A ‘Stop Snitching’ flyer and internet campaign has been launched in a Peckham housing estate, urging residents not to talk to the police in a murder investigation.
The idiosyncratically-spelt leaflet cautions ‘NO ONE LIKES A RAT! Remember the police are not you friend. Don’t be decived by promises of anonymity, protection and rewards. They will say and do any thing to make you snitch, then destroy your life’ [sic] and advertise a website called Stop Snitching where the spelling and punctuation doesn’t improve in the slightest and somewhat undermines their credibility.
Operation Trident, which investigates gun crime within London’s black community appears to be a particular bugbear of the organisation and they claim it has ‘ruined the lives of witness’s’ [sic]. Leaving aside the fact that someone’s life couldn’t really get more ruined than being shot dead, as 17 year old Sylvester Akapalara found out last month, one has to wonder what measures the organisation propose for dealing with crime themselves, though presumably people who accept their invitation to contact them if they’re thinking about providing police with information may find out the hard way.
The teenager, a promising athlete, died in December last year after being chased into a stairwell on the Pelican Estate and shot. Three men have since been charged with his murder and the police say that information from within communities is vital to solving violent crime. With remarkable restraint, the police have described the campaign as ‘irresponsible leafleting’ and condemned it for the impact both on the community and the relatives of victims.
Hopefully, local residents will ignore the idiotic and short-sighted Stop Snitching campaign and take an active part in preventing and resolving crime in the community they live in.
Anyone with information that could be relevant to police can contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
