By Clarence Williams
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 13, 2007

In many District neighborhoods, these words are taboo: telling, tattling, snitching.

Cooperating with law enforcement has long gone against a "code" of the streets, community activists say, with hip-hop and rap lyrics vilifying such action and urging people to "Stop Snitching." Many residents view keeping one's mouth shut as survival.

Hoping to break through that barrier, nearly 100 teenagers, parents and activists engaged in a discussion Friday night about how black people in the District can find ways to talk to authorities and make communities safer. The discussion was at Scripture Cathedral in Shaw, a neighborhood that has had several shootings in recent weeks, some apparently tied to a couple of warring factions along O Street NW. D.C. police did not attend the session, which was geared toward the community.

Bishop C.L. Long told the group that he is tired of presiding over funerals for homicide victims and that "the only ones who can save us is us." On New Year's Eve, a stray bullet pierced the church's window during services.

The violence made Shaw the right place to begin a dialogue about changing street stereotypes, according to Peaceoholics, a grass-roots outreach group that helped organize the event. The group said the timing also was right because rapper Cameron "Cam'ron" Giles recently ignited controversy by declaring on CBS's "60 Minutes" that he probably would move rather than alert police if a serial killer were living next-door.

The rapper, who was wounded in a still-unsolved shooting in Washington in 2005, later backed off a bit, saying he didn't mean to offend anyone but insisting that he was talking about reality. According to CBS's Web site, he added, "Where I come from, once word gets out that you've cooperated with the police, that only makes you a bigger target of criminal violence."

Jauhar Abraham, a co-founder of Peaceoholics, said Friday, "Cam'ron is a chump. He's trying to sell records." He added, "We have the right to make our community safer."

Organizers handed out Wizards jerseys and Adidas sneakers donated by NBA star Gilbert Arenas, and showed a 10-minute multimedia film portraying real funerals and crime scenes.

But the conversation remained mainly one-sided as few young people grabbed the microphone. Questionnaires were handed out to elicit ideas about how to address the problem, and speakers acknowledged the difficulties in asking people, particularly teenagers, to step forward.

"We don't think that everybody is going to come into the church and change in one day. But we hope you're going to leave here with some things to process," said Ronald Moten of Peaceoholics.

With little audience participation, he and others offered hypothetical situations about certain crimes that would make it more acceptable to seek justice with the police. "Is it wrong for a sister who was raped to go to a lineup and point to who raped her?" Moten asked the crowd. There was a muted refrain of "no" from the audience.

"To be real, if you snitch on the street, more than likely something's going to happen to you," said Kevin Gliss, 21, a Shaw resident. Still, he added, "I ain't no snitch, but if I can help my community, I will."

EZ Street, a radio personality from WKYS (93.9 FM), urged young people to understand that music lyrics and movie images are art and entertainment and not necessarily meant to be imitated.

"I love hip-hop, but I'm in a love-hate relationship with it. There is good and bad in all things," he said.

Minutes after the meeting ended in prayer, an off-duty D.C. firefighter was fatally shot in Northeast Washington, police said. Investigators said dozens of people were standing nearby when the shooting occurred.

But hours after the killing, no witnesses had stepped forward.