Afro Cheese
Senior Member
It's not just "don't tell on me," it's don't involve the authorities in local matters at all. Whether it's about a crime they personally did or not, they believe in people handling their own beefs and taking their own revenge or whatever, but never going over their head and involving john law. The basic philosophy is that if everyone who's a criminal agrees that snitching is wrong, and everyone who's not a criminal is intimidated into keeping shit to themselves, then their local conflicts remain local and under their control. Once the cops are involved, they've got a whole new issue on their hands, now it's not just their enemies they're looking out for but the enemy as well.
Basically, it's manipulation on behalf of the criminals to keep shit simple, and anyone who's intimidated into not snitching despite not being a criminal is usually a coward. Though most people in the hood will tell you that if you DO snitch you're a coward, those people have shit for brains. I've personally only called the cops once in my life, and it wasn't ON anyone it was cause i found this dude laying unconscious on someone's front lawn and I didn't want him to die, so I called 911 from a pay phone and left the scene. So don't think I'm just a snitch trynna justify his actions.