Mob families are so infested with rats these days it’s a wonder there isn’t ear-piercing feedback from all the recording devices.

One Colombo captain, Anthony (Big Anthony) Russo, was taped in December pledging to track down a rat and “chop his head off” only to turn into Tiny Tony and start eating cheese the minute he was pinched.

Now, we have a Genovese associate-turned-informant named Joe Barone crying about the FBI dumping him for getting involved in a murder-for-hire case with an NYPD informant.

Rats ratting out rats!

It’s almost enough to make you admire the standup guys, if there are any left.

– Michael Daly, N.Y. Daily News.

I hope this post doesn’t stray too close to sanctimony or politics, two realms I normally try to avoid. But really, Michael Daly?

To his credit, Daly goes on to explain that the mobsters in question — the ones who take their full punishments and do not cooperate with investigators — aren’t exactly good people. But isn’t stigmatizing and terrorizing cooperative witnesses like, a real problem, and not just in mob movies and The Wire?