Snitching: Criminal Informants and the Erosion of the American Legal Justice System

[Google Group Manager]

After reading Professor Natapoff's book J.G. Chase commented that,
"Professor Natapoff's book combines the best of scholarly research and
social activism. Abuses done by the criminal justice system are
documented and Professor Natapoff comes down hard on how the system
destabilizes neighborhoods by creating crime to stop crime. Can
everybody on the street where you live be engaged in criminal
activity? Get real? What criminal wants you to know that they are a
criminal...unless they are a snitch. Entrapment? Natapoff writes that
some courts have accepted an entrapment defense in certain cases. Mr.
Chase goes on to comment that most Americans have been so conditioned
to fear "drugs" and "the other" that they have entrusted their safety
to the criminal justice system. This has allowed police and
prosecutors to target people they think most Americans want them to
target. It has been the rule of men rather than the rule of law, not
something Americans should be proud of.

If you think that your neighborhood or the city that you live in is
crime-ridden, take a closer look. A lot of it is unregulated police
activity, and constitutional and civil rights abuse by the federal,
state and local governments. Everybody can't be engaged in illegal
activity, just because of the color of their skin. This book is a
must read for every citizen whose life has been turned upside down due
to the unregulated use of informants by federal, state and local law
enforcement agencies.

The unregulated use of informants in the law enforcement community has
deep-seated, undercurrent constitutional and civil rights abuse based
on stereo-typing; racial and ethnic stereo-typing. (We're not
disregarding white collar criminals. We're just not addressing white
collar crime in this forum.)