Code of the street is a pretty cut and dry, what it stands for doesn’t necessarily have to be accepted but it’s required to be respected. An instance of this would be if there was a shooting that happens in Philadelphia and their were any witnesses to the crime they are expected to keep their mouth shut or in other words if they don’t keep they’re mouth shut “Snitches get Stitches”. The saying originated from schools but it has taken a violent turn when it comes to the streets, for instance there are some cases in Philadelphia homicides that have no leads because they don’t want to go against the code of the streets. An example of this type of mindset coincides with this article about the same type of situation encountered by the Harrisburg police department when they state that “However, we have seen all too often the unfortunate results when small incidents that could have been resolved are allowed to go unchecked until they become a major problem. These same young people grow up to become adults who do not get involved or speak up when unfortunate situations happen in the community.”
The code of the street is a difficult code to follow but it must be followed for your safety. An example of this would have to be from a recent altercation in south Philadelphia, when there was a shooting not only on 26th and Tasker street but also on 31st and Tasker street, these altercations were in different places but they were one in the same in a way. The reason that is because they were shootings by the same person, the shooter initially started on 26th street shot one guy in the head and then transitioned his way to 31st and shot another man in the head and then shot a female in the face. This was significant to me because it almost perfectly matches to the code of the streets slang “Snitches get Stitches” because I live close to the areas of the shootings and when I opened my door to figure out what was going on I overheard a conversation that was very disturbing. Even though the conversation was disturbing to me I know that it’s so true, the conversation went something like this:
Boy 1: Yo it’s getting crazy around here, did you just hear about what just happened around the corner?
Boy 2: No what happened?
Boy1; This dude just shot three people in like 15 minutes.
Boy 2: Are you serious? Stop playing.
Boy 1: Dead serious he started on 26th street then worked his way to 31st street and did the same thing. I got a pretty good look at him too…
Boy 2: Yo don’t tell any body else that because you know what’ll happen.
At first boy number two baffled me by what he said about not saying anything but when I thought about it clicked. If they guy would’ve told someone what he saw and they went to the cops and told the shooter would’ve found him.
The code of the street is a very cut and dry code and whoever goes against it can cause dire reaction such as a retaliation shooting or a retaliation killing. We aren’t saying that this code is right but “Snitches get Stitches” is a part of the “Code of the Street” and it doesn’t seem as its going to change.
http://www.pennlive.com/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/
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