Spying on (environmental) protest groups has gone badly wrong, (British) police chiefs say

[Turborama]

Source: The Guardian

Paul Lewis and Rob Evans | Wednesday January 19 2011 18.21 GMT

Police chiefs admitted today that their infiltration of undercover police officers into protest groups had gone "badly wrong" and called for independent regulation of spying operations.

Amid mounting criticism of police over the handling of the Mark Kennedy case, Jon Murphy, who speaks on the issue for the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), also insisted that undercover officers were forbidden from sleeping with activists to gather information.

Three official inquiries have been launched into Kennedy's seven-year infiltration of the environmental movement after a criminal trial collapsed last week. The row has also led to Acpo being stripped of its power to run undercover police units.

Murphy told the Guardian: "Something has gone badly wrong here. We would not be where we are if it had not."

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jan/19/protest-groups-undercover-mark-kennedy

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Much much more on this story that has been exploding in the UK over the past week: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/mark-kennedy

Related story...

Undercover policeman married activist he was sent to spy on

Chief constable says relationships with targets in environmental movement 'grossly unprofessional'

Paul Lewis, Rob Evans and Rowenna Davis | Wednesday January 19 2011 21.30 GMT

A police spy married an activist he met while undercover in the environmental protest movement and then went on to have children with her, the Guardian can reveal.

He is the fourth spy now to have been identified as an undercover police officer engaged in the covert surveillance of eco-activists. Three of those spies are accused of having had sexual relationships with the people they were targeting.

The details of the activities of the fourth spy, who is still a serving Metropolitan police officer, emerged as the senior police officer managing the crisis in undercover operations insisted that officers were strictly banned from having sexual relationships with their targets.

Jon Murphy, the chief constable of Merseyside, told the Guardian it was "never acceptable" for undercover officers to sleep with people they were targeting.

More: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jan/19/undercover-policeman-married-activist-spy

[Solly Mack]

1. Damn

Double damn

[Turborama]

2. Ex-wife of police spy tells how she fell in love and had children with him

Paul Lewis, Rob Evans and Rowenna Davis | Wednesday January 19 2011 21.45 GMT


Undercover policeman Jim Boyling married an activist and allegedly
told her about other undercover operatives. Photograph: Guardian

Environmental campaigners had been invited to the meeting at the Cock Tavern pub in Euston in June 1999. They were members of Reclaim the Streets, a group that had days earlier brought the City of London to a standstill. By chance, two strangers sat next to each other: Jim Sutton, an articulate, if at times moody, 34-year-old fitness fanatic who relished his role as the group's driver, a function that earned him the sobriquet "Jim the Van"; and Laura, 28, an idealistic activist. Laura (not her real name) did not know that this new acquaintance, a man she would go on to marry and have children with, was in fact Jim Boyling, a police officer living undercover among eco-activists.

Laura has told her story to the Guardian in the hope that it will serve as a warning to police chiefs that their surveillance operation "wrecks lives".

Her account of how she came to know and love someone who turned out to be a police spy – which is substantiated by official documentation and has not been denied by police – will almost certainly lend weight to calls for a public inquiry, chaired by a judge, into the surveillance of protesters.

"I was reading stories that this was happening to so many other women who were at risk of falling for their lies," says Laura, who was divorced from Boyling two years ago. "Having got through what I got through with my children I felt I had knowledge that could help other people and that I needed to do that." She adds: "The impression in the press was that this was an isolated incident, that it was a really 'unusual thing' – but this is not true. I know of multiple cases. We're talking about a repeated pattern of long-term relationships and, for me at least, the deepest love I thought I'd ever known."

A lot more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jan/19/wife-fourth-police-spy-children

[tblue37]

5. Just as our police departments spend enormous

amounts of money and man hours chasing after recreational pot users, US and UK cops waste time and money trying to entrap peaceful protesters while ignoring real criminals--especially banksters and highly placed war criminals and war profiteers. Even worse, these undercover cops almost always end up acting as agents provocateurs. They are the ones instigating and planning whatever crimes anyone in such groups end up becoming involved with. If these undercover cops were not involved, even the few crimes that do get planned or do occur would probably never even be considered.

[Turborama]

7. You nailed it, the real criminals get away with real crimes while protesters who deserve empathy...

...are treated like criminals.

You also nailed it regarding the agent provocateur thing, this article goes into some detail about how they were doing that internationally: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jan/12/activism-protest

[Turborama]

3. Mark Kennedy: A journey from undercover cop to 'bona fide' activist & corporate spy

He turned up with long hair, tattoos and an insatiable appetite for climbing trees. Few people suspected anything odd of the man who introduced himself as Mark Stone on a dairy farm turned spiritual sanctuary in North Yorkshire.

He had come alone on 12 August 2003, in the middle of a heatwave, for a gathering of environmental activists known as Earth First.

Apart from the fact that "Stone" was apparently well-paid and ate meat, he appeared no different from the hundreds of other activists who gathered under marquees to smoke weed, play guitars and plan protests.

What no one could have known was that, despite appearances, the 33-year-old "freelance climber" was actually PC Mark Kennedy, an undercover police officer beginning an audacious operation to live deep undercover among environmental activists.

The Guardian can reveal just how successful – and controversial – the operation was.

Very intriguing article well worth reading in full: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jan/10/mark-kennedy-undercover-cop-activist?intcmp=239

As are these:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jan/12/mark-kennedy-policeman-corporate-spy">Mark Kennedy: secret policeman's sideline as corporate spy

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jan/12/activism-protest">Undercover police officer Mark Kennedy at centre of international row

40 related articles here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/mark-kennedy

[Nihil]

4. Thanks for keeping this in view Turborama!

The more information that comes out on this situation, the more
chance we have of preventing it happening again in the future.
:hi:

[Turborama]

6. You're most welcome

It's a despicable tale and the climate change activists in Britain must really feel violated. The police are not meant to be an arm of government, but in these cases of infiltration and spying they most certainly are.

Kind of reminds me of what the Stasi used to get up to in East Germany up until a couple of decades ago.

:hi:

[Turborama]

8. Update:Undercover police cleared 'to have sex with activists', Promiscuity 'regularly used as tactic

Promiscuity 'regularly used as tactic', says former officer, contradicting claims from Acpo

Mark Townsend and Tony Thompson
guardian.co.uk, Saturday January 22 2011 21.00 GMT

Undercover police officers routinely adopted a tactic of "promiscuity" with the blessing of senior commanders, according to a former agent who worked in a secretive unit of the Metropolitan police for four years.

The former undercover policeman claims that sexual relationships with activists were sanctioned for both men and women officers infiltrating anarchist, leftwing and environmental groups.

Sex was a tool to help officers blend in, the officer claimed, and was widely used as a technique to glean intelligence. His comments contradict claims last week from the Association of Chief Police Officers that operatives were absolutely forbidden to sleep with activists.

The one stipulation, according to the officer from the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS), a secret unit formed to prevent violent disorder on the streets of London, was that falling in love was considered highly unprofessional because it might compromise an investigation. He said undercover officers, particularly those infiltrating environmental and leftwing groups, viewed having sex with a large number of partners "as part of the job".

More: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jan/22/undercover-police-cleared-sex-activists

Now the activists must feel even more violated. I consider this a form of rape, actually.