Despite city crackdown, interest in T-shirts high, store owners say

When Boston hip-hop clothier Antonio Ennis designed the ''Stop Snitchin' " T-shirts in 1999, he says, he intended them as just a novelty item.

But since Mayor Thomas M. Menino publicly discouraged their sale as part of a stepped-up fight against crime, Ennis and other store owners say that inquiries about the shirts have doubled and that many of the would-be buyers are white, suburban children who don't live in areas affected by the city's recent spike in violence.

''One guy came in and said, 'I've never thought about wearing this shirt before. . . . Why can't we wear that?' " said Pat Demling, co-owner of Hip Zepi, which has stores in Dorchester, Mattapan, and Downtown Crossing.

Menino asked five Boston stores to stop selling the shirts, but said he didn't plan to offer financial help to small business owners to help offset any losses.

''I have a responsibility as mayor to make sure the streets are safe," Menino said. ''It's a fact that it's intimidation, and I want fair trials. I want people breaking the law to go to jail. It's not the solution, it's part of the solution. People keep saying that the mayor should be doing something, so I went to work."

Menino and police say the shirts contribute to a culture of fear that intimidates witnesses and keeps them from helping authorities. In one instance, a spectator wore one at a homicide trial in December 2004.

''It never was designed to be worn in courthouses," said Ennis, who has been interviewed by CNN and the BBC about the issue.

The American Civil Liberties Union sent a letter to Menino last week, raising free speech concerns about his stance on the T-shirts.

Ennis said he doesn't think that removing the shirts from Boston will reduce violent crime, adding that the city needs to do more to provide jobs and programs to teenagers at risk of getting into trouble. Still, he agreed to pull them off the shelves at his store, Antonio Ansaldi on Washington Street in Dorchester, and he has stopped filling his backlog of Internet orders. He said the shirts will be taken off the store's website once his webmaster returns to the city.

Ennis said he sponsors a Pop Warner football team, and starting in January will sponsor a program for young entrepreneurs.

''As a man and a father, I can put the community before making a profit," said Ennis, who has five daughters. ''At the same time, no one's done anything wrong. I mean, you can buy your kid a baseball bat, but is it the baseball bat company's problem if you take that bat and beat somebody's head in?"

Ennis, who along with his business partner outfitted actors in movies popular with the hip-hop generation such as ''Shaft" and ''Torque," said he's sold at least 1,000 of the shirts, which come in several colors and retail for about $20, since their inception. Knock-offs soon appeared, showing smiley faces riddled with bullets and the words ''Don't Snitch" across the bottom. Another shirt shows a ''no parking" sign replaced with the phrase ''do not snitch." Ennis said some of the more grisly knock-offs push the joke too far.

The shirts' popularity was bolstered by the 2004 release of an underground documentary ''Stop Snitchin' " about the dangers of informing on Baltimore gangsters, the release this year of a popular DVD titled ''Hoodz: Stop Snitchin," and several similarly named songs by well-known rappers. One video by rapper Jim Jones was banned in Canada because people in the video wore Ennis's T-shirts.

But the shirts, several high school students said, are a teenage fad recently usurped by unsavory characters.

Recent media attention is pushing the shirt to new heights with many people, said Quincy High School student Mike Reynolds.

''I have one, but I'm not wearing it today," said Reynolds, 17, who offered his own interpretation of the T-shirt. ''I hate snitches. Those are the people who rat on you to the teachers."

Mike Labbe said the people who buy them aren't gangsters, but wannabes. ''It's just a fad," said Labbe, 15, who said he has friends who wore the shirts last summer.

Camilo Pichardo, who works at Style in Uphams Corner in Dorchester, said children still want the shirt.

''Black kids, white kids, Latino kids, Cape Verdean kids, all the kids bought it," he said. ''Kids like those kinds of styles, and many still ask about them."

Adrienne P. Samuels can be reached at asamuels@globe.com.