Marcus: A loyal friend, or a fool?

As mentioned before, one very common sight in the legal system is when someone is offered the chance to "snitch" on someone and receive less time, or even no time at all depending on the situation. This is evident in the book, as after Marcus is arrested, the police ask him numerous times about who his partner was. Marcus does not give up Eddie, and therefore Eddie does not get in any trouble. Eddie and his family find this as loyal, but other characters in the book, mostly Marcus' family and the police, find this foolish. I actually agree with Marcus' logic here, the logic being not giving his friend up. If I'm in a situation like that, God forbid, I'm not going to give my friend up. It's called loyalty, and if you're not loyal and you're a rat, bad things happen. There's an old saying, "You be a snitch, expect to get hit". If Marcus snitched on Eddie, we're left to wonder what could have happened, and I don't think it would have turned out too well. While reading the book, I saw myself gaining more and more respect for Marcus, due to the way that he did not forget about his beliefs of loyalty towards his friends, and at a time where he's looking at jail time, the way that he's able to not say "Eddie was my partner", thats crazy, but Marcus understands the real world, and I give him props for that.