Want a free pass from the police to deal drugs? Be a snitch.

So would legalizing drugs increase crime? That seems to be the implicit claim here because after all if drugs were legalized dealers wouldn't need to snitch. Supposedly what drug dealers do isn't as bad as what they are snitching on so if they didn't snitch things would get worse, right? I guess that I have my doubts.

In 1998, I was a community lawyer in inner-city Baltimore and taught an after-school law class for neighborhood kids. One evening, a boy of about 12 said something that would change my thinking forever.
"I got a question," he said, leaning forward intently. "Police let dealers stay on the corner 'cuz they snitching. Is that legal? I mean, can the police do that?" When I explained that they could, he and his friends slumped down in disgust. "That ain't right!" and "The police ain't doing their jobs!" they exclaimed. "So all you gotta do is snitch," another concluded, "and you can keep on dealing." . . .

Thanks to Nikki for alerting me to this article.