Philly DJ: It's Time To Snitch

An 8-year-old's grisly murder would shock any community, but there's an added layer of astonishment in this neighborhood because the alleged killer appears to hail from the same close-knit religious community as the victim.

"You can't possibly describe how tragic this is and how upset people are this boy was murdered by a person living in the community, who shares his religion and his neighborhood," said Ezra Friedlander, who lives in Borough Park, the neighborhood where Kletzky went missing on Monday. CNN News

I read this story with great sorrow for the victim, his grieving family and community. I watched the community coalesce in shared tragedy - banding together to express outrage over this heinous crime.

Their sentiment (other than sadness) seemed to uniformly suggest this is not going to be an accepted norm! We do not prey on each other. His alleged killer was quickly apprehended by a tip from a community informant.

Juxtapose this sentiment with the mantra of urban terrorist living in black communities (thank you Fieldnegro):

Snitches get Stitches

Violent crime, brother on brother, black on black or neighbor against neighbor is an accepted urban norm. When we turn on the evening news, night after night, we see stories of Urban Terrorist - and we are rarely surprised by their heinous violence.

Prominent athletes and hip hop artist - via the Stop Snitching campaign - have associated and joined forces with the gansta forces that are killing their own people. In this convoluted arena, a kid gets his thug props for killing someone that looks just like him.

And I may add, understanding the socioeconomic forces, broken families and the role of media are all vital to relieving the crisis (and it is a crisis) - however the community (all of us) can still do much better. For this reason, I was elated to read the following story regarding a Philly DJ's campaign to encourage people to Start Snitching.


For years, one of the most common, if not infamous, expressions on the streets of urban America has been "stop snitching," which has evolved from a warning among those who mistrust the authorities to a mentality that threatens innocent people who witness violent crimes and major felonies, and establishes street cred just for avoiding cooperation with police under any circumstances.

But DJ Star (Troi Torain), who is one half of the morning crew on the long-controversial Star & Buc Wild show on WPHI-FM (100.3) in Philadelphia, is determined to change that regardless of what the streets say or what it does to his reputation in hip-hop. He's bringing out a "Start Snitchin'" campaign in response to an overt rash of violent homicides in his town over the past few years. He spoke with NewsFeed after his show to explain why he wants people to report crime and cooperate with police, despite threats that "snitches get stitches" permeating hip-hop culture. Time Magazine Story