Stop Snitchin’ refers to a controversial 2004 campaign launched in Baltimore, United States to persuade criminal informants to stop ‘snitching,’ or informing, to law enforcement. Public officials, activists and media outlets say that it is a campaign used by criminals to frighten people with information from reporting their activities to the police.
Some Stop Snitching activists say they are not opposed to concerned citizens going to the police with accurate information and don’t consider them snitches. They say that snitches are people who give the government favorable testimony in exchange for a plea bargain, money, or some other kind of reward.
While the slogan ‘Stop Snitchin” had existed since at least 1999, when it was used by Boston-based rapper Tangg da Juice, the Stop Snitchin’ campaign first gained national attention in late 2004 in Baltimore, Maryland, when a DVD released by Rodney Bethea titled ‘Stop Snitching!’ began to circulate. In some footage, a number of men claiming to be drug dealers address the camera, and threaten violence against anyone who reports what they know about their crimes to the authorities. This threat is directed especially towards those who inform on others to get a lighter sentence for their own crimes.
Notably, NBA star Carmelo Anthony, a former Baltimore resident and now a part of the New York Knicks basketball team, appeared in the video. In subsequent interviews, Anthony claimed that his appearance in the video was a joke, the product of his neighborhood friends making a home movie. Anthony claims that the film’s message should not be taken seriously. The publicity of ‘Stop Snitchin” actually helped to identify several corrupt police officers in the Baltimore area such as former BPD officers William King and Antonio Murray who were sentenced to 315 and 139 years in prison, respectively, following an investigation caused by the DVD which identified the officers as drug traffickers.
As the DVD spread across the country, corresponding shirts became popular in urban youth fashion. The shirts typically show a stop sign emblazoned with the words ‘Stop Snitchin.”Some shirts bear bullet holes, implying that snitches should (or will) be shot, thus referencing its associated catchphrase ‘snitches get stitches.”
The Daily Omnivore 
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