Mother of slain 21-year-old fights against 'snitches get stitches' culture in black community to ensure crimes don't go unpunished
After her 21-year-old son Cabretti Wheeler-Bowman and his friend were gunned down in September 2008 in a makeshift studio in St. Petersburg, Florida, Lisa Wheeler-Bowman relentlessly pursued justice for them by chasing down leads and working tirelessly with the police in their murder investigation.
In the premiere episode of 'Relentless With Kate Snow', which aired Friday, October 5, Lisa talked about how she battled against the notion of "snitches get stitches" that is rampant in the African-American community she belonged to, which often prevented people from coming forward to cooperate with the law enforcement—frequently viewed as the enemy of the black people—even if they witness a crime being committed. As a result, many of the crimes, remained unsolved.
Lisa, instead of holding onto the evidence she had gathered in her son's case, handed it over to the investigating detectives and even followed up with the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office to make sure that the case did not go cold.
After finally putting the shooter behind bars five years later, Wheeler began taking an active role in her Wildwood Heights neighborhood of St. Petersburg. She became the neighborhood association president and went onto serve as the president of the St. Petersburg Council of Neighborhood Associations before being elected councilwoman for District 7 of the St. Petersburg City Council.
In 2015, she helped kick off the Not My Son initiative—an anti-crime intervention program for young African-American men.
Since then, the campaign organizers canvas different areas of their city promoting a “safe summer, where no one loses a life." At the same time, parents take pledges to keep track of what their kids are doing.
“Not my son,” she said during the inaugural speech, “You just don’t know how much I wish I could have saved mine. But, God had another plan for my life, and I’m walking in it now. This is our city, and these are our sons, and until you make it personal, we’re gonna keep losing them.”
The campaign also invites teens, particularly young African Americans, to participate in different communal programs over the summer, with the view that keeping them occupied with constructive activities will reduce the chances of them getting entangled in criminal behavior.
"If they are idle they are very subject to the temptation of negative activity,” Reverand Kenneth Irby of the St. Pete’s “Not My Son” campaign told WTSP.
But mainly, the campaign advocates for people in black neighborhoods to speak up if they witness a crime being committed. "We are bringing people from the community to go into places to help parents and children understand that they’re not alone,” Irby told Fox13.
St. Petersburg Police Chief Anthony Holloway added: “They don’t want violence in their community, so just being able to talk to someone, that one-on-one conversation to say, okay, what can we do to work together."