# "Snitch" is a dangerous label



## PBC FL Cop (Oct 22, 2003)

Thursday, April 12, 2007 *'Snitch' is a dangerous label*

Making crime reporting safer is goal of study

*By Milton J. Valencia TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
*










*WORCESTER- *Pedro Hernandez has lived the street life and has seen the worst of it, but it took a friend getting stabbed for him to realize the life wasn't for him. So he worked with police, because if he had been stabbed he would have wanted the same thing.

There were possible consequences, of being retaliated against by the gang members who stabbed his friend and, equally bad, being known as a "snitch."

Still, "I chose the streets, and they didn't give me nothing," he said. "He almost died in my arms."

It was a lesson learned for Mr. Hernandez, 22, who has been volunteering with a local youth agency since the stabbing. But hundreds of teenagers like him across the state still face an environment of crime and the stigma of being labeled a snitch if they report a crime, according to a study on urban youth in Massachusetts.

The study, "Snitches Get Stitches: Youth, Gangs, and Witness Intimidation in Massachusetts," sought to understand the underlying culture of youth crime, witness intimidation and cooperation with law enforcement.

"We know there are many, many victims of crime and many times it's gang-related," said Mary Lou Leary, executive director of the National Center for Victims of Crime, based in Washington.

However, witnesses rarely talk about crimes, and don't report it to police, she said.

"The question we tried to answer was why," Ms. Leary said. "Tell us what's happening, and tell us how we can work together to make it all right."

In the study, 641 students from Boys & Girls Clubs in urban areas throughout the state completed an online survey on gang prevalence in schools, their own experience with gangs and crime, their relationship with police, their thoughts on witness intimidation and ideas for safely reporting crimes.

Then a smaller group of teenagers from each of the cities - Roxbury, Holyoke, Lawrence, Lowell, Lynn, Springfield and Worcester - participated in one-on-one interviews with researchers.

The participants ranged in age from 12 to 20 and lived in communities with areas prone to violence.

The statistics show that a notable number of students know gang members, or are gang members themselves. Gang members live in their neighborhoods and go to the same schools.

In Worcester, 80 percent of students said they know a gang member in school, 73 percent know a gang member in their neighborhood, and 41 percent have gang members as friends.

A smaller percentage of students report crimes to authorities, with 64 percent of the students fearing getting beat up or killed, and others saying they had little trust in police, the researchers said. In many cases, their family members wouldn't report the crime either, refusing to get involved.

The study lists a series of recommendations:

•Authorities should work to rebuild trust between youth and police.

•Efforts should be made to increase safety for people willing to report a crime.

•Communities should mount a marketing campaign countering the anti-snitching mentality among youths.

•Authorities should reach out to parents, getting them involved in youngsters' lives.

•Tools should be developed to protect witnesses, by speeding up court processes and providing a sense of security for them.

Ms. Leary, the executive director, added that a council made up of youngsters and criminal justice officials should be formed, along with the creation of a full-time witness protection coordinator who would advocate on behalf of victims and witnesses.

There's a lack of responsibility among law enforcement and court officials in working with witnesses "and the net result is nobody is taking care of these kids," said Robert C. Davis, senior research analyst for the RAND Corporation, which assisted in the study.

The study's findings come at a time when cities across the state, Boston in particular, are seeing a spike in youth crime and a lack of cooperation among witnesses who fear retaliation.

Ike McBride, unit director for the Boys & Girls Club on Tainter Street, where the study was released yesterday, said teenagers are living in a world where they were taught not to be tattletales when they were younger, and now are taught not to snitch.

Community partnerships between the Boys & Girls Club, schools and the Police Department, especially the gang unit, have helped ease concerns among youngsters, helping them escape a neighborhood of crime, Mr. McBride said.

But he also stressed those partnerships are being challenged by a youth culture that looks up to violent movies such as "Scarface" and frowns on snitching.

"These kids are only going to be victims of what they know," Mr. McBride said. "Their world is a lot more complicated than we give them credit for."

Police Capt. Steven M. Sargent, commander of the police gang unit, said partnerships have been made to reach out to students. Gang unit officers do arrest people, he said, but a more important part of their duties has been reaching out to youngsters as a form of crime prevention. Officers attend community events, and even volunteer in sports leagues.

The gang unit has helped raise money for the Boys & Girls Club's boxing program.

Youngsters would often say they had nothing to do with their free time, and so "we called them on that" by creating new programs, Capt. Sargent said.

Officers have been reaching out to students of younger ages then ever before, choosing to work with children as young as sixth-graders.

"Everything they're talking about is a lot about relationships," said Joseph Hungler, the Boys & Girls Club director of operations. The schools' liaison for public safety and community liaisons from the district attorney's office were at yesterday's event. Mr. Hungler said it was a testimony to the partnership officials have worked on forming, to reach out to youngsters.

Mr. Hernandez, who left the streets, was a Boys & Girls Club regular early on, participating in the boxing programs as a youngster. But he was lured to the streets soon afterward, and engaged in a life of crime and drug dealing. He knows what it's like to be arrested.

But he has a son now. And his life changed 1-1/2 years ago, the day his friend was stabbed by a group of gang members, who left the friend bleeding in Mr. Hernandez's arms.

"That really opened my eyes," he said.


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