The story is a serious and critical one, and it is one that I felt compelled to blog about tonight.
The story highlights, in a very scary way, the no snitch culture that permeates throughout urban America and cities like Philadelphia.
And, sadly, what has been allegedly happening here in Philly takes this sad phenomenon to a scary new level.
"Philadelphia police and prosecutors are investigating an anonymous Instagram account with thousands of followers that for months has been identifying witnesses in violent crimes across the city - aiming, in its creator's words, to "expose rats."
The account, called rats215, has outed more than 30 witnesses since February, posting photos, police statements, and testimony on the photo-sharing website.
Because many of the statements posted aren't public records, authorities are investigating the page as a potential act of mass witness intimidation - in a city where police and prosecutors struggle daily to find witnesses willing to testify.
Rats215 had nearly 7,900 followers. To find who's behind it, authorities this week obtained several search warrants on the account.
The account, called rats215, has outed more than 30 witnesses since February, posting photos, police statements, and testimony on the photo-sharing website.
Because many of the statements posted aren't public records, authorities are investigating the page as a potential act of mass witness intimidation - in a city where police and prosecutors struggle daily to find witnesses willing to testify.
Rats215 had nearly 7,900 followers. To find who's behind it, authorities this week obtained several search warrants on the account.
In one instance, rats215 posted photos and evidence from a shooting victim whose case was handled in a secret grand jury.
In another, the account posted a photo that appeared to have been taken while a witness was testifying in court.
The account has been updated almost daily, and each new post draws dozens of comments and "likes" from readers, with some of the commmenters advocating violence against those who help police. The page has more than 150 photos.
"Post some new rats," one commenter wrote in September. "I needa put a hit out on them."
Said another, earlier this week, "This page is [. . .] perfect."
In one post, the account-holder praises Kaboni Savage - the North Philadelphia drug kingpin sentenced to death in June for 12 murders, including a fireboming that killed four children and two women. The bombing was retaliation for a witness' cooperation with the FBI.
In the same post, rats215 warns witnesses "we will get at you in time." [More]
This is madness, and it undermines the criminal justice system that we all depend on to maintain law and order in a society that is becoming increasingly lawless.
I say this as someone who frequently finds himself defending individuals who are charged with all sorts of crimes within the criminal justice system. I would never want to win a case because a key witness is intimidated from testifying.
I also understand that this is not a black and white issue. (No pun intended.)
The people who live in the neighborhoods where this type of behavior takes place can't always go to the police because they live in real fear of their loved ones and families being hurt if they do. When your home might be firebombed or your child might be kidnapped on the way to school, you tend to think about your duties as a citizen to report crimes and cooperate with the District Attorney's office just a little harder.
Still, at some point, this madness has to stop. Most of us living in our bubbles created by stable families, jobs, and a solid support system can only stay insulated from the mayhem for so long. One day, one way or the other, it will get us.
"It might sound crazy. I think that neighborhood's possessed. I do. With all them dead bodies, souls, flinging around down there. Then that cemetery" down the street. The odds of surviving in this neighborhood, she says, are "zero to none."
No mam, it does not sound "crazy" to me. Sadly, it sounds quite normal.
Pics from Philly.com and CityPaper.net.
In another, the account posted a photo that appeared to have been taken while a witness was testifying in court.
The account has been updated almost daily, and each new post draws dozens of comments and "likes" from readers, with some of the commmenters advocating violence against those who help police. The page has more than 150 photos.
"Post some new rats," one commenter wrote in September. "I needa put a hit out on them."
Said another, earlier this week, "This page is [. . .] perfect."
In one post, the account-holder praises Kaboni Savage - the North Philadelphia drug kingpin sentenced to death in June for 12 murders, including a fireboming that killed four children and two women. The bombing was retaliation for a witness' cooperation with the FBI.
In the same post, rats215 warns witnesses "we will get at you in time." [More]
This is madness, and it undermines the criminal justice system that we all depend on to maintain law and order in a society that is becoming increasingly lawless.
I say this as someone who frequently finds himself defending individuals who are charged with all sorts of crimes within the criminal justice system. I would never want to win a case because a key witness is intimidated from testifying.
The people who live in the neighborhoods where this type of behavior takes place can't always go to the police because they live in real fear of their loved ones and families being hurt if they do. When your home might be firebombed or your child might be kidnapped on the way to school, you tend to think about your duties as a citizen to report crimes and cooperate with the District Attorney's office just a little harder.
Still, at some point, this madness has to stop. Most of us living in our bubbles created by stable families, jobs, and a solid support system can only stay insulated from the mayhem for so long. One day, one way or the other, it will get us.
"It might sound crazy. I think that neighborhood's possessed. I do. With all them dead bodies, souls, flinging around down there. Then that cemetery" down the street. The odds of surviving in this neighborhood, she says, are "zero to none."
No mam, it does not sound "crazy" to me. Sadly, it sounds quite normal.
Pics from Philly.com and CityPaper.net.
34 comments:
Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Field.
I had never heard of this.
How the hell are they getting grand jury testimony?
This reeks of inside job..and somebody needs to be arrested for it.
Quote Desert Flower
”Wow nene! Me gusta como hablas el Espa~ol! :)”
Mein Deutsch ist besser als mein Spanisch. Mon français est meilleur que mon Allemande. Maar mijn Nederlands is uit eindelijk mijn tweede taal.
Kanashī koto ni watashi no nihonjin wa mada kanari yowaidesu.
Holy Purple Cow! I love it!:D
Field said...
"In one instance, rats215 posted photos and evidence from a shooting victim whose case was handled in a secret grand jury.
In another, the account posted a photo that appeared to have been taken while a witness was testifying in court."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Can anybody say Columbia? Mexico?
You know I've read that they have intricate ways to carve up the bodies of the cops and snitches they kill.
They have names for the way they cut up the bodies. "The Flower" "The Stuck Pig" "The Mummy" You can imagine the gore.
And they're left on the street for all to view and the take heed.
Yup, it's bad all right :(
Someone in the criminal justice system is corrupt. Well that's not saying much.
Blogger The Purple Cow said...
Quote Desert Flower
”Wow nene! Me gusta como hablas el Espa~ol! :)”
Mein Deutsch ist besser als mein Spanisch. Mon français est meilleur que mon Allemande. Maar mijn Nederlands is uit eindelijk mijn tweede taal.
Kanashī koto ni watashi no nihonjin wa mada kanari yowaidesu.
6:52 PM
--------------------
Dein Deutsch ist sehr schleck!
FN-
i read about the stop snitching instagram horror yesterday and thought:
injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere...truly.
since you are in a place where spiritual strongholds in neighborhoods doesn't sound 'crazy'- take a look at this:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-43767/Worlds-GM-babies-born.html
we are in the middle of a super corrupt science fiction movie...
Re: Incognito/Martin on-going story, this video clears it all up. Mr Field, you have been ALL wrong about Richie...He is not a racist. Brother Field, why must you continue to project your own stuff on Whites who love us?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/10/richie-incognito-interview-jonathan-martin_n_4250877.html
I also understand that this is not a black and white issue.
Yep, it's pretty much just a black issue.
Actually, redneck.....
http://abcnews.go.com/US/police-arrest-911-caller-guy-heinze-jr-georgia/t/story?id=8499188&ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F
Field this shit is old, old, old among black folks in America. It goes all the way back to the days following the Civil War when blacks migrated into segregated communities outside of the south and after Negroes obtained the right to vote. Black communities or neighborhoods were in a PATRON/CLIENT relationship with the white political power structure wherein blacks were the CLIENTS and the white power boss was the PATRON.
In those days the white power structure would pick some "Trustworthy" big shot Negro in the black community and deputize him to be the official law enforcement officer for the entire Negro community. The selected person could generally pick his own title such as Sheriff of < the name of the black ghetto>. For example if the name of the Negro ghetto "black bottom"; the selected law enforcement person would likely use the title, Sheriff of black bottom. All law enforcement for the Negro ghetto had to go thru this lawman selected by the white power structure. the purpose of this arrangement was to guarantee that all of the voting in the Negro community would be effectively coerced to be in accordance with the wishes of the white political power structure. Under this type of arrangement any black person who decided to enter some sort of criminal complaint not with the local appointed sheriff. but with the proper authorities at the downtown courthouse would wind up in a lot of trouble. Unknown black thugs would suddenly attack them many times killing them.
Such lessons was not lost on the residents of the black community, who quickly learned to avoid the downtown courthouse like the plague. Obviously since the white power structure wanted all legal and criminal matters to go thru their appointed law officer, all the data surrounding any Negro who decided to file a complaint at the downtown courthouse would be turned over to the local Negro sheriff so he would have an opportunity as to teach the respective "rebel" a lesson.
IMHO the current "No Snitching" campaign is just the modern version of the decades old PATRON/CLIENT political relationship between black voters and the white political power structure. Although the white political power structure no longer appoint local law enforcement sheriffs for the black communities; the white power structure however finds it to be advantageous to have the black communities remain completely dysfunctional and filled with confusion due to constantly living in a highly disordered community. If folks are continuously worried about being shot dead whenever they step outside their front door; it is unlikely that they are going to mount an effective campaign to politically improve their community. For example a desirable improvement project might be an effective campaign against the unjust incarceration of young black men on bogus drug charges.
"Such lessons was not lost on the residents of the black community"
Circa 1875...
Black people aren't very adaptable, are they?
Maybe more anonymous tips are in order.
PilotX, "Maybe more anonymous tips are in order."
You are constantly calling anons "trolls". And now you want tips from us? GTFOH
~
field booty, field booty, field booty; what happened to blame white folks first?
`
If you know the "No Snitch" phenomenon exists... why not work within it than try to change it?
This "snitch culture" thing is what happens when drugs are criminalized.
Think about it - otherwise there would be NO support for violent, murderous assholes to thrive behind.
But when you take what is directly harmless to anyone but the user and make it a criminal offense you blur the lines between what is morally right and wrong at the same time.
I mean, the murderous assholes then are the drug dealers, and they're the upper echelon of dealers because they'll stop at nothing.
A very high percentage of violent crimes would end without illegal drug trade in the first place. What violent crimes remained would have much, much less support from a jaded society who feel criminals already because they got high once, and who figure the law doesn't make sense and the police are just another gang.
It's all completely fucked up.
These instagram accounts are a symptom of a much larger problem ,....
It Puzzles me when Field writes these kinds of stories...
yet he brushes off things like when "Too To Big To Fail" Banks (HSBC) gets minor slaps on the wrist for money laundering drug war profits...
This "snitch culture" thing is what happens when drugs are criminalized.
Excellent observation....
Field loves to point out the symptons of the acutal problem.
The criminal culture of illegal drug pofits cant be "Bargained" with..cajoled, or coerced.
These type of things will continue to happen as a result of
1. Creating a black market for narcotics that America is insatiable for
2. Focusing the enforcement, and expansion of the black market into communities of color.
No amount of "Feel good " speeches about personal responsibility or "Doing The Right Thing" will help.
The correct thing to do would be to look at the substances that they profit the most from ,and remove those items from the black market.
60-75%% of cartels money comes supplying the remainder of the country that doesnt have medical MJ laws...
We have a community here protecting someone who murdered a young woman. It is maddening, because no one outside the circle of those in the know can get to the truth.
"Well, MLK AND Malcolm X liberated you, but I get the point."
How did the ex-con, felon Malcolm X liberate anyone?
The true legacy of Malcolm X is that every black male criminal today thinks he's a "victim of the system". And the masses of black people today seem to agree with this view. Law abiding black men today who have CLEAN RECORDS are considered punks, Uncle Toms and sell-outs. You can't condemn a black thug/crack dealer today (Jay Z anyone) because, after all, he might be the next Malcolm X.
Malcolm X is totally overrated. He talked back to white people in the 1950s/early 60s when talking trash to white people could get a black man killed but other than that what did he accomplish? Nothing. Oh he "wrote" his autobiography (Alex Haley really wrote it). Nothing else. And he changed his name a lot. lol
It seems like everybody in the country, except republiklan primary voters, is excited about Chris Christie running in 2016. I think the winger-dingers will bolt to a 3rd "party" if Christie gets the '16 nomination myself. They swallowed hard & accepted it when McLaim took it in '08, and only stayed because of the lack of a credible alternative on the right still standing in the wake of Rmoney's massive spends in '12, but there is absolutely no way that the Cruz-Palin wing of Tbaggery would sit still for the last living Rockefellor Republican. Cruz has just the personality for it too.
Look at Whiteys Conspiracy Salivating for the next Democrat Cheerleading article from Field...
As if theres a prize at the bottom of the cracker jack box for sticking with this party of crooks Vs the other party of crooks...Pure Entertainment...
Hattie said...
We have a community here protecting someone who murdered a young woman. It is maddening, because no one outside the circle of those in the know can get to the truth.
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Give me a pair of pliers and five minutes and I'll get to the truth.
BIB, please have mercy on field with your comments. He is fragile, addicted to left-wing thinking, and cannot discern right from wrong. Furthermore, he doesn't take constructive criticism too well. Please...have mercy.
America leads the world in illegal drug consumption
http://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/files/serve/?File_id=81b53476-64a3-4088-9bae-254a84b95ddb
20% of white people use cocaine compared to just 10% of African Americans. Whites are also more likely to use hallucinogens, marijuana, pain relievers like OxyContin, and stimulants like methamphetamine, than African Americans.
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/quicktables/quickconfig.do?34481-0001_all
Crack is more popular among blacks than whites, but not by much. (5% to 3.4%)
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/quicktables/quickconfig.do?34481-0001_all
…and yet, African Americans are three times more likely to be arrested for drug possession than whites.
http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/related_material/8%20Fellner_FINAL.pdf
Of 225,242 people serving time in state prisons for drug offenses in 2011, African Americans made up 45 percent and whites just 30 percent.
http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/p12ac.pdf
The Purple Cow said...
America leads the world in illegal drug consumption
----
That's right bitches, we're Number 1!
USA! USA! USA! USA!
The Purple Cow said...
…and yet, African Americans are three times more likely to be arrested for drug possession than whites.
6:44 PM
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When the "war on drugs" was created, it wasn't because the authorities actually concerned about drug use.
It was to be able to have a reason to incarcerate Blacks and Browns.
"It was to be able to have a reason to incarcerate Blacks and Browns."
This is nonsense.
The reason black neighborhoods are so bad is exactly that attitude, the same that leads to the "no-snitch" culture.
Black people will always rally around the criminals in their neighborhood. Black solidarity trumps everything. It's an extreme kind of racism that winds up hurting more blacks than it does whites.
There preferred solution of Organized Blackness to this madness: stop policing the black community. [Police Missing in Action: Cincinnati black-on-black crime soars as police withdraw, Ludington Daily News - Jul 21, 2001]
Officer Adam Hennie pulled over in his patrol car earlier this week to try to break up an argument between two black women shouting profanities at each other. He could feel the hostility toward him from others in the neighborhood.
“Several of the people asked me why I was hassling” the woman who was taking most of the abuse, the 27-year-old white officer said. “They didn’t even know that I was trying to help her. It’s something they automatically assume.”
Hennie said he doesn’t get out of his cruiser as much anymore, and neither do many other officers.
In the three months since the police slaying of a black man touched off riots here, violence has surged and arrests are down in Cincinnati’s poor, mostly black neighborhoods because police are holding back for fear of being accused of racism, the police union said.
“Officers are now hesitant to take enforcement action, particularly with black suspects, for fear of being labeled a racist or a racial profiler,” said union President Keith Fangman.
Since April, Cincinnati had 60 shootings in which 78 people were wounded, compared with nine shootings and 11 victims in the same period a year ago, according to the union. Arrests are down 50 percent, Fangman said.
About 75 percent of the shootings have occurred in Over-the-Rhine, the neighborhood that erupted in April, with the rest in other predominately black, lower-income sections, Fangman said. He said only one of the shootings victims was white and all of the assailants were black.
“What we are witnessing is an epidemic of black-on-black violence which continues to grow,” Fangman said.
Critics said the police are now engaging in an unethical – if not illegal – slowdown in this city where blacks make up 43 percent of its 331,000 residents.
Presently, in Black-Run America (BRA), any attempt to protect white civilization is inherently unethical; under BRA, the only ethics a white person can aspire to live by is to willing participate in the suicide – the Detroiting – of their civilization.
Heather MacDonald’s book "Are Cops Racist?" includes a penetrating chapter on the Cincinnati black riots/uprising, where she points out members of Organized Blackness applauded black racial attacks on white people, an ethical reversal of past transgressions:
Kenneth Lawson, the inflammatory anti-police attorney, explained that the beatings of whites provided their recipients a lesson in what the “brothers” experience daily from the police, and that presumably the white establishment would take notice.
The Los Angeles Times oozed: “While no one wants to say that the riots were good, there was on Friday an undeniable sense of relief that the mayhem had laid bare Cincinnati’s fissures. Now, perhaps, there could be progress.”
Try telling Chris Schoonover how useful rioting is. Schoonover is part of a still-small movement of white residents and business owners back into Over-the-Rhine. On the first day of violence, as she was driving back to her apartment, a brick flew through the car’s open window and struck her. “Man, you hit her in the head!” one brick thrower admiringly exclaimed to his buddy. At the hospital, Schoonover recognized an acquaintance among the dozens of bloodied people waiting for care: a rioter had jumped into her acquaintance’s car and beaten her viciously with a brick.
Since the attack, which left five staples in her scalp, Schoonover’s world has changed completely. Once exquisitely sensitive to racial political correctness, she now sees the world in black and white. For days after the attack she was terrified to return to her largely black neighborhood and university. The sight of white girls jogging alone filled her with dread that they would be attacked by a black person. (p. 73-75)
All white people should be filled with dread at the fate of not only Cincinnati, but all cities in America under the community-crushing iron boot of BRA; Detroit in 2013 is your destiny, your fate, your inevitability.
One commenter was stating that Brother Malcolm was overrated. Here again someone that most likely was not living in America during Malcolm X's influence on the downtrodden Negroes of that era and the positive impact he had on my people.
Know this, the Negro had not seen an assertive male of our color for several decades. Brother Martin had led our pursuits for a decade and half.and my people were then at a slow-down. The Black youth of my generation was no longer satisfied with praying, dog attacks, marching and singing hymns.
Malcolm X, with his no-nonsense, no begging the white power structure, revitalized SOME of us to step up our fight against the all controlling white race.
Only a person that was educated by sound bites would not appreciate the continuous struggle of a race of people that is still necessary to keep in bondage. As I continue to state.... The African Americans are/were "made in America", You created these monsters, now you have to co-exist with them until you return them to the plantations (jails, prisons) or exterminate them (auto homicidal),
But with all the misery, I still see things I admire about my race as well as my heroes (not the ones YOU sanction). When people are not equally protected, they respond in different ways. In my lifetime I have seen many, many men charged with murder released back on the streets with the police blaming the community for not appearing in court and etc. . The police were the culprits in integrating that "no snitching" in the African Americans' lexicon.
StillaPanther2 suggests a site for caring citizens to inform who has a gun, who is slinging dope and other acts that destroys our communities. I will do the snitching. It impossible to strive forward when you constantly looking over your back.
"In my lifetime I have seen many, many men charged with murder released back on the streets with the police blaming the community for not appearing in court and etc. . The police were the culprits in integrating that "no snitching" in the African Americans' lexicon."
How did the police institute "no snitching" in so-called "black communities"?
It was the black thugs/drug dealers who brought no snitching to black neighborhoods, not the police.
Black criminality by now is a major cultural aspect of "black communities". This is a direct result of Malcolm X's legacy.
The most popular black male entertainer in the WORLD today is an unrepentant crack dealer. That would be Jay Z - the ultimate thug/drug dealer. Large numbers of young black males these days want to be him.
Just like a large numbers of conservatives want to be like Ollie North who is a much more dangerous criminal than
Jay-Z ever was.
"Just like a large numbers of conservatives want to be like Ollie North who is a much more dangerous criminal than
Jay-Z ever was."
Me:
We know that Jay Z was a crack dealer because he has admitted it and he regularly talks about it. Question: How many black lives did Jay Z destroy while he was selling crack in the projects?
On the other hand, Ollie North's criminal conviction was tossed out on appeal and he has admitted nothing illegal to my knowledge. So what are you talking about?
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