'Stop Snitching' producer plans sequel

BALTIMORE, Dec. 20 (UPI) -- Three years after the underground DVD "Stop Snitching" put Baltimore's crime problem in the national spotlight its producer is ready to release a sequel.

Rodney Bethea said the sequel is an hourlong look at Baltimore street-culture, The Baltimore Sun reported Thursday.

"What I'm doing is exposing the social conditions," he said. "There's a lack of information, a lack of hope and a lack of jobs. They're closing schools and building juvenile jails. I've documented that mentality. Through awareness, I hope to bring forth change."

He said, "This is probably more raw, more graphic than the first one; it's a shockumentary."

The video's trailer, which runs one minute and 19 seconds, features a middle-schooler waving a gun and taking a drag from a joint, and Ronny Thomas, also known as Skinny Suge, is shown -- before he pleaded guilty in January to first-degree assault -- cursing at the city prosecutor and a congressman, the newspaper reported.

"The small portion of the DVD we've seen so far makes it pretty clear that these are not people with the best interests of the community at heart," said Sterling Clifford, a spokesman for Mayor Sheila Dixon and the Police Department.