History Main / RealStitchesForFakeSnitches

* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'' uses a version with a heroic group as a plot twist. [[spoiler:Sirius ''wasn't'' the one who betrayed the Potters, a different friend of theirs did.]]

** In season 6, Gemma murders Tara because she inaccurately believes Tara informed on Jax to the police.

** Jamie Reagan pulls it again beautifully on a cocky, sexist slug named Tommy who first harassed and later assaulted Eddie. As they are approaching him, Eddie protests to Jamie, "I don't want you to do this," and Jamie responds that Tommy has been asking for a beating. The dialog sets the audience up to think Jamie is about to throw a few punches, right? Wrong. Jamie then thanks Tommy in front of his cohorts for his cooperation; the information he gave the police in exchange for him walking helped them arrest the drug dealers. Tommy's friends begin to freak out, and Jamie walks away fully satisfied that the well-deserved beating is about to take place.

* Danny Reagan invoked it on ''Series/BlueBloods'' to set up Delgado. As other gang members are arrested, Delgado is unexpectedly let go and thanked for his cooperation, making it sound like he ratted the rest of them out. The epilogue reveals that the gang members had taken care of business.

* ''Series/Daredevil2015'' provides a twisted variant of this. After snitching on an Albanian syndicate to gain Ray Nadeem's trust, Wilson Fisk pays Jasper Evans to shank him, just good enough to convince the Feds that he's been targeted for snitching, so that they'll move Fisk into a hotel penthouse suite that he's bought through a series of shell companies. Helping sell his fake story to Nadeem is that the convoy transferring Fisk is coincidentally attacked by an unrelated Albanian hit squad, who almost come close to killing Fisk before Dex intervenes and kills them first.

* [[BigBad Saluk]] from ''Disney/AladdinAndTheKingOfThieves'' tricks Cassim's remaining followers into thinking that Cassim ratted them out to the royal guards.

* ''VideoGame/SleepingDogs'' has a scene in which undercover cop Wei Shin successfully reverses an accusation that he is a snitch, resulting in the accuser (actually a loyal gang member) getting murdered on the spot by a crime boss.

And those who keep their mouths shut? They can be marked for death too, if the right people think' they snitched. In this trope people involved in crime are framed for tattling. There can be a number of motives. Someone may be seeking {{revenge}} for an unrelated offense. Their removal might be good for someone else's career advancement. In some cases police will manipulate things this way to get a target who seems immune to legitimate prosecution.

* In the 1995 remake of ''Film/KissOfDeath'' Ronnie Gannon gets Jimmy Kilmartin re-involved with the car theft racket, leading to his arrest. Then he's indirectly responsible for Jimmy's wife Bev getting killed while Jimmy is inside. Jimmy gets revenge by offering the cops details on an old job he helped pull, coming clean about his own involvement but excluding all mention of Ronnie. When everyone involved is arrested except for Ronnie, their boss Little Junior Brown assumes he's the rat and beats him to death.

* ''Film/TheUsualSuspects''. Kujan threatens Verbal with this to get him to flip. [[UnreliableNarrator The results]] [[ItWasHisSled are mixed]].

** In episode "Mind Games" Micheal tries to convince loan shark Wallace that his thug Carter is a undercover Police Officer, even hiding a kit in his house. Wallace has Carter's house searched, but [[FramingTheGuiltyParty instead finds Carter's real kit]], [[UndercoverCopReveal revealing he was an FBI Agent the whole time]].

* Threatened on ''Series/GoodGirls''. Agent Turner picks up an injured hoodlum in Rio's money laundering operation. The guy won't talk, so Turner offers to take him out to lunch...at a public place where all his other cronies hang out. He flips at that point, so Turner doesn't have to carry out the threat, but subsequent dialog between Rio and Beth suggests that the mob found out anyway and fixed the "problem."

* On ''Series/LawAndOrder'' Fontana once got a scared bartender to talk by threatening to drop money on the bar while Green would smile and say "thank you" within plain view and earshot of the people he was scared to talk about.

And those who keep their mouths shut? They can be marked for death too, if the right people '''think''' they snitched. In this trope people involved in crime are framed for tattling. There can be a number of motives. Someone may be seeking {{revenge}} for an unrelated offense. Their removal might be good for someone else's career advancement. In some cases police will manipulate things this way to get a target who seems immune to legitimate prosecution.

** After being arrested, a criminal tries to blackmail Dave Quinnan into letting him go. At the same time the detectives convince a minor associate of this man to grass his boss up. To preserve his cover, they arrest the grass on a minor charge, then let the other man think his blackmail plan has worked by releasing him without charge, knowing that suspicion will fall on him when his boss is arrested.

* Danny Reagan invoked it on ''Series/BlueBloods'' to set up Delgado, a gang member. Delgado had been taunting Reagan all along, and continued to taunt during the arrest scene. Suddenly and unexpectedly, Delgado is let go and thanked for his cooperation, making it sound like he ratted the rest of the gang out. The epilogue reveals that the gang members had taken care of business.

* Patrick Jane has pulled this a few times on ''LiveActionTV/TheMentalist''. Most notably with the head of a biker gang, where Jane arranged for it to look like the man was taking payments for informing on the gang. We don't see the final result, but it's implied that the gang's leader won't be around for very long.

* Patrick Jane has pulled this a few times on TheMentalist. Most notably with the head of a biker gang, where Jane arranged for it to look like the man was taking payments for informing on the gang. We don't see the final result, but it's implied that the gang's leader won't be around for very long.

* On ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'' the team stages an attempt on the life of a corrupt FBI agent who refused to testify against the mobster he was working for to make him think the mobster was trying to kill him to make sure he couldn't testify. This causes the agent to give up an incriminating file that brings down the mobster's organization.

* ''Film/TheUsualSuspects. Kujan threatens Verbal with this to get him to flip. [[UnreliableNarrator The results]] [[ItWasHisSled are mixed]].

* A recurring plot threat in Series/SonsOfAnarchy where various club members struggle to deal with Law Enforcement officers who attempt to coerce them under the threat of making it look like they're snitches even though the club member has been loyal and refused to cooperate.