Yeah, I don't understand most of the responses. I hope that the responses are either from people that:

a) Don't think that he's saying "here's advice for life" (and if they do, don't realize that this is advice for how to respond to crimes against you)

b) Are scoping his advice to "while in prison, and because you're stuck there with violent morons anyway, don't make yourself a target"

c) Are out of their depth and/or don't realize that criminals are willing to resort to violence over even being told to not yell on a crowded subway. Further, don't realize that even short fistfights can result in serious consequences to both parties.

d) Just have no idea how the world really works and see things from this weird rose-tint of (based on responses to me) "minorities will get often get arrested for reporting crimes, so they shouldn't report them" and don't really understand that "don't snitch" just results in higher crime rates in affected areas due to inadequate police spending.

I'm in Brooklyn too and I've witnessed some pretty aggressive fights over petty (non-criminal) bullshit. Why give a shit if a criminal respects you? I get that within jail, it's more important, but how is the system supposed to improve?