Stop Snitchin' mindset thwarts murder investigations

By PAUL LAROCCO
The Press-Enterprise
Friday, August 24, 2007

Did all those people really see her son shot 13 times and say nothing?

Months after San Bernardino police were met with only silence from witnesses to Joshua Stanton's slaying outside a crowded party, his mother wanted to hear it herself.

Gwendolyn Patrick knew the names of those said to have been on the sidewalk in August 2006 when Stanton, 21, was shot for crossing a gang member. But when she found them, she encountered a growing street credo that authorities say has successfully glamorized a long-unwritten rule of inner cities.

"Stop Snitchin.'"

Throughout the region and nation, the message is found on DVDs and T-shirts sold at swap meets, tagged on traffic signs and on the lips of those either too afraid or too defiant to assist police investigations.

"One guy said, 'Yeah, I saw him get killed,'" Patrick said, recalling her visit to the spot where her son was shot while standing outside his still-running car. "I asked, 'What did you see?'

"Suddenly it was, 'I don't want to talk.'"

The Stop Snitchin' philosophy, and fear of retaliation against witnesses, affects nearly every homicide investigation in urban neighborhoods, say authorities. A case in point: Police say up to 100 people may have seen former high-school football star Donnell Jury Jr. shot in the head outside a popular downtown San Bernardino nightclub Monday.

No one is talking.

"With these shirts, gang members are basically saying to the community that those people who assist law enforcement are facing retaliation," said San Bernardino County Deputy District Attorney Cheryl Kersey, head of the hardcore gang unit. "They're really reinforcing their position."

Kersey said that in the decade she's been prosecuting cases, the problem has worsened. She has seen two witnesses killed over the past several years for their testimony and many others assaulted or threatened, she said.

Why the movement has gained so much traction is up for debate. Area police and prosecutors say the overwhelming fear of retaliation stops most people from cooperating. But an influential pastor, a former gang member and a national expert on informants in law enforcement say the reason is more societal.

Distrust of police in poorer, high-crime neighborhoods drives the success of the movement just as much as fear, they say, and improving witness relations first requires admitting the problem.

"The motto has captured a disturbing aspect of the public spirit, but that's not to say popular culture is the source," said Alexandra Natapoff, a Loyola Law School professor. "It is pointing us to something deeper and more disturbing about the way we police these communities, and the way these communities perceive the government and the police."

Of Rialto, Calif.'s 12 homicides this year, detectives have made arrests in three. Among the stalled cases: a man executed in front of a half-dozen co-workers and an apartment shooting in which the victim's family crowded around him as it happened.

"Some have been in broad daylight, in front of numerous witnesses, and they're still not" talking, said Rialto police homicide Detective Carl Jones. "We've had a difficult time solving our homicides this year because of it."

In San Bernardino and the neighboring areas covered by the county Sheriff's Department, uncooperative witnesses are a factor in more than half of unsolved homicides, officials said.

Riverside County sheriff's investigators note the same problem, best illustrated by an April slaying in Rubidoux. Dozens of people saw assailants chase the victim through the street before shooting him as he tried to hide under a parked car.

Lt. Daniel Wilham of the sheriff's central homicide unit said it's often a challenge to persuade even the closest relatives of a victim to "do the right thing to bring justice."

Jones agreed.

"It's not because they aren't good people. It's because they're so scared," he said. "In the area these people are forced to live in, a lot of them can't afford to take any chances. They've got no other place to go, and if they testify they witnessed a murder, they're next."

The Rev. T. Elliott, an influential voice in San Bernardino's urban communities and a regional director of Al Sharpton's National Action Network, suggested that police can help erode the Stop Snitchin' mind-set.

Having officers on the street spend more time with residents, rather than racing from arrest to arrest, would be a start.

Police "need to develop a trust and familiarity. They shouldn't be seen as enemies," said Elliott, pastor of Mt. Zion Baptist Church. "But when they create an us-versus-them system, the youngsters enhance that by saying, 'Are you going to look at us for protection, or them?' "

In many of the neighborhoods where San Bernardino police Detective Travis Walker spends his time, blame falls partly on some of the parents, he said. The veteran Westside gang investigator has seen families teach gang signs to their children -- some just 5 years old.

So it's not surprising to see kids wear Stop Snitchin' T-shirts, he said.

Fighting something instilled at home can be daunting, but Walker said, "When it comes to solving crimes, the message has to get out through community leaders to break down whatever perceived barriers there are between residents and law enforcement."

Reach Paul LaRocco at plarocco(at)PE.com