A snitch in time

November 17, 6:58 AMGun Rights ExaminerDavid Codrea

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J'accuse! courtesy of EDC

Last Friday, we talked about the utter absurdity of Akron's upcoming gun "buyback." Today I'm going to discuss the people behind it.

Meet Summit County Crimestoppers, sponsors of the local "Goods for Guns" nonsense, and a self-described " program designed to encourage cooperation between the citizenry and the law enforcement community."

How do they do that? No, not through anything that will teach us how to protect ourselves until the police arrive. Instead, they offer "the citizens of Summit County direct and easy access to their law enforcement community and incentive in the form of anonymity and reward."

How Can Someone Collect an Award Anonymously?

When a person calls CrimeStoppers they are assigned a confidential code number, which becomes their only identity. At no time will anyone ask their name...

CrimeStoppers will pay up to $2,000 for information leading to the arrest and indictment (opposed to conviction) of criminals.

Well, what's wrong with that? There are bad guys on the street, and they'd go after witnesses who they knew turned them in. Right?

Forget for a moment this Constitutional guarantee under the Sixth Amendment:

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to...be confronted with the witnesses against him...

Forget the due process clauses in the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment...

Wait a minute--we can't forget them. The Constitution is the "supreme law of the land." The states agreed to that when it was ratified.

I suppose the workaround is, the witnesses will be the arresting officers. The initial anonymous accuser can stay out of the loop--and count his reward unmolested, provided he's not constantly looking over his shoulder wondering who will tell on him--and not necessarily to the police.

OK then, if we can't forget, let's try remembering. Consider this quote from Benjamin Franklin:

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

Here's the thing: If I know about a crime, someone who has or is going to hurt someone else, I have a moral obligation as a human being to intervene. Snitching anonymously, where the prime motivation is a monetary reward, is an invitation to corruption. And we've known that for some time:

Not only do the approximately 15,000 confidential informants dominate the issuance of search warrants, but the study also finds they earn large amounts of money...

As a result...the nation's system of justice is in danger:

"Abuses by informants and law enforcement threaten the rights and safety of innocent people, as well as the integrity of the courts..."

Here's a scenario I speculated on last year when discussing a New York City program that pays anonymous informants to call in tips on people with guns:

If I'm a drug dealer and I want to eliminate the competition, why not let New York's finest do the job for me? Chances are, my rivals will be packing, so I'll not only get them busted, but I'll collect a cool grand per head. And if I'm really lucky, maybe one or more of them will go for their waistbands and I can get the cops to take 'em out for me.

Or what if I'm just mad at somebody? What if some bum has stolen my girl or I think a guy ripped me off or I'm just a creep who wants to victimize someone for the twisted hell of it? This would be a pretty sweet way of doing that, wouldn't you say? Sic the cops on 'em, maybe get 'em killed, and remember: even the police won't know who I am.

Or more insidiously:

[W]hat if I'm [a policeman]? What if I have no probable cause for a search warrant, but I don't want to let the Fourth Amendment get in my way any more than the Second does in NYC? Why not just call in the tip myself, and enjoy a toll-free bypass around the Constitution?

Fortunately, Summit County Crimestoppers are as ineffectual at finding snitches as they are at stopping crime. Their "Resolved Cases" tab links to one article from two years ago, where they handed out a whopping thousand bucks.

Naturally, they and their media cheerleaders trumpeted their year as "successful," and their president described his feelings as "ecstatic."

Good grief. I wonder if they believe their own line of...baloney? And I wonder how ecstatic their leader would feel if he were the victim of some opportunistic "crimestopper"?