The Craft of a Snit

This is an interview from Edrea Davis, author of Snitchcraft. Davis was interviewd by Felicia Pride, AOL Black Voices:

Cam'ron's recent ill-advised, uh, I mean stupid comments about snitching have sparked a debate about this "code of the streets." Urban lit novelist Edrea Davis attempts to address the other side of snitching in her debut novel SNITCHCRAFT. The book, which she recently self-published, is about JC, a nightclub owner set-up by a dishonest snitch, and how JC struggles to clear his name. Along the way he is introduced to corruption within the criminal justice system.


I wondered what Davis, who has worked in various communication fields and is co-founder of Dogonvillage.com, thought about Cam'ron's recent 60 Minutes appearance and what makes her book SNITCHCRAFT different. Here's what she had to say:

What made you write a book about snitching?

I wrote SNITCHCRAFT to shed light on the corrupt snitch-system. It has reached epidemic proportions and helps to feed into a prison industry that incarcerates over 2 million American citizens. Let me clarify: A person reporting criminal activity in their neighborhood is a concerned citizen, and someone that gives an accurate account of a crime is called a witness. Snitches are government-made parasites that drop a dime on people for a reduction in prison time, a get-out-of-jail credit, monetary payment, or a hit of crack. When necessary, these foot soldiers in the so-called "War on Drugs" embellish the truth. Quite often, they fabricate stories. Snitches are responsible for nearly 46% of wrongful capital convictions from false testimony, according to a study by Northwestern University Law School's Center on Wrongful Convictions. They are also the reason that innocence commissions across the country have concluded that snitch testimony is false and unreliable. Snitches are criminals hustling the system.



What did you think about Cam'ron's appearance on 60 Minutes?
I am writing an op-ed on it as we speak. Cam'ron's foolish response, which even he knows didn't make sense, was obviously a tool for the 60 Minutes folks to spread their propaganda. That's the fad of the day: blaming the black community for their problems. Propaganda shows one side of an issue, journalism gives an unbiased view. They found Cam'ron and two other blacks so far removed from hip-hop culture it's almost a joke. 60 Minutes could have reached out to conscious people in the hip-hop community like Davey D or Mos Def and would quickly find out that a snitch is a criminal telling on criminals. Davey D would have taken that shining moment to let the world know that black people report crimes every day but the police don't want to hear their "complaints." An articulate spokesperson would have also pointed out that that "code of silence" goes beyond hip-hop to include our nation's elected officials and, none other than the "Boys In Blue." They would have also pointed out that the true stop-snitching movement started before hip-hop entrepreneurs decided to make a few dollars off the slogan. Mainstream activists and organizations fighting against the mass incarceration of Americans have been criticizing the use of snitches for years.

What does your book say about snitching?
My book is a fictional account of a nightclub owner set-up by a lying snitch. The facts incorporated in the book illustrate the corrupt environment created by the governments use of snitches. Although I encourage your audience to read SNITCHCRAFT, they only need to look at the recent controversy surrounding the use of a snitch in the killing of 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston to know that the system is broken.