When I heard it I didn't believe it. I thought he must have been misquoted. Maybe it was an ill-advised joke that the interviewer for "60 minutes" didn't get. For those who haven't heard, DipSet HNIC Cam'Ron told "60 Minutes" that he wouldn't tell the police the location of a serial killer if he lived next door to him (see the video). Cam said he would probably move, but he wouldn't tell the cops because it would hurt his business and telling would go against his "code of ethics." Really? Look, I understand the code of the hood. Even your Moms used to tell you not be be a "tattle-tale." Growing up, we used to know who shot who, who stole what from who, who selling what and where, etc. We called it the grapevine. Those are the things we came to learn that you normally mind your own business about. But as much acrimony that there is between law enforcement in Black and Latino neighborhoods and its citizens, there's NO circumstance where I wouldn't tell the cops to come get a serial killer (A SERIAL KILLER!!!) living next door to me and mine (or strangers for that matter). Cam is what, about 30 yrs. old. He should be mature enough to determine what's "snitching" and what isn't. Cam is also a father so I'm sure if a serial killer was living next door to his little man he would want whoever knew that fact to say something. (BTW - A Busta's one of my favorite artists, but unless you plan on avenging your man's death personally, you should've told the cops something. At least for dude's wife and kids. He fouled out. Can't be said any other way). But the 13 to 18 yr. olds that make up the majority of DipSet's fans probably can't tell the difference and that's where the problems begin. I don't even think he meant to answer the interviewers question like that. Maybe he could've said, "Of course I'd get a serial killer arrested, we don't support the senseless murdering of innocent people, but folks in my community have had a hard time trusting police because of the way we're treated in our own neighborhoods. Some folks have just decided to police the hood themselves before another innocent man is shot at 50 times for no reason." There are thousands of kids screaming "stop snitching", wearing t-shirts with the ubiquitous "stop snitching" logo with the red line through it. One witness in a trial in Pennsylvania about a year and a half ago had the nerve to wear one of those t-shirts in court. Most of these rappers are snitching on themselves anyway, talking about how much coke you sell, where your connect is from, who you shot or want to shoot and with what type of gun. They tell the beast what type of cars they drive and where they hang out, etc. So who's snitching?
That being said, the police have to do more to make citizens feel that the police are in our neighborhoods to "protect and serve" us. There are too many officers drunk with power or on revenge missions since they were picked on in high school and now is the time for the get back. Almost every inner-city has had to deal with some kind of corruption in their police departments. In some places its hard the citizens to tell who the bad guys are. It's not going to be easy either because police brutality and neglect are problems that have been going on since our grandparents were children. Real talk, we need each other. There's no way the police can do their jobs effectively without help from citizens, but the citizens won't be eager to help the police unless we can trust that they'll do their jobs lawfully. So it's not like I don't understand why Mr. Giles said what he said, I just think he went to the extreme to prove his point. Of course, it didn't make him (or Hip Hop) look too good, but if it wasn't Cam it would've been Snoop or Tony Yayo or Jeezy or somebody that would've co-signed it.
We as a people, and a generation, have to stop making ourselves look ridiculous. Especially on mainstream TV and radio. We all knew that after the "Kramer" thing and the "Imus" thing, that things would start to change (whether they are for better or worse remains to be seen), but after Russell & Company's appearance on Oprah backed with Killa Cam's revelation on "60 Minutes", it crystal clear Hip Hop is in America's crosshairs. And we (Hip Hop) continue to give them ammo (hollow points at that).
April 25, 2007
SAY IT AIN'T SO CAM!
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5 comments:
In fairness to Mr. Giles, he did issue an apology for his comments 2 days later. Glad to see he realized his error.
He did indeed issue an apology...only because of the backlash he received from what he said. It's not like he sat and thought about it on his own and decided to apologize.
True. It's crazy that he didn't realize how foolish his comments were. The ill thing is it seems that dude from '60 Minutes' tried to help him out by asking him the question. I'm sure homie said to himself, "There's no way he's not going to tell the police about a serial killer." I guess Cam was 'keepin it real'.
I tell you one thing...Never under estimate the power of pure foolishness and the snowball affect it has. It seems people by into the some crazy things nowadays without even questioning it...just because everyone else is doing it...and it's fashionable. This whole 'Stop Snitching" conept and meaning has been blow out of proportion and twisted in a way where murders that could be solved go unsolved. That ridiculous.
1st timer here; so please excuse me 4 jumping in.
After reviewing that 60 min interview, I can't help but to believe that he's speaking from his image (which is huff as is)rather then being truely honest. His "hip-hype character" isn't strong enough (in my opinion)to go against the wind. So in closing, every answer from Cam's mouth had record sales written all over it.
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