Posted on 07/25/2010 2:49:14 PM PDT by scottfactor
For committing an act of pure decency, three black women are being ostracized by many other black people. • On the night of June 29, Delores Keen, Renee Roundtree and Rose Dodson rushed outside Keen's apartment after they heard gunshots. They discovered two Tampa police officers, David Curtis and Jeffrey Kocab, lying together on the ground. The officers had been shot. Dontae Morris, a 24-year-old black ex-convict, would be charged in the shootings.
Roundtree checked the officers' pulses, and Keen dialed 911. The three women stayed with the dying officers until others arrived. The Hillsborough County Commission honored the women for trying to help the officers.
Since their identities were made public, the woman have been criticized by fellow blacks almost everywhere they go, walking down the street, at local social clubs and in stores.
Their sin, considered by many to be perhaps the worst in American black culture, was helping "the enemy" — the police. You are guilty of helping the enemy in two main ways: You give the police, or another authority, information about a black person who has committed or is suspected of having committed a crime, which is "snitching." Or, as is the case with the three women, you physically aid and comfort police in distress, which is treated the same as snitching.
By trying to help the officers, Keen, Roundtree and Dodson showed, in the eyes of many, that they are not "authentically black." They are traitors to their race.
"I even had an ex-friend call and say, 'That was f----- up. You turned my boy in,' " Roundtree told the St. Petersburg Times of a response to her attempt to help the officers.
The snitching ethos, or code of silence, runs so deep that many blacks who snitch or assist morally struggle with their decisions. Many apologize, while others, having acted, offer history and background as to why blacks see the police as the enemy.
"I expected it," Dodson told the Times, rationalizing the criticism against her. "I don't want to say black folks, but I've got to say black folks — some have faith in the cops and some of them have been harassed for so long, been profiled, that they don't want nothing to do (with the police).
"When they hear someone was helping them, they wonder why. But they don't understand. They weren't in the situation. I don't believe anyone would have been so coldhearted that they would have walked away."
Dodson is being charitable in my estimation. The code of silence has coarsened black culture, especially in low-income communities, both rural and urban. It has created an acceptance of deception, divided loyalties, made pseudo-enemies, pitted neighbors against neighbors and turned criminals such as Dontae Morris into folk heroes.
One of the ugliest public displays of the snitching ethos occurred last year when Anderson Cooper interviewed rapper Cam'ron for 60 Minutes. Cooper asked Cam'ron what he would do if he knew he was living next door to a serial killer. Cam'ron said he would move away rather than snitch on the killer.
Law enforcement officials agree that the code of silence is the main reason they have not solved the murders of, among others, Tupac Shakur, the Notorious B.I.G. and Run-DMC's Jam Master Jay.
In an article for New York magazine, writer Stanley Crouch, who has been condemned for advocating snitching, nicely summed up the lunacy of the code of silence: "The greatest threat to black life and limb is not the police; it's criminals in our community."
He is right. Black criminals victimize their own people. And we help them. If we do not call the police, we deserve the mayhem and dysfunction we suffer. When we conceal the identity of a murderer, we endanger everyone. When we turn our backs on drug deals near our homes, we cheapen the rule of law and destroy social values. In addition to its self-destructiveness, the snitching ethos alienates us from others, putting us at odds with normal behavior.
Would a decent person walk away and refuse to assist a mortally wounded fellow human being — a police officer? Would a decent person condemn someone for helping a police officer?
Blacks have only themselves to blame for giving other people good reasons to hold them in contempt. The code of silence is corrosive in every way.
The black community that does this is nuts!! Idiots all!!
I truely believe race relations had turned the corner.
After this marxist pos “magic negro”, I’ll never again look at a black in a position of power and NOt wonder if they are a quota boy.
A set aside.
Did they get this position only because they are black and not on their merit.
Way to go obammy.
I agree!
Some people are their own worst enemies
Any wonder why most whites and a large number of blacks themselves won’t live in a black neighborhood? I want neighbors I can count on to look after my family and property, not aid criminals.
The Leningrad Times?
They screwed up Africa. They screwed up our cities. They somehow hold me accountable for all of their problems. I'm so done with it -- go fix yourself.
Why do you think all the nations of Africa have been such shining examples of progress?
This is really nothing new, Gary Heidnik lived unmolested in a predominantly African American community in Philly. Similarly, Jeff Dahmer did his crimes in a crowded apartment building in the ‘hood.
I think it's a play on St. Petersburg, which was what Leningrad was called before the commies took over, and it's called that today. The article was from the St. Pete Times in Fla.
I wonder if Jesse Jackson would shake their hands for the media. It would help him a lot, and send a message where it needs to go.
In a culture where life is cheap, having the decency to care for a fellow human being is looked down on. There can be little hope for people like this. and they will eventually get the end that they deserve.
“Jeff Dahmer did his crimes in a crowded apartment building in the ‘hood.”
About a block away from where I used to live. I lived on the edges of the “hood” for years in Milwaukee, back in the Seventies. Never had any trouble with my neighbors. Lived for a while on 13th and State. During the riots! That was an interesting thing for a white boy from Suburbia to go through!
I must agree with you, sir, that “race relations” had turned the corner for the positive result to all people until POTUS Barack Hussein Obama was elected. There still is a long way to go, but things were headed in the right direction. Why? Black assimilation into the American way of life!!! And....other races willingly and openly accepting Black Americans into that way of life in every manner and mode. Shucks, there are thousands upon thousands of interracial marriages of all sorts, the overwhelming majority of them working out just fine and dandy and widely accepted. Jobs, education, opportunities were plentiful and available to all that pursued them. The nasty facts are, that in neighborhoods where Blacks are centered and controlled by “their” people and power hungry politicians (the Democrat Party) things are not and never have been “swell” so to speak. They are worse now in all facets because Black racism is now alive and well with POTUS Barack Hussein Obama, his Democrat party and Black racist leaders such as Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Louis Farrakhan. Throw in Van Jones, Henry Gates, Shirley Sherrod, etc. and the destruction of not only race relations, but the existance of our country is at stake. that’s the bad news!!! The good news is that most Joe & Jane Americans are not buying the Obama racist jive, no matter how he and his ilk package it. And.....I believe that many Black Americans see it the same way. Why because, they love America, they value their freedom and opportunity and they are smart enough to see that the current POTUS Obama is not good medicine for them or all Americans.
Absolutely. I have a friend at work who is black. He's also a chemical engineer. He grew up in the '70s in the worst ghetto in Columbus. No father, scum of the earth surrounding him, the whole bit. But he was smart, and luckily for him, big, in an athletic way. He could fight and he excelled at football. He also excelled at science. He got a few scholarships, went to Ohio State and now has been with our company for 17 years. He's top-notch at what he does for us; not an affirmative action type.
Anyway, he told me that he has been estranged from the majority of his extended family, and even one of his siblings because of his success. They can't stand the fact that he lives in an affluent suburb, lives in a $400,000 house and is married to a tax attorney.
Yes they are.
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