WITNESS PROTECTION

A catalog of cooperating witnesses in criminal cases is probably not
what Internet pioneers had in mind when they touted the Web's
potential. But like bomb-making instructional videos on jihadi sites,
it is the unfortunate reality.

The Web site whosarat.com claims to provide information on witnesses
cooperating with the government. As Adam Liptak reported in The Times
recently, the site says it has identified some 4,300 informers and
another 400 undercover agents, complete with photos and court documents.

The Justice Department is concerned that the site is enabling witness
harassment and is asking federal courts to scale back on public
access to electronic court files. We believe that transparency is
essential to a fair judicial system and it would be a mistake to
overreact to one odious Web site by pulling down plea agreements from
the Internet wholesale. But whosarat.com should serve notice that a
different level of caution may be necessary in the wired age. In
selective cases, where the life of the witness may be in jeopardy,
courts should consider not putting the documents online.

For all the high-tech gizmos favored by television crime shows like
"CSI," the eyewitness remains essential to police work and
prosecutions. It is discouraging to see citizens cooperating with the
government for the sake of public safety denigrated as rats and
tattletales, threatened and sometimes killed as part of the
discouragingly persistent "stop snitching" movement popularized in
hip-hop culture through songs, videos and T-shirts.

Too often, stony silence greets investigators, even those trying to
solve murders. In Baltimore, gang members were sentenced last year
for firebombing the house of an activist who told the police about
neighborhood drug deals. Combating the growing culture of fear will
require a greater emphasis on the physical protection of witnesses.

Everyone from police to politicians would do well to remember that
the Web site and the "stop snitching" wave are symptoms of a deeper
breakdown. Racial profiling, sentencing disparities for crack and
powdered cocaine and aggressive stops and searches in certain
neighborhoods have fed a deep sense of persecution -- particularly
among young black and Hispanic men -- and a dangerously adversarial
relationship with law enforcement. Until that relationship is healed,
cooperation will continue to suffer, as will the communities themselves.