Bill Maxwell of the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times wrote this recent column, “Code of silence corrodes morality, puts blacks at risk,” about three black women — Delores Keen, Renee Roundtree, and Rose Dodson — who committed the no-no of coming to the aid of two wounded and dying Tampa police officers, David Curtis and Jeffrey Kocab.
Roundtree checked the officers’ pulses, and Keen dialed 911. The three women stayed with the dying officers until others arrived. The Hillsborough County Commission honored the women for trying to help the officers.
Since their identities were made public, the woman have been criticized by fellow blacks almost everywhere they go, walking down the street, at local social clubs, and in stores.
Their sin was helping “the enemy” — the police. You can be guilty of helping the enemy in two main ways: You give the police, or another authority, information about a black person who has committed or is suspected of having committed a crime, which is “snitching.” Or, as is the case with these three women, you physically aid and comfort police in distress, which is treated the same as snitching.
By trying to help the officers, Keen, Roundtree, and Dodson showed, in the eyes of many, that they are not “authentically black.” They are traitors to their race.
Towards the end of his column, Maxwell, who is black, writes
Black criminals victimize their own people. And we help them. If we do not call the police, we deserve the mayhem and dysfunction we suffer. When we conceal the identity of a murderer, we endanger everyone. When we turn our backs on drug deals near our homes, we cheapen the rule of law and destroy social values. In addition to its self-destructiveness, the snitching ethos alienates us from others, putting us at odds with normal behavior.