Snitch Culture: How Citizens are Turned into the Eyes and Ears of the State

by Jim Redden

In this alarming expose, investigative journalist Jim Redden examines how snooping has become so much a part of American culture that it is practically a family value, encouraged on billboards, television, and even in classrooms. From employees hired to spy on their coworkers to doctors forced to disclose medical information, the U.S. has developed a chilling network for monitoring its citizens. Worst of all, the information gathered - and widely disseminated - is often unreliable, solicited from paid and anonymous informants. "No one is safe in the Snitch Culture. Jim Redden has written a scary, fascinating, and important examination of the pervasive use and abuse of informants and snitches in the United States." - Katherine Dunn, author of Geek Love

Genres: Politics, Psychology, Nonfiction

320 pages, Paperback

First published October 30, 2000

Reviews

[Tentatively, Convenience · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's pretty much a no-brainer that if most criminals are given the chance to snitch on somebody else to get themselves off they'll do it. & it sure as shit ain't going to matter if the snitch is a lie or not. Essentially, snitch culture is just the more desperate mirror image of cowardice at any level of society. If yr middle class nieghbors felt the slightest pressure against them from the Police State that cd be relieved by making up some outlandish story about you to assist in the Police State's getting you out of the way because of yr political activities most of them wd do it in a blink. Sad but true. Most people just want to lead their lives & have very little strength otherwise. I'd like to think that I'm stronger than that & that there are still millions of us in that category.

[Nathan Albright · Rating 4 out of 5]

Snitching is widely recognized as a major social problem, but who is to be blamed for that depends on the perspective one has.  This particular book looks to blame snitching on a combination of goals for social control held by companies, government, and institutions like public schools.  In some respects this is a paranoid worldview, but it is not ridiculous simply for being paranoid.  If people are out to get you, you can hardly be blamed for being paranoid.  And the author of this book, which comes from a small niche press that apparently deals with leftist political matters, apparently has good reason to believe that people are out to discredit those who oppose a corporate mindset.  If some snitch books are focused on the minority community and the troubled relationship between such people and a government that has not always sought to represent or respect their interests or regard their well-being, this book is focused on the relationship between the public and private world in favor of snitching as a way of people to maintain control of institutions and to gather information that can be used to control others through fear and intimidation and the threat of harm, ranging from losing jobs to jail time.

This book is a bit more than 200 pages and it is divided into four parts and seventeen chapters.  The book begins with an introduction that discusses the crackdown that began with the Patriot Act after 9/11.  After that the first part of the book deals with Big Brother in the 21st Century (I), which includes chapters on constant surveillance (3), the corporate origins of snitch culture (5), and the federal intelligence infrastructure (7) as well as the problem of mass media propaganda (9).  The second part of the book discusses the national security surveillance state (II) and the government's war on citizens (10), how whistleblowers are punished (13), and the influence of schools in encouraging snitching (14).  The third part of the book is a short one and it deails with the shape of things to come (III), including a discussion on the infiltration of the anarchists (15), the coming global snitch culture (16), and how to stop snitch abuse (17).  The fourth and last part of the book then discusses various case studies (IV) including the legacy of McCarthyism, asset forfeiture, the ADL spy scandal, the Italian and Russian mafia, Infowar, and gun control snitches, after which there is an appendix.

One of the fascinating aspects of this book is the way that the author praises whistleblowing when it is done against corporate and government interests but abhors snitching when it is conducted against activist groups that are opposed to government behavior and corporate interests.  One would think that someone who appreciated the shining of light into dark places in institutions would be equally willing to have light shone into the dark places of him and his activist associates, but clearly the hypocrisy of the left is strong in this author.  It would probably be better to ponder what it is that allows us to think well of whistleblowing and poorly of snitches, if the two can be separated on any grounds other than self-interest.  That said, the author clearly has some things that are well worth saying and appreciating when it comes to the problematic nature of governments depending on information that comes in a secretive fashion that cannot be properly countered by those against whom the information is used.  Protecting the security of dubious sources even as they do harm to potentially innocent people is not the sort of trade-off we should be comfortable making.

[Cat · Rating 3 out of 5]

got this book because I work as a criminal defense attorney. I have my own thoughts about "snitch culture" so I got the book, basically because of the title. The book is useful in so much as Redden, a newspaper, gathers anecdotal evidence into a single volume . His source material is mostly from newspapers and free weeklies, and that is both a strength and a flaw. Over all, the book reads like an article from a free weekly. I don't mind that per se, but I was hoping for a more rigorous treatment of a most interesting subject.
For example, it would have been useful to cover the transformation of attitudes towards the use of snitches from England to America. Disgust over use of snitches was characteristic of non-elites in America prior to the American revolution. Similarly, both elites and non-elite groups in pre-Revoluntionary America shared this antipathy. Given the current prevalence of snitches, this obviously has changed, but why? This book gives us no answers.

Also, I would have appreciated some coverage of the nexus between federal sentencing law and snitch culture. For example, under recent federal guidelines (since amended) the only way under a mandatory minimum sentence was co-operation with the authorities. Surely this is a chapter in and of itself.

There is some indication that the tide is turning (at least in the non terrorism context), but I fear this book will not age well.I got this book because I work as a criminal defense attorney. I have my own thoughts about "snitch culture" so I got the book, basically because of the title. The book is useful in so much as Redden, a newspaper, gathers anecdotal evidence into a single volume . His source material is mostly from newspapers and free weeklies, and that is both a strength and a flaw. Over all, the book reads like an article from a free weekly. I don't mind that per se, but I was hoping for a more rigorous treatment of a most interesting subject.

For example, it would have been useful to cover the transformation of attitudes towards the use of snitches from England to America. Disgust over use of snitches was characteristic of non-elites in America prior to the American revolution. Similarly, both elites and non-elite groups in pre-Revoluntionary America shared this antipathy. Given the current prevalence of snitches, this obviously has changed, but why? This book gives us no answers.

Also, I would have appreciated some coverage of the nexus between federal sentencing law and snitch culture. For example, under recent federal guidelines (since amended) the only way under a mandatory minimum sentence was co-operation with the authorities. Surely this is a chapter in and of itself.

There is some indication that the tide is turning (at least in the non terrorism context), but I fear this book will not age well.

[Spicy T AKA Mr. Tea · Rating 2 out of 5]

what a weird, long, at times boring, and ambiguous read. i could never quite get a handle on Redden's politics or perspective. One moment he's championing anarchists and their free speech, the next he's railing against all government as part of a grand conspiracy to take away our guns. I felt like I was reading something all over the place going in multiple directions achieving numerous goals while sitting still and doing nothing. Don't get me wrong. It appears these essays are well researched and clearly the author is offering little tidbits here and there of our society gone wrong. Whenever I would read I would hear the dead-pan voice of the guy from cop car chases I, II, III, IV, and etc. Kind of funny if you read it that way. Look, his writing isn't best and every story sounded like the makings of a potential action block buster at the movies. Some of the articles were good, some weren't and I could never quite pin this guy down. It was too many articles spelling out gloom and doom with little to no direction on how to stop it. A real downer. I'm giving it two stars because of the amount of research it seems went into it and because there were some provocative essays. Otherwise, this is a case of more paper wasted than used for beneficial purposes.

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was actually more of a big-government scare guide, with citizen informant connotations shoe-horned in. But the summaries of some of the more notorious government/ citizen interactions from my lifetime were very informative. Most interesting was that the book was written prior to the post-9/11 PATRIOT ACT, after which many of the examples now seem commonplace.