The "no snitching" trend is one of the stupidest social movements I've heard of in awhile.  I'm not talking about drug snitches or paid informants.  I'm talking about this whole "yeah, you might know the thug who just mowed down the six-year-old kid with a gun, but you'd better not be telling the cops who he was" thing that seems to have grown wings in the inner city.  I live outside Philly and it is on its way to topping last year's body count.  I couldn't tell you how many of those shootings are reported in the news and you get a variety of reactions.  One is bewilderment over the loss of this young one or that young one.  Another is outrage over the carnage taking place in the black community usually leading to some sort of lame march by the parents of the latest victim and a minister from the local church.  Yet, the word that's spread is don't snitch on the thug who ended yet another life because the other thug he was really trying to shoot ducked out of the way and some innocent caught the slug.

Yeah, I know that generally the police aren't trusted by a lot of people living in the inner city and I know a lot of the reasons why.  But, if they don't want to tell the police, let them give the name to the minister or call the DA.  Somebody, anybody.  The one sure thing that letting a murdering thug go free is that the murdering thug is still among you and he's just formed the impression that he's bulletproof and there's no real reason to stop.

Illegitimi non carborundum.

This is what happens when people lose faith in their government. It's the same thing we witnessed on the streets under Reagan and Bush I and it's a failure of leadership from the top. The only surprising part is how long it took Bush II to make inroads on Clinton's legacy -- just goes to show you exactly how much Ol' Bill did for those on the edges of society.

It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.

I'm as WASP as WASP can be (at least as far as appearance goes), and yet I still feel a tinge every time I see a police car or pass an officer on the street. There's something wrong with that - people shouldn't be afraid of the police, and yet we are. I have no good personal reason for this fear (I've been pulled over for speeding a few times, but justifiably in both cases), and the local police actually did quite a bit to help me once when a U-Haul I was driving broke down in the middle of traffic, but I still have that instinctive response. Part of it is television and pop culture, but part of it is just paying attention to news reports (like that guy in Texas that got tazered for trying to take his own child out of the hospital). Most cops are good, decent people - but a decent percentage are pure asshole, and that "wall of blue" does a lot to perpetuate their abuses. Additionally, it seems like police procedure tends towards viewing everyone as a potential suspect. Perhaps this is justified, but if you hear enough stories about kids with water pistols getting gunned down it will start to make anyone nervous.

Ce n'est pas une pipe. C'est une signature.