The producer of the “Stop Snitching” videos is apologizing to Baltimore City?s top prosecutor, Patricia Jessamy, and U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings for a profane and derogatory tirade made against them on his latest DVD.
“My mother always taught me that no matter what, you respect your elders,” producer Rodney Bethea, 34, a Philadelphia native who moved to Baltimore in 1994, told The Examiner on Wednesday. “I feel it wasn?t right, the type of language that was used against them. I?m apologizing to them for that. I didn?t say it, but it was on my film. It?s almost like I was approving of it.”
On the new “Stop Snitching 2” DVD, host Rodney “Skinny Suge” Thomas, 32, badmouths Jessamy, who has spoken out repeatedly against witness intimidation and helped put him in prison on an assault conviction.
“F– police. F— Patricia Jessamy,” Thomas says in the DVD. “I can?t go to jail for that. That?s how I feel. It?s my freedom.”
Thomas includes a deragatory description of Cummings.
Bethea said he?s “looking into” pulling the comments from the DVD, which is in production for a January release, but might not be able to because the film is “pretty much finished.”
In an interview at his Urly Media office in a West Baltimore row house, Bethea and business partner James Johnson, 36, said they?re not endorsing the message of “Stop Snitching”; they?re just documenting it, like any good filmmakers.
“The DVD is actually a documentary that shows a type of mentality,” Bethea said. “I documented a way of thinking. I wanted to raise awareness.”
The sequel includes perhaps even more controversial scenes than its 2004 prequel, including a young boy waving a handgun and apparently smoking a marijuana joint.
Bethea said he was “shocked” when he saw the submitted footage ? but thought it needed to be included to show what?s happening on the streets.
Bethea and Johnson say what they?re doing is no different from HBO?s “The Wire” show.
“If I was white, they?d be giving me awards,” Bethea said.
“They say ?The Wire? is the best show in TV. We show the same thing, only ours is real, and they want to arrest us,” Johnson added.
Cummings and a spokeswoman for Jessamy said they?re appreciative of Bethea?s apology.
“I don?t know him and have never met him,” Cummings said. “If he?s apologizing and he?s sincere, I accept that.”
But Cummings said the mentality shown on the DVD resulted in the witness intimidation murders of the Dawson family.
“I?ve heard his rationale for doing the piece. I say to him what I said to Carmelo Anthony [the basketball star who appeared in the first DVD]. While it may not be intended to have certain effects, it does,” Cummings said. “The title, in and of itself, says a lot. It sends a very powerful message. You have an African-American family who were incinerated because they cooperated with police.
“This DVD doesn?t help the problems. It exacerbates the problems. It makes them worse.”
