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The beauty of dropping dimes to the police via anonymous text messages is that you can feel like a witness, while suffering none of the consequences. It's sort of like the difference between being a weekend paintball warrior or a Marine on patrol in Fallujah. Don't get me wrong, providing the police with information that is timely and accurate is crucial, particularly when the alternative can be not providing it at all. Those few words punched out on a cell phone can take guns off the street or lead investigators to the suspects they're chasing. "Intelligence is incredibly useful," the Rev. Bruce Wall agreed, "but intelligence is not the same thing as a witness. And in lots of cases, what you need is a witness." These days, witness is a word enveloped by the dark shadow of that other word: "snitch." They are not, in fact, the same. A snitch is someone who trades information to save their own skin . . . to stay out of jail, or make a pending charge disappear. A witness, on the other hand, is that kind of rare neighbor and citizen Bruce Wall described, someone who will stand up and do the right thing for no other reason than it's the right thing to do. "This gentleman goes down to court not long ago to provide testimony about a vicious incident that occurred two streets over from where he lives," Wall recalled yesterday. "The problem is, by the time this gentleman makes it home, he finds out from others in the neighborhood that the perpetrator, the person he gave testimony against, has already made bail and is back on the street. "Now this witness has to think seriously about whether to relocate, or take his chances bumping into this person. 'Pastor,' he says to me, 'what am I going to do? I still see this guy on the street. I'm scared.' " Bruce Wall's friend and colleague, the Rev. Jeffrey Brown, believes that the distinction between a witness and a snitch is not lost on those who choose to deal in terror. "They most certainly know the difference," Brown said recently. "They realize that citizens -- outraged by witnessing, say, a brazen murder in broad daylight -- may be moved to speak. But fear is a very effective silencer." In this way, Bruce Wall suggested, witnesses often find themselves in a far worse bind than a snitch. For they may not be as closely embedded with the police as the snitch who has "struck a deal." Ministers like Bruce Wall and Jeff Brown believe that one of the greatest civil rights threats now gnawing at the African-American community in the inner city comes from what Brown called "the suppression" of law-abiding people at the hands of virulent young hoodlums who may well be their own children. Secretly pecking out S.O.S. signals on a cell phone is a step in the right direction, not to mention a ray of hope. But what separates a faceless text message dropped through the ether of cyberspace from a witness who'll sit in a witness box and point a finger at a killer is courage. "What did it take for Rosa Parks to finally decide she wasn't going to surrender her seat on that bus at a time when black people were forced to eat at separate lunch counters and drink from separate water fountains?" Jeff Brown asked. "It took courage buttressed by great faith." Both Wall and Brown believe that what was true half a century ago in the struggle for civil rights holds so today. "People will have to stand up," Wall said, "and the clergy will have to stand with them. "Yes, we need more (people like) Rosa Parks, but until we're willing to say yes, we'll go to court with you, we'll go to work with you, we'll walk your kids to school with your kids, we won't be in a position to help more witnesses step forward." |
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We are careful not to duplicate the efforts of other organizations, and as a grassroots coalition of prisoners and social reformers, our resources (time and money) are limited. The vast expertise and scope of the various drug reform organizations will enable you to stay informed on the ever-changing, many-faceted aspects of the movement. Our colleagues in reform also give the latest drug war news. Please check their websites often. |
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