INDEX
Monday January 20, 2020
Spycops
Spycops campaign update, Jan 2020 Here's the January update on the spycops scandal campaign. PUBLIC INQUIRY HEARINGS. The Undercover Policing Inquiry has confirmed the dates and venue for its first proper hearings. They will examine undercover officers from the Special Demonstration Squad deployed 1968-82. This tranche of hearings will sit for up to four days a week in the first three weeks of June, and then again in the first three weeks of September. The hearings will be held in a tribunal space at Pocock Street, near London Bridge. It will have 60 seats for the public with an overflow room for 40 more, which is room for fewer than half the people granted core participant status, let alone interested members of the public. Despite similar procedures such as the Grenfell Inquiry having live streaming, the Undercover Policing Inquiry does not intend to provide anything similar, though will be publishing transcripts and audio files once they’ve been checked for sensitive material. We will be providing live coverage on social media and daily updates on our website. We anticipate an upsurge of interest in the issue at the time, and will be organising protests and other campaigning, and it would be great if you could take part in that. More details will come nearer the time. Last month, the Inquiry proudly declared that it had revealed the names of 83 groups spied on by Britain's political secret police. That's approximately half a group per officer. Three years ago the Inquiry admitted that the true total is over than 1,000 groups, but they still won't publish the full list. Last year, the Undercover Research Group teamed up with the Guardian to compile as complete a list as possible: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/ng-interactive/2018/oct/15/uk-political-groups-spied-on-undercover-police-list HELP PROSECUTE SPYCOPS WHO ABUSED WOMEN Sexual consent can be negated by serious deceit. Men have been prosecuted for lying about using a condom, women have been jailed for lying about their gender to sexual partners, yet the Crown Prosecution Service pretends the deceit by spycops is not worthy of their time. Monica was deceived into a relationship by spycops officer Jim Boyling. Everything about Jim Sutton - his job, his opinions, even his name - were lies he'd been paid to create in order to violate the trust of the campaigners around him. spycops officer Jim Boyling abused his role to deceive women he spied on into sexual relationships. The Met have apologised & paid compensation, admitting the spycops relationships were an abuse of police power & violated fundamental human rights. Yet neither Boyling nor his colleagues have been prosecuted for sexual offences or misconduct in public office. If these men were civilians they would already be in jail, but the CPS is continuing its collusion to protect spycops from accountability. Monica is crowdfunding money for a legal challenge to the High Court ruling that sexually abusive spycops shouldn't be prosecuted. Please share and donate: crowdjustice.com/case/undercoverinequality Background: For more about Monica's story, see her page on the Police Spies Out of Lives site: policespiesoutoflives.org.uk/our-stories/monicas-story ANDY COLES As a Special Demonstration Squad officer, Andy Coles infiltrated peace and animal rights groups, and deceived a vulnerable teenager known as Jessica into a sexual relationship. When this was revealed in 2017, Coles immediately resigned as Deputy Police & Crime Commissioner for Cambridgeshire. Now the PCC who hired him, fellow Conservative member of Peterborough City council Jason Ablewhite, has also quit his post after being accused of sexually harassing a vulnerable woman. cambstimes.co.uk/…/cambs-police-and-commissioner-quit-after… Coles did not resign as councillor, seemingly thinking that it requires a lower standard of behaviour and integrity than Deputy PCC. Campaigners continue to leaflet marginal wards and the city centre and demonstrate at every council meeting until Coles resigns, and support is welcome. The next one is on Wednesday 4 March, 5pm at Peterborough Town Hall. campaignopposingpolicesurveillance.com/…/demo-for-andy-cole… peterborough-9/ Background: Report on Coles' resignation in 2017: theguardian.com/…/cambridgeshire-deputy-policecommissioner-… CONVICTION CHALLENGED Professor Jonathan Rosenhead was convicted after taking part in an antiapartheid protest in 1972. Since learning that one of his fellow defendants, Michael Scott, was actually an undercover police officer, he has applied to have the conviction overturned. It would seem a relatively straightforward matter, as clearly the prosecution failed to give all relevant evidence to the defence. This was the basis of the collapse of the trial of climate activists in 2011 - they had been trying to shut down a power station on a protest organised by undercover officer Mark Kennedy - which brought the whole spycops scandal to public attention. Since then over 50 similar convictions have been quashed. Yet now, the Crown Prosecution Service is saying it can see no good reason to overturn Rosenhead's conviction. theguardian.com/…/man-81-seeks-to-quash-conviction-forapart… SOLIDARITY: BLACKLISTING DOCUMENTARY Solidarity, the award winning documentary made by Lucy Parker and City Projects about the experiences of those on the construction industry blacklist and links to undercover policing, continues to be screened in the UK. There will be a screening with Q+A at Bertha Dochouse Cinema, London on the 6th February followed by a week long run later in that month. There are three other screenings lined up for Solidarity: 15 January - Screen 25, South Norwood 7 February - Birkbeck Cinema, Haldane Society London 7 March - The Green, Nunhead London Copyright @ 2020 Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance (COPS), All rights reserved. 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		Posted by Jonathan Brind.
		INDEX
Monday January 20, 2020