Backlash For Snitches

Slate has this interesting column today about "the high cost of snitching for law enforcement." The starting point is a new fashion trend of shirts that say "Stop Snitchin'," set in a red octagonal sign. The column does a good job of showing how dependent on snitches law enforcement has become, particularly in drug cases. As it points out, the theory of using small fish to catch big fish is often turned on its head in drug cases, where the bigger fish have more useful information to puke up. The low level dealers, however, know almost nothing about the larger organization and end up getting the higher sentences.