I often get angry about the no snitch rule that many people live by in the hood. It truly pisses me off but after hearing about Lewis James Little’s experience I could understand why someone would be hesitant to cooperate with the police.

On the night of June 20, 2013 Little decided to visit some friends. Later on that night he saw a dead body in the street and did what any normal person would do and called the police. Twenty minutes after the police arrived Little was handcuffed and charge with burglary and kidnapping amongst other charges. He was being held on a $1.425 million bond. In 20 minutes he went from being a 20 year old sophomore communications major at North Carolina Central University to a criminal.

On July 15, 2013 all the charges were dropped and Little was released from jail and issued an apology. Despite the charges being dropped the charges were on his record, he had trouble finding an apartment and a job. He will have to take the necessary steps to get his record expunged. But at this point the damage is done. Whenever anyone Googles his name they will find his mugshot and the bogus charges brought against him.

The saddest part is that it almost seemed like he made excuses for his wrongful arrest, he said “You can assume a lot just from looking at my face and dreads. I was in basketball shorts and flip flops. Something like that happening to them – I can kind of understand that maybe they would jump to conclusions.” Conditioning has this young man blaming himself for calling the police and reporting a dead body in the street then being arrested. This is such a sad story. He says he definitely regrets making the phone call because of the way the outcome effected his life.