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The police weren't wearing uniforms, but the young men at West Lafayette Avenue and Monroe Street quickly figured out who was approaching and walked down the street. That left Anthony Parham, a recovering heroin addict, sitting on the steps of a rowhouse next to Tanya Johnson.

The message from Officer Keith Harrison was aimed more at the kids who had fled than the man who stayed behind and agreed with everything that was said. Still, it was an effort by police to warn residents that what happened to the man in picture on their flier could happen to them.

The man in the picture was Akiba Matthews-Bey, the cameraman for the infamous underground Stop Snitching DVD that encouraged people to honor the code of the street and not to cooperate with police. It put Baltimore in the national spotlight on crime and troubles authorities face in urban American, and prompted city police to create their own DVD, Keep Talking.

"We want to send a message that just as you exploited the media, we are going to exploit you, to expose the fraud that you are," Baltimore Police Col. Rick Hite explained, reffering to Matthews-Bey and pointing to his picture on the flier announcing his 30 year sentence in federal court on drug and gun convictions back in August.

"More importantly," Hite continued, "we want to send a message to the young people to get out of the game." He noted that federal prosecutors have recently convicted 11 other drug defendants and got long prison terms. Authorities like to use the word "exile" beause in the federal system, you serve 85 percent of your time and you get shipped to prison in far off places.

Hite said that it's difficult for Matthews-Bey and others "to receive care packages" and added, "You'll be in a place with no homies, in a strange place with poeple who don't want you. You will understand what it's like to feel vulnerable, about what it means to be sexed into a gang. You will understand all of that because it will real to you."

The officers handed out the fliers on Mount Street near where Matthews-Bey had lived and plied his trade. "It's important to go back to the source and tell neighbors it is OK to sit on the front steps in the summer time and i'ts OK to be part of the community again. It also sends a message to the suspect's homies, 'This is what happened to your friend.'" Of Matthews-Bey, he said, "that smile he had on the video? He's not smiling anymore."

Harrison, the officer, chatted for a while with Parham and Johnson. "Keep selling those drugs and get exiled for 30 years," he said.

Parham said he knew Matthews-Bey, called him a "great guy" and said he had no idea his old friend had been sent away to prison for three decades. Parham said he was addicted to heroin and is now in a Methadone program "and trying to get my life together."

Looking at the picture of his buddy, Parham said, "This hits close to home. It's not worth it."