I found myself up at Lawrence West and Dufferin today. As I headed towards the Lawrence subway station on the Dufferin bus, I saw a rather disturbing t-shirt dedicated to the theme of no snitching as I passed by the Lawrence Square Mall (Lawrence Heights, the infamous "Jungle," sits just to the north).

"Warning: Snitch at own risk," read the shirt in one area, worn by a guy who, frankly, didn't look that hardcore to me. There was a hand holding a handgun in the background. There was also a stop sign graphic on the shirt with the word "snitching" on the sign.

I know these shirts have been around for a while. According to this Wikipedia article,  they first surfaced in 1999. I know some wear them more to provoke than anything.

However, one reason I find them problematic is because of conversations like this, overheard on a Bathurst St. streetcar last night:

Teenage girl: You'll never guess who got shot yesterday!

Friends: Who?

TG: (Gives name). He's the nicest guy around, and he gets shot.

I find it sad that kids can have such a conversation with such a blasé tone.

A question I can't answer is whether those kids know who shot their friend. If they do and they don't tell the cops, are they part of the problem? Remember Amon Beckles, shot to death at the funeral of a friend in 2005? He knew who shot his buddy, but wouldn't talk to the cops. "Too bad. Maybe if he did, he'd still be alive," I remember The Globe and Mail's Margaret Wente writing at the time.  

If such people chose to live the gangsta life and they die as a result, then too bad for them. Unfortunately, these guys tend to take people like Jane Creba, Shaquan Cadougan or Tamara Carter, the young girl wounded in 2004 on the Jane Street bus, with them. Carter got caught in the crossfire after some "gangstas" shot a guy who had asked them to pipe down on the bus. Here's a version of his story and what he has to say about those who say what happened and chose to say nothing:

What bothers me most about the shooting is the lack of witnesses stepping forward. I don't expect the witnesses to care about me beyond a "Thank God I'm alive" feeling, but the fact they didn't say anything means they don't care about themselves. Making a choice to not come forward is taking the armour off and ignorantly thinking, "They're not gonna shoot me." But look what happens with stray bullets.

If two gangstas want to shoot each other in a duel and the other gangstas want to keep their mouths shut about it, I suppose that's their business.

If some chickenshit gangstas shoot an unarmed person on a bus, or wherever, and other people don't to step forward and help the cops remove these violent, nihilistic thugs from the streets, then they're contributing to the problem. They really should show some courage and snitch.