Undercover cops spied on environmental activists by starting manipulative sexual relationships

[DetlefK]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/scotland-yard-apologises-to-seven-women-over-abusive-and-manipulative-relationships-with-undercover-a6742116.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/12007287/Scotland-Yard-apologises-to-seven-women-deceived-into-relationships-with-undercover-officers.html

Scotland Yard has apologised to seven women who were deceived into "abusive, deceitful, manipulative and wrong" relationships with undercover police officers.

The Metropolitan Police said it has reached a settlement with the women over civil claims relating to the "totally unacceptable" behaviour of a number of officers working for two now-disbanded units.

Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewit said: "I acknowledge that these relationships were a violation of the women's human rights, an abuse of police power and caused significant trauma.

"I unreservedly apologise on behalf of the Metropolitan Police Service. I am aware that money alone cannot compensate the loss of time, their hurt or the feelings of abuse caused by these relationships."

...

In his statement, Mr Hewitt said:

None of the women with whom the officers had a relationship "brought it on themselves", adding: "They were deceived pure and simple."
The women's privacy had been "grossly violated".
It is apparent that some officers may have "preyed on women's good nature" and "had manipulated their emotions to a gratuitous extent".
That the relationships and the subsequent trauma left the women "at risk of further abuse and deception by these officers after the deployment had ended".
Whether or not genuine feelings were involved on the part of any officers is "entirely irrelevant and does not make the conduct acceptable".

Last year, prosecutors announced they would not bring charges against Scotland Yard officers who started sexual relationships with women while working undercover.

The Crown Prosecution Service said there was “insufficient evidence” to bring charges of rape, indecent assault and other sex crimes against officers from the force's controversial Special Demonstration Squad (SDS).

One woman campaigner who discovered a boyfriend who left her heartbroken had been undercover police officer said the CPS decision was “institutional sexism”.

It has been claimed that five undercover officers engaged in infiltrating environmental campaign groups between the mid-1980s and 2010 had relationships with women surveillance targets, lasting from seven months to nine years.

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http://news.nationalpost.com/news/scotland-yard-apologizes-for-undercover-agents-who-had-long-term-sexual-relationships-with-women-they-were-investigating

The British press reported in 2012 that two of the undercover police had fathered children with women from the groups they had infiltrated.

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That guy you've been having sex with for years? The father of your children? Yeah, he was faking it. You were a job-assignment.

[oldandhappy]

1. gross and disgusting and awful and immoral and brutal and and and

[tk2kewl]

10. tantamount to rape if you ask me

[oldandhappy]

12. absolutely!

[think]

2. That's very messed up /nt

[sibelian]

3. Yeah, I remember this story. ENVIRONMENTALISTS, ffs.

What the fuck were these idiots thinking?

I remember one of the participating officers who actually came out about this, to a mixed reception. I think he was fairly brave to come out about it, but all the same, what a ridiculous situation to get yourself into, I have no idea what they might have thought this was supposed to acheive.

[CoffeeCat]

4. Yes, environmentalists...

...because the corporations have unbridled, limitless, far-reaching power in this country. The energy companies, namely global oil corporations, need to understand what environmentalists are thinking, planning and doing.

They aren't messing around. And they'll use our federal government (through bribes and favors to our corrupt, Pez Dispenser politicians) and our state government (thorough the police, apparently) to get every advantage that they can.

"We The People" are little chess pieces, to be ignored--until they want to manipulate us, spy on us or get us to purchase their products.

Welcome to democrazy.

[Festivito]

5. All for DIRTY: Air, water, land, people, and souls. Not bright Brits. eom

[JonathanRackham]

6. Undercover cops

Nothing more than social spies.

[Lochloosa]

7. Rape. Period. Everyone involved should be prosecuted.

[Rex]

8. But the head of the rape gang apologized for getting caught...er his spies outed themselves.

And the victims got money! What more could a woman ask for?

[Eric J in MN]

9. Cops going undercover should be restricted to murder investigations.

Cops shouldn't go undercover to spy on activists.

[Xithras]

11. And, legally, the fathers still have rights to their children.

"Daddy, how did you meet mummy?"
"Well little Susie, the government believed that your mummy was an environmental terrorist, so daddy's boss assigned her to me."
"Mummy was just an assignment for you?"
"Yes, it was an in depth under covers investigation."
"So what's that make me?"
"Extra paperwork."


Humor aside, as a lifelong environmental justice campaigner, this kind of shit is nothing new. We outed three different undercovers in our protest group during actions to save the redwoods in the early 1990's (which is why I'm 99% sure the FBI has a file on me somewhere). All three were dicks who were trying to push us to be more aggressive. We chained ourselves across roads and shut down access to logging areas, and went nose to nose with loggers at their "right to log" rallies, but they were pushing us to burn logging trucks, to vandalize the local newspaper office (which was heavily biased against us), and to spike trees. Their problem was, we'd all been recruited under the idea that the protests would be limited to nonviolent civil disobedience, and everyone had to take a pledge to avoid violence at all costs, so these guys stuck out like sore thumbs with their "nonviolence isn't going to work! we need to do more" bullshit. The loggers and police WANTED us to be violent and destructive so they'd have grounds to arrest us and remove us, but we never gave in. The undercovers were outed, and we protested peacefully.

Undercover infiltration of the various environmental and social justice movements has a long and ugly history. What happened to these women is horrendous, but it's not surprising to me at all.

[joshcryer]

13. It's not new, recall Anna:

http://www.greenisthenewred.com/blog/elle_anna/421/