"Stonewalling has hurt these investigations, obviously," said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, referring to the New York slayings.
"What makes it even more insidious is the profit motive. Stop snitching is all wrapped up in music sales, and the so-called 'street cred' in violence and keeping quiet about it."
Kelly said NYPD investigators were told by potential crime witnesses that cooperating with authorities could end their hip-hop careers. Among witnesses without star power, the concern about cooperating is more self-preservation than career preservation.
"Many people obviously know a lot," said David Kennedy, director of the Center for Crime Prevention and Control at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. "And they see people who have killed friends and family members walking around the neighborhood all the time."
The message is clear: They got away with one murder. What's another? Unlike the behind-the-scenes slaying of Jay, there was no shortage of potential - even star-studded - witnesses in the killing of Busta Rhymes bodyguard Israel Ramirez.
Ramirez, 29, was protecting Rhymes as about 500 people gathered at a ninth-floor soundstage for a video shoot to accompany a remix of the rapper's hit single, Touch It. Missy Elliot and G-Unit members, including Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo, were on hand.
An argument involving Yayo's posse began inside before spilling out onto the street. Amid pushing and shoving, eight shots rang out.
Ramirez was struck once in the chest - a killing police suspect was witnessed by both closed-mouth rappers Rhymes and Yayo.
A lawyer-penned letter to prosecutors denied Yayo had any involvement and appeared to set the tone for the entire investigation.
"Please make sure he is not contacted and/or harassed by NYPD," it said. After Rhymes was arrested on an assortment of charges in the wake of the shooting, his attorney complained that the attention paid to the rap star was "payback from the NYPD."
Ramirez's killer remains at large.
Ryan Thompson grew up in Brooklyn with his cousin Jay Mizell, the two of them spinning records side by side as nascent DJs. Thompson was working two security jobs back in 2002, and finishing up his shift on one when his phone rang. It was a friend delivering an incomprehensible message: Jay was dead.
Thompson could not believe it then, and has trouble accepting it now - particularly the fact that no one has come forward to identify his cousin's killer.
"It's about snitching - people are supposed to live by that,'' said Thompson. "It's nonsense. There's no such thing as snitching when someone's been murdered that you love and care about. Did those people really respect Jay?''
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