Deadly Silence

‘No snitch’ code not just a city problem

In towns and cities throughout the state — ranging from tiny Berkley to mid-sized Randolph, and the larger communities of Brockton and Taunton and Charlestown — not cooperating with authorities can be a way of life.

By Maureen Boyle, Enterprise staff writer
   BROCKTON — In the 1600s in Sicily, after hundreds of years of invasion and foreign rule, a philosophy developed among the extended families in the region.
    Sicily was ruled by Spain but refused to co operate with the invaders.
   Breaking the code today — as then — can mean ostracization in some communities, the threat or actual death in others.
    This philosophy — or code — was called “omerta.” The code was simple: don’t cooperate with authorities; the people can handle things themselves in the face of hardship.
    That code slowly developed and spread over the centuries. In some criminal enterprises, cooperation with authorities meant death. In other groups, it meant banishment or shunning.
    On urban streets today, the code of silence is called “no snitch.”
   More about omerta:
   1) Pronunciation: \o?-'mer-tä\
   2) Etymology: Italian
   3) Definition: conspiracy of silence