Activist's `anti-snitch' shirts T off United Way

[Ian David]

Activist's `anti-snitch' shirts T off United Way
By Dave Wedge
Thursday, August 18, 2005
Ah, Yes. Dave Wedge. The Herald's most tabloid-esque reporter at a paper already known for the yellowness of it's journalism.

A recovering junkie ex-con who runs a New Bedford United Way food program for the needy is under fire from charity officials fuming that he is selling controversial T-shirts discouraging ``snitching'' on thugs.

William Shell, a recovering heroin addict who runs the United Way's Hunger Commission in New Bedford, has been blasted for selling ``Stop Snitching'' shirts at his store, Big Willy's Style. United Way board member and Bristol District Attorney Paul F. Walsh Jr. said the shirts foster a code of silence and have no place in a city struggling with six unsolved murders in the past year.

``He's been a community activist in leading the charge to bring thugs to justice. It surprises me that he would be trying to make money off the gang culture,'' Walsh said of Shell.

Shell did not return calls for comment.

Another board member, Orren Robbins, said: ``I know Bill pretty well and I've always thought of him of being a pretty darn good citizen in spite of his past problems. But the bottom line is I don't think somebody in his position should be selling those shirts.''

More:
http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=98516