Snitchin or Steppin Up?

Rapper TI, (Clifford Harris), was in court a couple of weeks ago testifying in the case of his best friends murder, (See Video Above). What amazes me is how quickly and easily he was labeled a "snitch" for what amounted to a testimony to confirm facts. Have mafia/gangster movies blurred the lines of what is snitchin and what isn't to such a degree that we believe anybody who talks to the cops or testifies in a case is snitchin? A snitch, by street terms, is a person who commits a crime with sombody and tells the cops about that person after s/he gets arrested. So basically if you and I robbed a bank, I got arrested, and told the cops you were with me, I'd be a snitch. However, if you and I were walking down the street, and you got killed, and I told the cops who killed you, that is NOT, nor has it ever been, SNITCHIN!!! Unless of course you're Sunny Corleone and I'm Don Vito Corleone, (from the movie Godfather). You wanna know why? Because they are all in the same gang, the mafia, they may play for different teams but they are all in essence "robbing the bank together". So, when Sammy "the Bull" Gravano, long time "compadre" of John Gotti, testified against Gotti he snitched! However when, TI "Clifford Harris" testified in the murder trial of his best friend, he was just a man Steppin Up!

~d-the-VIP