Snitch: Informants, Cooperators and the Corruption of Justice

Regardless of your views on the subjects at hand, it is hard to argue with the cases presented in this book as anything less then interesting and often times provocative. Divisive and dangerous as the issue of "snitching" in the criminal justice sector and the rewards it brings, this book provides plenty of examples of what can and does go wrong. While all good things must come to an end, I'd love to eventually see a expansion upon this book and its premise.

Highly recommended read. I don't know where Brown's from but he definitely delivers a horrifically accurate image of growing up in drug-plagued New York in the 80's in Queens Reigns Supreme. In this recent work, Snitch, Brown tackles the flaws in police-informant relationships. Specifically, the measures informants reach when their freedom's at stake. Brown also sheds light on the dangers of stat-hungry prosecutors purely seeking conviction numbers before justice. If you have the slightest interest in criminal justice (or injustice) buy, borrow or steal this book. This is the ugly truth to the story of police cooperation....I wish this book would been published prior to the hype around Stop Snitching so it could have served as some sort of reference....one thing's for sure, Cam'ron is still a jackass.

This is an excellent and completely horrifying book. Academic critics like Prof. William Stuntz have documented the "pathological politics" of federal criminal law - an "iron triangle" relationship in which (1) the electorate induces (2) the legislative branch to increase the prosecutorial power of (3) the executive at the expense of the poor, withering judiciary. Sentencing guidelines -and especially stiff mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenders- have raised the stakes of trial immensely. When defendants are given the choice to either: A) plead guilty to 1-2 years behind bars or B) exercise their constitutional right to trial and risk decades, it's simply no wonder that fewer and fewer cases make it into the courtroom. And this means less transparency, fewer appeals, less judicial review, and...yes...WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS! If, as Brandeis had it, "sunlight is the best disinfectant" who knows what is now growing in the darkness? There can be no doubt that the current regime has turned US Attorneys into Grand Inquisitors. But should we worry? Why not "just trust the Government?" After all, there can be no witchhunts without false accusations and false confessions, right? This is where Ethan Brown's book makes a truly original contribution, and to my mind delivers the coup de grace to the existing federal system. The author demonstrates how that system runs on a strict and steady diet of "incentivized witnesses" - snitches in common parlance. Mandatory minimums can be a great incentive to lie and exaggerate if you are a "target" looking to roll over on your associates. But they also create perverse secondary incentives - in federal investigators and prosecutors - to skip the expensive and boring independent investigation. When all these snitches are coming to you with free eyewitness information, why bother with the hard police work? Brown persausively and devastatingly argues that the snitch has become a crutch for the Government, to the severe detriment of the rights of the accused and the integrity of the system. This is an extremely important book because it is written from the perspective of a serious journalist for the lay public. Practitioners frequently lose the perspective to see how truly bizzare and unfair the system has become. The public, on the other hand, can't be expected to take much interest in the various subsection headings of the US Code. Ethan Brown bridges the gap for the lay public, and one can only hope this book brings some attention to this Kafkaesque nightmare.

"Snitch is a must read. With the current fascination with gangsters in America, and gangsta rap read what really goes on behind the scenes. All the bravado and thuggish attitudes is just for show because when these so-called gangstas get behind closed doors they are snitches on whoever and whatever, fabricating and lying on people. That is the truth of American Justice and Ethan shows it all with no punches." [...]