Is snitching a bad thing?

There was murder in the city across the river from us. This was their first homocide since 2007. It is a small community with little diversity but it's economic growth is running circles around our city that is 5 times larger. Anyhow the shooting happened and a day later they already knew who the suspects were and everyone is on the hunt. I was thinking wow; how can that small police force get their suspects so fast and our city that has has about 6 or 7 homocides already this year takes weeks or sometimes even months to get a suspect? I know that their police force is not better than ours. I started thinking maybe because the town is smaller and everybody knows everybody. Then I thought well, the city is majority white so there is urgency in the matter versus when a black man is killed. I am not trying to make it all about race but I do beleive race plays an issue in it but not for the reason you may think. I started thinking about that question and how fast things were getting solved. What was the difference? Why was it so fast and who made it so? My conclusion is that it is the community that is making the difference. In the Black commumity people are scared to speak against crime. They dont want to be labeled as a snitch because of the fear or retaliation. I understand that to a point no one wants trouble or to live in fear. But, think about what would happen if more Black people would speak up. I am not saying it would end the violence but it may help to deter it. It is sad the huge affect fear has on our community. You have the fear of the violence that occurs everyday and the fear of speaking up against it. I know how most people feel. How can our community expect to combat violence if no one speaks up? I guess you got weigh the lesser of the two evils and most people won't encourage others to speak up until it hits home. I see it all the time. As soon as their relative is killed they are on tv pleading for people to come forward and tell the police what they know. It takes a lot of courage to speak up for what is right. I know at the time you may think is it worth speaking up. That is a choice you will have to make. But, look back at what happened when people started to look the other way at crimes committed in our community. Long ago Black people stuck together and fought together there was a since of pride and loyalty among our race. That feeling is gone and has been replaced with a selfish mentality that has caused division amoung our race. No one thinks about the big picture and looks at the future benefits. I know you cant see the benefit in speaking up "snitching" at this time, but one immediate benefit is getting criminals off the street in hopes of making our communities safe.