> We ARE threatened with a move toward a police state
aka, nation of finks: http://www.law.uc.edu/lawreview/uclaw73pdf/0645natapoff.pdf
"The informant institution further shapes the law enforcement process by shifting ultimate decisions about liability away from prosecutors to police. Most informants are created and managed by police officers whose highly discretionary activities evade judicial and public scrutiny. Even in more formal settings, the agent's narrow investigatory goals can dominate the informant management process. One of Yaroshefsky's defense counsel interviewees described a "typical scenario" at a confidential proffer session: the agent believes that "Jones" was at a particular illegal meeting. The cooperator does not mention Jones. The agent asks the cooperator:
Was anyone else there? The cooperator says no. Are you telling me that Jones was not there? At that juncture, the cooperator knows what the agent wants to hear. Moreover, the agent might then say, look, I know that Jones was there. Let's take a break. The agent then walks off with your client. After the break, when the client is asked again, he knows that Jones was there."
from "Snitching: The Institutional and Communal Consequences" by Alexandra Natapoff University of Cincinnati Law Review Vol. 73 (Fall '04)