Throughout history, the people of all governments, whether it be monarchist or democracy, left or right, authoritarian or libertarian, have been subject to a certain degree of scrutiny by the powers that be. There is a paranoia inherent in all governmental bodies that there will be dissidence amongst the masses, which will in turn lead to the breaking down of the state and the beheading of those at who make up the head of state — figuratively or otherwise.

They are completely right to think and fear this. Where there is power there is also corruption, and there will always be resistance to this. It will usually take the form of underground movements which will do their best to chip away at the result of the actions of the state, or the state itself. Once in a blue moon, these movements manage to expand into the eye of the general public and inflame their passions, thirst for truth and also just irritate through their disruptions of the regular flow of life. The recent Extinction Rebellion protests were a great example of this.

As a resident of the UK, myself and others here will sometimes compare ourselves — partly with the idea of comforting ourselves — to other western “democracies” in how they treat their protesters. On the surface, it looks like we do much better than say, the US, where tales of police brutality pour out of the country. In reality, we have just had our eyes shielded.

There was a scandal last year here dubbed “Spycops”. It showed the people of today, in all likelihood not even fully, the levels the UK police are willing to sink to in order to stamp out our resistance across the years. Political movements found themselves new members, but not ones that were truly for the cause. Infiltration was the game, with the goal of watching and reporting the actions of activists, and any future plans that they may also be privy to.

This took some extreme lengths. They did not merely sit in meetings and take notes or march in demonstrations and join the chants. They fully took on guises and became involved with the personal lives of many activists. The acts they took on resulted in relationships being formed between police and and their targets, many of which were of a sexual nature. Officers who often had family of their own, would in their pretence mislead and abuse women activists for the benefit of the state. They would not even stop when women chose to have a child by them, which has been the case. All made possible through the taxes paid by UK residents. It was reported that between 1985 and 2010, only three or four years did not see an officer in a relationship with a woman activist.

Even before the Spycops scandal came to light, there was an accepted need to survey police actions and make change. The Undercover Policing Inquiry was announced in 2015 by Theresa May, then the Home Secretary. It is still ongoing today, but it is a welcome, though as we know not entirely trustworthy, look into just what these officers have been involved in over these years. It’s website states that it will endeavour to be as transparent as possible and release the findings of it’s work, apparently as and when it can. The inquiry came about as extension of previous investigations into police misconduct, which were in response to media reports of said misconduct back in 2011. This was the first reveal of the Special Demonstrations Unit, the name of the group of police committing these acts, to the public. Supposedly it was disbanded in 2008.

The offences that can be said to have began this scrutiny are those of officers in the SDS unit who stole the identities of dead children, with not even a word or indication to the parents, in order to conduct their practice of surveillance with much less of the worry of having their true identities discovered. Reports found that an estimated 80 deceased children’s names were used for this purpose, each officer receiving passports, national insurance numbers and all the rest that they would need to pass off as a true human being. Some of them have since expressed their supposed misgivings at the time and subsequent regret, giving heartfelt accounts of them feeling they were using the children. They were, and refused to quit their job in protest or reveal what was going on despite them knowing how horribly immoral it was. One even goes on to say how he felt like he was part of a secret police, comparing the operation to ones that would be conducted by the Stasi. At least they are self-aware.

This is not a new tactic, even in this country. For decades, many innocent people who have given themselves to a just cause have been betrayed, harmed and otherwise violated through actions of manipulation by police. These have never been isolated incidents, they are planned and ongoing offenses against democracy.

What could be considered the cherry on the cake was the oft-brought up case of Stephen Lawrence, an 18-year-old black youth who was stabbed to death in 1993 in a racial attack by a group of white men, whilst stood waiting at a bus stop in Eltham, London. The Lawrence family soon became very frustrated by the incompetence of the police in investigating the murder, and their quite blatant apathy towards it. No proper action was taken by police at the time, despite the very next day after the murder a letter being left in a telephone box containing the alleged identities of the culprits. The campaign that started in order to bring about justice for the Lawrence family was then infiltrated and observed by an officer of the SDS. This was all done in order to find anything that could possibly be used, or twisted, into smearing the Lawrence family. This was all revealed in 2013, 20 years after the murder and after police admitting their incompetence and an apology being issued to the family back in 1998. Despite police, especially those on the upper end of the hierarchy, being aware of the SDS surveillance of the family, they only chose to admit their indifference to the murder case, masquerading it as ineptitude.

“Misconduct” serves as a convenient euphemism for the police. No matter how abhorrent their aggression towards the freedom and livelihood of the common people, it can be merely branded misconduct by themselves or the government, and so leaves the public imagining less inhumane acts, without any research. The Undercover Police Inquiry has stated that this June 2019, the first evidence hearings around the investigation will begin, after 162 officers have been inducted in their anonymity process. They have also stated that they have prioritised investigation into the actual deployment of the SDS officers, rather than their management and oversight, despite the fact that both issues are to be reviewed in next month’s hearings.

All of this serves to show that no matter where you live in the world, police can and will abuse their power. We have seen historically how power is gained, corrupts and is then wielded by people. It does not just stop at governments They have done what they can to suppress attacks on the status quo how they please. Often, it isn’t in the obvious form of riot vans, bullets, tear gas and arrests. The police, in their roles as tools of the state, can imitate their own resistance in their need for their actions to be secretive, but with intentions of oppression, not prosperity.

Photo: Matty Ring

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