Snitch Culture: How Citizens Are Turned Into the Eyes and Ears of the State. - Review - book review

Progressive, The, August, 2001 by Rachael Rakes

Snitch Culture: How Citizens Are Turned Into the Eyes and Ears of the State by Jim Redden Feral House. 320 pages. $14.95 (paper).

According to Jim Redden, "There is no war on crime. There is no war on drugs, no war on terrorism. There is only the ongoing effort by the federal government to collect as much information on as many people as possible."

Redden traces the history of the snitch's role in surveillance, from its birth in the corporation (with Alan Pinkerton) to its growth in government spying efforts (COINTELPRO, for example) and its current omnipresence (there are tip-off lines even for elementary kids).

The author also provides case studies that illustrate how snitches have ruined the lives of innocent people. Snitch Culture is occasionally shortsighted, since it tends to focus on the surveillance itself, and not the repressive goals of those who order it. But the book succeeds as a comprehensive study of malevolent tactics employed by the government and the private sector.