Posted on 12/30/2007 7:24:30 AM PST by shrinkermd
“Snitching, telling on people, isn’t something that I personally would involve myself with,” she said in an interview last week. “People don’t want to talk to you if they think you’re a snitch. If they were your friends, they’re not your friends anymore. You’re left totally all alone.”
As the most violent neighborhood in one of the nation’s most dangerous cities, the Whitman Park section of Camden is on the front lines of the struggle with witness intimidation. An array of powerful forces converge here to discourage people from cooperating with the investigation of crimes — crimes committed against their own homes, their own neighbors, their own children.
Drugs are sold openly from street corners and abandoned row houses. Gunfire is a neighborhood soundtrack. And the competing gangs that control Whitman Park have made it clear that the price for defying them is death. Within blocks of the street where Ms. Glasco’s son was killed, six people were murdered in less than a year.
Yet many residents of Whitman Park say their reluctance to help investigators is based on more than just fear of gang retaliation. It is also a consequence of their deep distrust of the local police and prosecutors and politicians. Like residents of many other struggling, predominantly black and Hispanic neighborhoods across the country, people here complain that racial profiling, police corruption and the excesses of the war on drugs have made them suspicious of virtually any arm of government.
...Camden’s government has been under state supervision for nearly 20 years because of corruption, so the police do not report to her.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Either that, or maybe they are correct and the government of New Jersey really is corrupt.
To paraphrase Golda Meir, “It will stop when they love their children more than they hate whites.”
Well, don't worry Hillary, Jesse and Al will solve all their problems.
This sort of thinking is precisely why minorities will remain in the same rut, economically and socially, in which they are currently find themselves.
Where is the help and guidance from their “benefactors” on the left? Really, it is difficult to believe so large a group of people could be so abysmally uninformed and blind to how they are being manipulated over so long a period of time.
LOL, geez, ya think? BTW, remember those 11 NJ Congress people that were arrested earlier in the year (corruption) and led away in handcuffs? Whatever happened to them? Imagine had they been Republicans?
Blind leading the blind over the cliff.
Well there are people in these cities who would cooperate with law enforcement to prosecute criminals but don't out of fear of retaliation. While I don't normally like to suggest a new government program to fix things, I do believe that a witness protection program at the state level would help in these situations.
Or better yet, have these criminals be prosecuted under federal gun laws, as the federal system already includes a witness protection program.
Do you think this might have something to do with it?
Yes, and I'll propose that the "War on Some Drug Users" itself strikes at the heart of civil behavior. Combine that with local laws that throttle market-price housing, and small business activity. Add welfare payments that mute the pain of bad career choices and - voila.
Yup, and they’ll blame “whitey” for their woes and there will be dead silence from the left.
to answer your question -- those "benefactors" are right there giving them all the help they can -- to finish the job of ripping the country apart they started over 60 years ago.
FYI
They need to import a few Iraquis and have them set up “Concerned Citizens” groups....it worked to put down islamic terrorists so should also work on the local youts.
Nothing -- you named it -- they are demorats -- some of those "benefactors" we're talking about.
IMO the city should be Federalized, i.e.: Declare Martial Law, send in the Marines and a set up a Provisional Government like Iraq (just DON'T send Bremmer).
Better yet, send in the Corps of Engineers and just level the friggin place and start over (And send all 'miscreants' directly to GITMO).
It’s been 20 years and the place is worse than ever.Maybe it’s time to send in the Marines on a search and destroy mission.The locals like to shoot,well the Marines LOVE to shoot.
“...crime and violence as acceptable alternatives to civilized living.”
This sounds like a good definition of barbarians. And that is exactly what they are. They choose to be barbarians. They do not want the responsibilities of civilization. This attitude has been imported from one particular continent.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.