SNITCH FOR A LIVING
Cops: Don’t work. Earn money as a totalitarian tattle

“Two or three arrests per week, you could make $700, $750 per week,” Sergeant Selfsaid. “You could make better than a minimum-wage job.”

The police state loves recessions. People hard up for money are turning in their family, neighbors and anybody else for some quick cash payments from the snitch state.

Some Crime Stoppers coordinators say their program appeals to community spirit and emphasize that not everyone who calls is after money. But their advertising makes no bones about the benefits of a good tip.

“Crime doesn’t pay but we do,” say the mobile billboards cruising Jacksonville, Fla. A poster targeted toward a lower-educated audience in Jackson, Tenn., draws a neat equation: “Ring Ring + Bling Bling = Cha-Ching.” The bling, in this case, is a pair of handcuffs.

The New York Times celebrates the mindless, little totalitarians who become informants to help pay the bills. As the writers of the article note, the snitches are “creative.” There’s always been a totalitarian force amongst the masses, and what better way to fan the flames of fear and grow state dependency than to offer up depreciating dollars to a bunch of financially needy and mindless citizens.


Denver police tase, pepper then kill a man

DENVER — Two neighbors who witnessed Denver’s finest fatally shooting a Montbello man May 17 challenged a police account of the incident, saying the men in blue shot the man when he was unarmed after a Taser bolt made him drop a knife he was brandishing.

Police say the man, identified by a family friend as 45-year-old Odiceo Valencia, a father of three children, charged them with the knife after he had been struck by the Taser shot and Pepperballs, both nonlethal weapons.

“They unloaded on him,” said Judea Duran, 36, who lives across the street from 5553 N. Dillon St., where the shooting occurred.

“They killed him in cold blood,” said Duran, who was outside his home watching with his wife at the time.

Reached for comment, Denver police spokeswoman Sharon Hahn said all witness accounts of the incident will be weighed.


Mother of three arrested for escape 33 years ago

DEL MAR, CALIF. — Until late April, Marie Day Walsh was a very respectable 53-year-old housewife living in suburban comfort in Del Mar, California, near San Diego, with her husband of 23 years. They have two grown daughters and another still in high school. 

Then came a knock on the door and she was arrested and carted off to jail.

In 1975, she was a 19-year-old hippie in Saginaw, Mich. Her name was Susan LeFevre, but more importantly she was arrested for peripheral involvement in a heroin deal. While awaiting trial, she took college courses. Hoping for mercy, she pleaded guilty. 

The judge, full of righteous wrath, sentenced her to 10 to 20 years in prison. 

“I just hope you do change your own life,” Judge Joseph R. McDonald told LeFevre, according to transcripts of the Feb. 7, 1975, hearing in Saginaw, Mich. “You’re a young woman and you can live this down, but you’re going to have to pay the penalty.”

After a year or so, she walked away from a prison work site, escaping as she had offended: nonviolently. 

She had never been in trouble before and has never been in trouble since. She eventually settled into life as Marie Walsh, North County wife and mother of three in southern California. 

Because of an anonymous tip to authorities, she will now probably be extradited to Michigan and imprisoned until she is in her 60s.