Thank You For Not Snitching

The Times reports that “No Snitching” t-shirts are selling like hot cakes on 125th Street:

It started with a dozen T-shirts, emblazoned with bright red stop signs. Now the shirts come in eight colors and three styles, all with the same basic message: Stop snitching.

In Harlem, where the shirts are made, the slogan seems to resonate with some residents. “A lot of people tell the police something, it just creates more problems,” said Andrew Gonzalez, 17, explaining his oversize “No Snitching Anytime” shirt one recent afternoon.

Keashia Williams, 15, who was wearing a black baby-T and had just bought another in white, added, “Black people shouldn’t snitch on black people.”

Her younger sister, Teneshia, interpreted the message more bluntly: “You snitch, you die.”

That credo gained popularity late last year, when a “Stop Snitching” DVD hit the streets of Baltimore, with images of young men brandishing guns and threatening suspected police informants by name. The grainy video made the news thanks to a brief cameo by a young National Basketball Association star, Carmelo Anthony, who later apologized, and the arrest of three participants on drug charges. The Baltimore police were quick to denounce it, and countered with a DVD of their own, called “Keep Talking.”

Meanwhile, exact sales data is not yet available for “Thank You For Not Snitching” shirts, which head shops in suburban Tri-State communities have begun selling.