Cooperate with Police

A visit from police, even for a trivial matter, can quickly and horribly escalate out of control.

I've heard some people recently questioning and/or criticizing Blacks for being unwilling to help the police to investigate and prosecute alleged crimes. Although some criminals may well use the anti-snitching ethos to enable their miscreant careers, I can think of at least four valid and legitimate reasons why many Black people would refuse to provide evidence even against those whom they know have committed crimes against other Blacks:

(1) When Blacks call police to Black neighborhoods, police often arrest and abuse anyone and everyone they see rather than focusing their efforts exclusively on those who are actually committing crimes. As a result, a Black person calling the police to a Black neighborhood is analogous to a Jewish person in Nazi Germany calling the Gestapo to a Jewish enclave; the nearly inevitable result is that ALL people undervalued and persecuted by authorities, even the person who called the police, may suffer, and not just those alleged criminals who were the intended focus of the call to authorities.

Even when police focus their attention on law violators, their actions are often scandalously exaggerated relative to the crimes alleged. For instance, a Black person may be incensed to see a youth spray-painting a wall, but will be even more angry to see that youth shot in the back or placed in a strangling choke hold by police who respond to a complaint. A car chase or shoot-out resulting from even a minor complaint may result in innocent bystander lives being taken. So, often calling the police simply isn't worth the trouble that might foreseeably result.

In the case of Ron and Roy Pettaway in Georgia recently, someone called the police to a bar frequented by Black people after Ron Pettaway was engaged in a minor verbal disagreement, but police officers who responded to the scene after the disagreement ended nonetheless saw fit to shoot both Ron AND Roy Pettaway from behind. Ron was shot in the back of the head, executed, and died at the scene.

Was the person who called the police that night about a minor disturbance of the peace well served by the call? Perhaps not, if it was the bar owner, who lost two good customers that night. Certainly everyone in Atlanta will think twice now before calling police to break up a bar dispute, particularly if they expect to still be present when the police arrive.

(2) After police charge defendants, they often seek a to elicit damning information against others by offering a lesser charge or sentence to the person who has been arrested. If the arrested person gives information - even false information and testimony - to police to reduce his own jeopardy, that may well result in several other Black people being arrested, charged and convicted of crimes which they may or may not have committed.

Although for white people calling the police represents a way to right wrongs and redress grievances, Blacks are very likely to rue and grieve the moment when they decided to call the police occupation forces to their neighborhoods and homes.

(3)Police are allowed to use any evidence in court that is in plain view when they respond to a crime scene. So, a person who reports a house burglary but is then found to have a bit of marijuana sitting on his bedroom dressing table may suddenly and unexpectedly find himself in legal jeopardy.

(4)Police are mandated reporters of situations that pose a risk of abuse or neglect to children. So, if police come to a house to investigate a call for spousal abuse, they may be compelled to report to child welfare authorities that the person who called the police is failing to adequately feed and clothe their children (e.g. is "poor") and that the children are not going to school (because the abuser does not want school authorities to see signs of abuse). Although these factors may all be beyond the caller's control, the caller may nonetheless suffer unintended negative sequelae as the result of calling police.

For reasons big and small, the clear message to Blacks is that a call to police may present a danger to ALL BLACKS, and not just the intended target of the call. Any Black person who has every said to a policemen, "Hey, what are you doing?!" knows that a visit from police, even for a trivial matter, can quickly and easily escalate out of control.