Telling the code: Instructions for interpretation (Continued)
The code was a living embodiment of social control, serving as a shared accountability structure for residents' action
Wieder illustrates this with a conversation with a resident named Arnaldo.
We continued our talk about "regulars," "snitching," and "kiss asses," and about getting stopped by the police because one lives at halfway house.... Thought our conversation had been long and friendly, when I started to ask about the clientele of the bar and the fact that I had heard that there were lots of guys "holding" (possessing drugs) there, Arnaldo said, "I don't know, but you'd be the last one I'd tell if I did."...I did not know what to say and did not press the matter...by asking him why I would be the last one he would tell. "The reason" seemed immediately obvious... for him to have told me would have bordered on snitching.