Anna Sowers is the wife of Zach Sowers, the Baltimore man who was beaten nearly to death and robbed last June. He remains in a coma; his prognosis, Anna Sowers said, remains bleak.

"We're still hoping for that miracle" of his recovery, Sowers told me yesterday.

Here's something else Sowers is hoping for that falls into the category of a miracle: getting a couple of dozen black leaders in this city to publicly condemn the "stop snitching" virus sweeping Baltimore and the nation.

"We had an idea to identify 25 black Baltimore leaders in politics, business, sports, entertainment, etc. to collectively stand up and publicly condemn the stop snitching culture," Sowers said in an e-mail sent Jan. 24.

A week later, nearly 100 people gathered at New Life United Methodist Church to hear several black panelists discuss this stop-snitching foolishness. Sowers said that Rev. Heber Brown III, vice president of the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, invited her to attend, but she wasn't able to make it.

Perhaps that's just as well. What those in attendance heard Thursday was something that fell several light-years short of a public condemnation.

According to an article in The Sun written by reporter Brent Jones, Tyrone Powers - college professor, activist and absolutely Gov. Martin O'Malley's favorite radio show host - "told about 75 people ... that drug dealers and murderers should not be singled out, and that there needs to be whistleblowers in all walks of life, willing to expose politicians, police officers and clergy."

Quoting Powers directly, Jones reported that he said: "In this town, nobody tells on anybody else. If we're going to address the 'stop snitching' thing, let's get it all out there. Let's not demonize a certain group of people."

"I don't agree with that," Anna Sowers told me yesterday, about whether critics of the stop-snitching culture are "demonizing" young black men involved in a life of crime. And she's got good reason. Young black men involved in Baltimore's criminal life have already demonized themselves more adeptly and completely than any of us ever could. Let's look at a few examples.

Darrell Brooks poured gasoline into the home of the Dawson family in October of 2002 and set a fire that killed seven people. Angela and Carnell Dawson had called police about drug dealing in their neighborhood. Drug dealers called them "snitches."

Edna McAbier had her home firebombed in January 2005 by members of a neighborhood gang who felt had she snitched on them by calling police about their criminal activities.

In July 2004, 15-year-old Quartrina Johnson was strangled so she wouldn't testify in a statutory-rape case. Three men were convicted of her murder and a fourth of conspiracy to commit murder. Jason T. Richards, the man who was charged with statutory rape and who prosecutors say ordered Quartrina's death, called one of his co-defendants a "punk" and a "snitch." Richards even threw the N-word in there for good measure.

All involved in the Quartrina Johnson case, victim and perpetrators, were black. Most of Baltimore's homicide victims - whose killers sometimes go free because of witness intimidation inspired by "stop snitching" - are also black. That's why Anna Sowers issued the call specifically for black leaders to step up and condemn Baltimore's stop-snitching culture. When non blacks condemn "stop snitching," Sowers said, it appears like they're outsiders criticizing a culture they don't understand.

"We need strong black leaders to publicly slam this atrocious trend in a troubled sector of the black community," Sowers wrote in her e-mail.

I wish her luck in her efforts. But the outlook is dim. In February 2006, rapper Busta Rhymes saw his bodyguard murdered in front of his very eyes and still hasn't told New York City police who committed the crime. When he made an appearance eight months later at Morgan State University, not one Baltimore black leader condemned the appearance at a taxpayer-funded university of a man who could be the poster boy for the stop-snitching movement.

But let Don Imus speak anywhere in this town and see how fast the picket lines go up. Heck, let Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas come to town and see how fast black leaders condemn his appearance.

These are the same folks Sowers wants to condemn "stop snitching." I get the feeling she'll stay on them until they do. Sowers was outraged when the man who all but murdered her husband got a 40-year prison sentence with a possibility of parole in 20 years. She's now channeled that anger into activism.

Baltimore's hoodlum element that so cherishes its stop-snitching code may well rue the day they got this woman started.

greg.kane@baltsun.com