20-01-2012, 10:19 PM
Activists plan Scotland Yard blockade to expose spies who used sexual tactics
[Just realized this WAS last year - what became of this, if anything!??????!]
Women aim to identify undercover police who infiltrated environment groups and had sexual relations with protesters
James Meikle
guardian.co.uk, Monday 24 January 2011 06.01 GMT
Metropolitan Poloce Commissioner Ian Blair resigns
Activists are expected at Scotland Yard in London today to protest over surveillance methods on women and what they call 'state-endorsed sexual manipulation'. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA
Women activists are to blockade Scotland Yard today, intending to demand to know the identity of any undercover police who have infiltrated their organisations.
As evidence continued to emerge of police officers having had sexual relations with people they were monitoring, the women said they wanted to know if they had been "abused" by police.
Though senior police insisted that sleeping with activists during such operations was banned, a former agent claimed such "promiscuity" routinely had the blessing of commanders.
The activists' concerns follow the revelation that the undercover PC Mark Kennedy had sexual relationships with several women during the seven years he spent infiltrating environmental activists' groups. Last week the Guardian identified more officers who had sex with the protesters they were sent to spy on. One officer, Jim Boyling, married an activist and had two children with her.
Rebecca Quinn, an environmental activist from Oxford, said: "This is about people from different groups and networks who share concerns about this type of policing and how it affects women. We are still at the stage where we are trying to piece together the extent to which these operations have reached.
"There may be dozens of other women who might be affected by this, who have [unknowingly] had relationships with other undercover officers. It is unacceptable. A picture is starting to emerge of state-endorsed sexual manipulation."
The issue is expected to be raised by MPs tomorrow, when the acting Metropolitan police commissioner, Tim Godwin, appears before the Commons home affairs select committee.
[Just realized this WAS last year - what became of this, if anything!??????!]
Women aim to identify undercover police who infiltrated environment groups and had sexual relations with protesters
James Meikle
guardian.co.uk, Monday 24 January 2011 06.01 GMT
Metropolitan Poloce Commissioner Ian Blair resigns
Activists are expected at Scotland Yard in London today to protest over surveillance methods on women and what they call 'state-endorsed sexual manipulation'. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA
Women activists are to blockade Scotland Yard today, intending to demand to know the identity of any undercover police who have infiltrated their organisations.
As evidence continued to emerge of police officers having had sexual relations with people they were monitoring, the women said they wanted to know if they had been "abused" by police.
Though senior police insisted that sleeping with activists during such operations was banned, a former agent claimed such "promiscuity" routinely had the blessing of commanders.
The activists' concerns follow the revelation that the undercover PC Mark Kennedy had sexual relationships with several women during the seven years he spent infiltrating environmental activists' groups. Last week the Guardian identified more officers who had sex with the protesters they were sent to spy on. One officer, Jim Boyling, married an activist and had two children with her.
Rebecca Quinn, an environmental activist from Oxford, said: "This is about people from different groups and networks who share concerns about this type of policing and how it affects women. We are still at the stage where we are trying to piece together the extent to which these operations have reached.
"There may be dozens of other women who might be affected by this, who have [unknowingly] had relationships with other undercover officers. It is unacceptable. A picture is starting to emerge of state-endorsed sexual manipulation."
The issue is expected to be raised by MPs tomorrow, when the acting Metropolitan police commissioner, Tim Godwin, appears before the Commons home affairs select committee.
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass