"Thank You for Not Snitching" is the 3rd episode of the 2nd season of The Boondocks, and the 18th episode overall. It originally aired on October 22, 2007.
Ed Wuncler III and Gin Rummy are committing a nightly crime spree across Woodcrest, breaking into and robbing houses. Riley witnesses Ed and Rummy stealing Robert's car and using it as a getaway vehicle, and the boy promises not to snitch on them; despite overwhelming pressure from his grandfather, the neighborhood watch, and the police department.
Tropes:
- Accidental Public Confession: Gangstalicious ends up getting himself arrested when he accidentally confessed, via rap, about attacking record executive Johnny Guinness with a tennis racquet and bottle of Hennessy. He also detailed the time of the attack.
- Bad "Bad Acting": Jazmine walks in and tries (badly) to nonchalantly ask Riley about what happened. She talks in a very robotic and unnatural voice to Riley pressuring him for information. Huey correctly guesses that she's wearing a wire, so she screams and runs out of the room.
- Honor Before Reason: Many black people (not all) are parodized in the show into holding an honor-bound code, that prevents them from informing the police of any wrongdoing, to the point of forming a movement. This isn't entirely unwarranted as sometimes, as far as they are concerned, Police Are Useless.
- Riley outright refuses to break the no-snitching code, despite the fact that the crime affected his own household, and it could lead to Robert and himself going to jail.
- Irony: Huey points out that while many rappers follow the No-Snitch movement, some end up snitching on themselves. Gangstalicious ends up arrested in an Accidental Public Confession.
- Karma Houdini: Ed III and Gin Rummy, thanks to Riley's disdain for the law and unwillingness to report them. Really, they most likely would've gotten away with it anyway because the Wunclers have the police in their pocket, and the Woodcrest populace refuse to believe that the duo would do something illegal.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Riley gets in trouble for refusing to snitch on Ed and Rummy for stealing Robert's car. He later ends up getting his bicycle stolen by them, who even (mockingly) thank him for not snitching. Robert also mockingly said he saw nothing while Huey unsympathetically shrugs as if saying "hey, you brought this on yourself".Rummy: Thank you for not snitching!Ed: You stupid motherfucker!
- Only Sane Man: Tom is the only member of the Neighborhood Watch who's against Mrs. von Heusen's proposal to arm and militarize the group.
- Police Are Useless: The No-Snitching Movement believes in this for a myriad of reasons and refuse to cooperate with police when something bad goes down. Huey describes what happened to one black man who informed police about a nearby drug racket. The police leaves his "protection" to the Feds but the man is immediately shot by the racketeers to keep quiet. Though he lived, he was imprisoned for "conspiracy", by refusing to identify the ones who shot him.
- Right-Wing Militia Fanatic: This episode introduces Betty von Heusen, an elderly Republican woman who leads the Neighborhood Watch and wants to turn it into a vigilante militia.
- Vigilante Militia: Spoofed and satirized when Betty von Heusen, a local elderly woman and paranoid gun nut, proposes to the neighborhood watch (which she's the de facto leader of) that they should militarize and take up arms in response to a spree of house burglaries (committed by Ed Wuncler III and Gin Rummy). Tom Dubois is the only member of the neighborhood watch opposed to this crazy plan.
