Surely there was a time when people didn’t have to be bribed and congratulated for doing the right thing. For doing a thing that was so right that to not do it would be an exercise in humanitarian ignominy. Surely.
Of course, this is about the strife and times of Dontae Morris and the dysfunctional sub-culture that he inhabited and seemingly embodied.
That all-too-familiar chronology: A predator kills. Again. A person, make that the “associate” who was the predator’s driver, witnesses it all and then drives off leaving behind two mortally wounded — that is, still alive — police officers. She says nothing to anybody in authority. Including those who would necessarily be involved in any life-and-death rescue response. Forget the legalities about misprision of a felony and self-incrimination protections. You leave like that, you lose your lease on humanity.
If not caught, the cold-blooded predator is likely to kill again. The community, in effect, is held hostage. But chronically complicating matters is a “snitch” proscription that’s all too prevalent in too many African-American neighborhoods. No meaningful help is initially forthcoming, including any from Morris’ TPD-employed aunt, except that which is prompted by a reward.
But the bottom line is served. However it happened, Morris is persuaded to surrender. No one else dies. The reward is rewarded.
But it goes to an informant. Hold on. Isn’t that what informants do? Isn’t there an ongoing quid-pro-quo — including legal deals — for those who are systemic informers?
Then we had the honoring of those — in the absence of that “associate” — who actually responded to the sight of two human beings dying in a ditch in the middle of the night. The three women, two of whom were fortuitously headed to a store at 2:15 a.m., were lauded by the Hillsborough County Commission and given certificates of commendation.
Critical context: the “no snitch” zone. It is an us-vs.-them mindset, one typically enforced by intimidation. It’s also a perverse, parallel universe. Such that it makes it understandable that a meaningful honor can be legitimately bestowed, even when the only alternative is to do the dishonorable. Normally, what else would anyone do upon happening on dying police officers? This should be stimulus-response stuff.
But not in Dontae’s inferno. Now at least two of those women are afraid for their safety. They’ve received phone calls from those who see them as traitors. For not ignoring the dying and then calling 911.
Given the “no snitch” bylaws of a dysfunctional sub-culture, the praise and certificates were merited. And the reward worked and no one else died. And we are reminded that this is Tampa, not the tribal territories of Pakistan. But it induced the comparison.