Mayor Emanuel on Chicago violence: Helping isn't 'snitching'

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NBC CHICAGO – After a particularly violent weekend in Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel has a message for anyone involved in the shootings that left nine people killed and 37 injured: Stop the culture of silence.

“I’d like to remind everybody that it also requires a community to step up,” Emanuel said Monday at an unrelated press conference. “You’re not a snitch, you have a role in community policing.”

The “s” word is a particularly powerful one in Chicago.

Last year a Chicago mother was arrested after she allegedly drove her son and an accomplice to shoot a person they believed was a snitch. The year before a dying 17-year-old took the name of his killer to the grave.

“I know,” Robert Tate reportedly said when asked if he knew who shot him in the chest, “but I ain’t telling you.”

Last week eight people were struck in a drive-by shooting at 79th Street and South Essex Avenue, and Community activist Andrew Holmes said some of them reportedly weren’t cooperating with police.

“The persons have been struck by gunfire, they need to step up and speak up for us,” Holmes told NBC Chicago. “Nine times out of 10, they knew who was firing the shot at them.”