OKANOGAN COUNTY – The “citizen informer”. It’s very common under totalitarian and authoritarian regimes. After all, there often aren’t enough secret police to watch everyone, all the time. But if everyone in such a dystopian society is watching everyone else, and reporting the arbitrary crimes “to the authorities” in return for an “atta-boy” pat on the head, and feelings of virtuousness and overall betterness, well, it’s so much easier for those in control at the top. Never mind all those at the bottom living in constant terror for the pounding at their door.

There’s nothing like salving your own terror by watching some poor sap that you denounced get hauled off to the re-education camps – or worse. But, of course, those self-righteous ones who want that sanctioned approval – and aren’t particular about who it comes from, or even the frightened cowards who just want to point an accusing finger elsewhere so that maybe they can be the last ones on the chopping block, are certainly not welcomed with open arms among the people that the wanna-be tyrants fear.

That’s why such snitches must do their dirty work in secret, in the shadows. Watching. Listening. And then put on their shocked face along with the huddled group of whispering peons on the street corner, as a neighbor is dragged out and beaten – metaphorically or not – by the jack-booted Stasi.

For that to work, the informers need their anonymity. By denying it to them, perhaps we can stop going further down this unpleasant path that we’re all on. This article contains info on those who were foolishly proud enough of their informant work in their own community, to attach their name or other identifying information to their accusations. Some wanted to vicariously hear the results of the punishment that was administered, and others were eagerly willing to provide more dedicated (and creepy) snitch information such as photos or video. Other complainers, however, were less foolish, and submitted their snitch reports more or less anonymously.

But if you are an anonymous snitch, you’ll have to wonder: will some uncaring and incompetent government bureaucrat unintentionally release an identifying piece of your information, even though you desired full anonymity? Will a neighbor be able to piece some tidbits of separated information together and prove that you are the local snitch on the block? Will a business owner remember you on that particular day, and connect you and your information together with your hysterical complaint?

Interesting questions to ponder for some among us.

Meanwhile, below is the list of potentially identifiable people who made over 85 local complaints to the state, which were part of 473 total complaints received against businesses and individuals within Okanogan County, between March 25^th, 2020, through January 18^th, 2021. Statewide, there were nearly 90,000 reports for that time period. These informant reports of real or imagined violations of Inslee's edicts, were submitted largely through the Governor's "Report a Safe Start Violation" form and its previous iterations. All data submitted is subject to release under Washington state public transparency laws.

Shockingly, a handful of complaints are reporting churches, as if that doesn’t have quite horrible historical parallels. The Sheriff’s Office is also the target of a number of complaints – largely because they refused to be mindless enforcers for Inslee. A Washington State Patrol officer was also the subject of a complaint. There’s also a complaint from an official Okanogan County government email address – was that one officially sanctioned? Sent on work time? Then, there are several fake reports for closed businesses or empty buildings, but which would require local knowledge to dismiss immediately – kudos for those reports maybe costing the state apparatus a bit of time to investigate.

There are apparently complaints that were filed with the state by business competitors trying to harm each other – because that’s how you build a better society. And, of course, the Governor's informant reporting system is just perfect for people with an ongoing feud with certain business owners – you can now get the state to deal out your revenge!

Copious amounts of fear, and even hysteria, are on tap with the submitted observations and details of many complaint reports. But what is most upsetting is those clearly malicious and vindictive individuals trying their darndest to get particular local businesses fined. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face.

If you couldn’t already figure it out, just about every business in the county that has contact with “the public” has likely been reported at least once – regardless of whether or not they want to strictly follow all the Governor’s arbitrary rules – because “someone is always watching” and it only takes a moment for a slipup to be noted and reported. There is no relaxing allowed, at all. Ever.

However, the great majority of complaints were found to be unsubstantiated by whichever state agency was assigned to investigate them. The state just had to spend a lot of taxpayer money and unproductive work hours to figure that out.

Governor Inslee is ultimately responsible for this fiasco. Encouraging and enabling this sort of widespread snitching to the government is breaking our society. We should stop all of it.

Those identifiable individuals that are reporting our local businesses to the State Ministry of COVID Rule Compliance are listed here. This information comes from public records.

Please do not threaten these people. It could be a criminal offense.