Paul Grimes - Supergrass

Paul Grimes` name throughout Liverpool is hated and reviled due to the fact that he helped put away a major drug supplier.  His motive?  One of his sons died from a drug overdose and the other ended up weorking for the man he helped send down.  He says that the death of his son was too much and that he needed to make a stand against drug pushers.  Yet the man he helped put away, became embroiled in a political scandal and ended up being exposed as a high level informant himself. This man was John Haase.

    Paul Grimes had his fingers in many pies, and was closely related to a top Liverpool villain, Billy Grimwood.  Grimes claimed to have been involved in armed robberies and relays how vain Haase was.  Whilst Grimes and others were wearing balaclavas and boiler suits, Haase was wearing a balaclava and a suit and tie.  "He looked like he had just stepped out of the window at Burtons" he said in a documentary with Donal McIntyre, "that`s what a vain bastard he was."  Haase had moved big time into drugs, and after the death of his son, made contact with the authorities and became an informant.  Grimes said that drugs had wrecked lives, wrecked families and communities and somebody had to make a stand.  Whether you applaud his motives or believe he had an agenda, what is not in dispute is the fact that he has a price on his head.  You could argue that he knows that if caught for his crimes, he could have gone down for a considerable stretch, and decided to get out regardless of a contract put out on him.

    When people scream he is a grass, I wonder what these very same people have to say about Haase and his sidekick Paul Bennett?  Or is it different because Haase was able to pull a fast one on Home Secretary Michael Howard?  Surely it is logical that Haase being an informer, he had to have had major protection from whatever agency he worked for.  That is, turning a blind eye to whatever crimes he committed and they applying pressure to have any investigations watered down or stopped.  When people become informants, they do have a literal licence to kill, and so you can argue the same with Grimes.  I feel that for some sick reason, people despise drug informants more than informants grassing up mainstream villainy.  Is it because drugs means big money and therefore the pushers and suppliers are above everybody else?  Drug pushers are most definitely not the neighbourhood heroes.  Everybody is commodity to them, and until it hits home hard, very close to home, you will never wake up to the reality.  You are their mate, providing you are putting money in their pocket.  Since when does a pusher have a conscience?