Snitching might save ‘Bodymore, Murderland’

I wonder whether Ronnie Thomas Jr. thinks it’s time to start snitching.

Thomas, known on the mean streets of Maryland’s largest city as Skinny Suge, was one of the stars of the “Stop Snitching ” videos that captured national attention. The first of these DVDs, which urged people not to cooperate with police investigating crimes, was produced in 2004. A sequel hit the streets in 2007. Thomas starred in both. But his animus for those who snitch on this city’s bad guys might have started to wane in April 2014, when someone pointed a gun at the head of his 14year-old son and pulled the trigger. Najee Thomas was killed in the public housing unit where he lived with his mother. His death remains unsolved.

Last week, Thomas lost another son to Baltimore’s mean streets. Ronnie Thomas III, 22, was gunned down at a neighbor’s cookout on the city’s east side shortly after he was released from jail. He was set free after prosecutors dropped the attempted murder charge he faced.

Ronnie Thomas Jr. wasn’t in town when his sons’ lives got snuffed. He has been in a federal penitentiary since 2010, when he was sentenced to 235 months for his role in a violent drug trafficking scheme.

At the time, Thomas was a big shot in Baltimore’s underworld. As a leading member of the TTP Bloods, a Maryland wing of the Los Angeles street gang, Thomas was believed to be a big cog in the deadly local drug trade.

For years, federal law enforcement officials have worked mightily to break up Baltimore’s drug market and imprison its leaders. “Stop Snitching ” videos were a not-so-subtle message to inner city residents not to help.

The first video made national headlines after it was revealed that then-Denver Nuggets basketball star Carmelo Anthony, a Baltimore native, made a cameo. Before the NBA superstar apologized, Anthony lashed out at Tyree Stewart, a big-time Baltimore marijuana kingpin who started snitching on other drug dealers after his arrest.

The dragnet that put Thomas in prison snared eight others involved in producing the videos that glamorized thug life.

So far, there’s no indication that Thomas still clings to the “Stop Snitching ” mantra that got him his 15 minutes. But with two sons cut down by the violence that has some locals calling this city “Bodymore, Murderland,” Thomas might be clamoring for someone to snitch now.

The time has long passed for the inner-city machismo that makes outcasts of people who help get criminals off the street. If Thomas didn’t believe that in 2010 when the law caught him, he should have had an awakening last year when that bullet ripped into his 14-year-old son’s head.

If that weren’t enough, the loss of a second son to gangster life ought to have Thomas begging for someone to out his boys’ killers.