View from the cop: Crime & punishment
View from the Cop is moving to a new site on Wordpress. Blogger Steve Rose of the Sandy Springs Police Department gives his take on crime, offers safety tips and give his weekly picks from the police blotter. Follow Steve Rose to the new blog site.
AJC.com > Metro > View from the cop > Archives > 2007 > December > 06
Thursday, December 6, 2007
No sympathy for this now unemployed informant
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Now and then I get on the soap box which is what I’m doing after reading that Alex White was suing the City of Atlanta and the APD. No surprise but ridiculous none the less.
So now I need to tell you that this is my opinion and not that of the police department in Sandy Springs or the City of Atlanta or anyone else but me. This includes my Shih Tzu and Roxy the Rotweiller, born of Satan, who hunts the silly people in my neighborhood, late at night, for unspeakable rituals at our house involving Jell-o and scuba flippers.
Alex White, professional snitch, is suing Atlanta Police.
First, let’s get this out of the way: Should he have told on those narcotics cops? Damn right! No doubt. They got what they deserved. There’s plenty of dope out there without having to fabricate facts and doing what they did. Kathryn Johnston should not have been shot and killed that night. Alex White should have told the truth and Alex White did what he should have done. Whether or not he did it because it was the right thing to do or doing to cover his fanny is a matter of discussion I’m sure. Maybe it was the lesser of two evils.
Alex White’s “credibility” as a confidential informant has been damaged due to the fact that his face was on television. Now he can’t get a job as a confidential informant. That’s horrible. Is there some sort of pie chart or graph showing the dramatic decline of confidential informants? Those guys need a union.
Alex is trying to play the role of victim. I think it was Alex who let the Fox-5 camera person in the car while he drove around talking on his cell phone—driving and talking as if that phone call couldn’t wait five minutes until the filming was done? I’ll bet he had at least a dozen DVD’s made of him driving around with the camera in his face. Did he not think people wouldn’t recognize him?
The article in the AJC said that the lawsuit “requests that the 25-year-old White be compensated for lost wages, emotional distress and attorney’s fees.” The lawsuit he filed asks for lost wages (well, this is America), compensation for emotional distress? Wait a minute. What about all those dopers White burned when he was snitching? They lost wages. They should sue him. I’m sure they’d like to do more than that to him but hey, we’re all victims here right?) Attorney’s fees? (Well, this is America.)
Alex chose to be a snitch. It’s not like he went to community college to get his Associates in Snitching degree and now he can’t use his trade. Snitches work deals to get themselves out of trouble and then if they want, they make a few bucks at it.
If you’re a confidential informant, the after effect of putting your face on television will include a sharp decline in the request for your services. Don’t forget, the key word is “confidential.” It was his choice. Hopefully this will be a wake up call for Alex. Maybe he’ll be inspired to do great things. Who knows but I don’t buy the “victim” spin. Nope.



