A land of grasses...........

When I was at school, the worst thing was to be labelled a ‘snitch’, the creep who told tales about his school-mates to the prefects and teachers. The snitch was ostracised, bullied, taunted and generally detested.

 

Until recent years, informers had been despised since Judas Iscariot. There is a whole lexicon of derogatory terms – coppers nark, squealer, ratfink – but the most common now is ‘grass’. And it is now becoming not only more common for people to grass-up others but, worse, socially acceptable, even a hobby.

 

I know three people who have been breathalysed recently. One was stopped within 300 yards of the pub that he had just left. Another found the police waiting at his home, only minutes away from the pub. The third was stopped on a quiet road on a Sunday morning and told that he had cut-up another car when turning out of a side-street. The only other car at the time was an A1 taxi.

 

All three must have been grassed-up, the first two by other customers, the third by the taxi-driver.

 

A neighbour has been stopped twice for driving too slowly. On the first occasion, the police were waiting at her home. They demanded that she get out of the  car. She said they would have to help her as she was paralysed down one side, hence the ‘disabled’ badge on her windscreen. They made their excuses and  left. She had obviously been reported by van-man who had tailgated her for miles.

 

The second time, she was again stopped for going too slowly and driving erratically, with the same outcome. The driver of the following car must have had the police phone number stored on his mobile for precisely this purpose (whilst committing an offence for using it whilst driving!).

 

And anyone wishing to be super-grass can now fit a miniature video-camera to the car windscreen, which will provide endless opportunities for amusement by getting others into trouble.

 

‘Grassing’ has not only become commonplace; it has become institutionalised.

 

The police reward successful snitchers.

 

There is an outfit called ‘Crimestoppers’ that encourages people to spy on their neighbours in case they are benefit cheats or smoking a spliff (they will give you a scratch-card smelling of – yes – ‘grass’).

 

No doubt their efforts are very successful.

 

As the KGB and Stasi knew well.