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Doreen Lawrence and Imran Khan lecture

Baroness Doreen Lawrence and human rights lawyer Imran Khan, who has acted for the Lawrence family for many years, are giving a lecture on Thursday evening in London.

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Police Corruption, Inappropriate Undercover Policing and Spying on Victims’ Families: The Stephen Lawrence Independent Review 2012–14 – meaning and impact

This lecture offers a unique opportunity for the renowned human rights lawyer Imran Khan and the mother of Stephen Lawrence, Baroness Doreen Lawrence, to address the public on the topical issues of police corruption, inappropriate undercover policing and spying on the families of victims of crime. Imran Khan and Baroness Lawrence have many years of professional and personal experience to share with the public.

The lecture will deal with the meaning and impact of the findings of the Ellison Review on the following:

• evidence of corruption in the Metropolitan Police’s original Lawrence investigation
• evidence withheld from the Macpherson Inquiry
• inappropriate undercover activity directed at the Lawrence family.

Refreshments will be provided.

Date: Thursday 12th June 2014
Time: 6:30–9.00pm
Location: University Square Stratford, University of East London, 1 Salway Road, Stratford, London E15 1NF

Booking: There is no payment required to attend this lecture however any donations would be welcome. Your donations will support the law clinic’s pro bono legal services to the local East London community.
Online booking: www.uel.ac.uk/les/booking
Email booking: n.antoniou@uel.ac.uk / p.hassan-morlai@uel.ac.uk

Partners of Undercover Officers Back in Court

This week the women duped into long term relationships with undercover police officers are back in court in London and have called for a solidarity demonstration outside.

psool

Eight of the women are supported by the Police Spies Out of Lives group. One of them, ‘Alison‘, lived with Mark Jenner for four years. She told her story to Newsnight earlier this year. Today she published an article on the Guardian site about the next stage of the court case.

The police are obliged to provide disclosure and properly outline their case. They have failed to do so, citing a policy of ‘Neither Confirm Nor Deny’ (NCND); they say they cannot ever confirm whether somebody was an undercover police officer, and that this policy is essential to the integrity of important and dangerous undercover work. They went as far as applying to have the case struck out on the grounds that, as they would refuse to give proper testimony in court, they would be denying themselves a fair trial.

There is only one flaw with this policy – it doesn’t really exist. It’s a common practice, but that is all. As Police Spies Out of Lives note

The women launched their legal action in December 2011, but it was not until June 2012 that the police first mentioned NCND in relation to the claim. You might think if there had been such a long standing policy this would have been highlighted in the first police response.

There have been innumerable exceptions to NCND, and the women gave the court two large files documenting some instances. After that, and the Ellison review‘s revelations earlier this year about spying on Stephen Lawrence’s family, the police abandoned their strike out the case. They’re still sticking to the ‘policy’ of NCND though.

This puts them in the bizarre position of not naming Mark Kennedy as an undercover police officer. Kennedy hired Max Clifford to sell a gossipy version of his story to the Mail on Sunday – he could scarcely be less secret. More than that, he has been identified in numerous official statements, including a report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) in February 2012 that said

It is normal practice for the police to neither confirm nor deny the true identity of undercover officers. This is to protect both the officers themselves, and the effectiveness of the tactic. However, the case of Mark Kennedy is one of exceptional circumstances, including his own public revelations, the media interest in him, and the fact that the Court of Appeal named him on 19 July 2011. Because of this, HMIC has chosen on this occasion to use his real name.

The information is out there and, like toothpaste out of the tube, you can’t put it back in. Mark Kennedy has not been magically de-identified. The current backslide shows that the stonewall use of NCND is both a recent invention and a tactic of obstruction.

Of the other four officers named in the womens’ case, John Dines and Mark Jenner have been extensively documented, and Bob Lambert has not only been identified in the press and the Ellison Review but has given interviews candidly admitting to large parts of his work.

The fifth, Jim Boyling, who was undercover as Jim Sutton, has also been comprehensively reported in the press, television and beyond. It would be hard to suspend him from police duty in January 2011 if he were not a police officer. Later in 2011 Metropolitan Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe confirmed that ‘Jim Sutton’ was an undercover officer [PDF, p22].

Because Boyling went through a 1997 court case under his false identity as Sutton, a convicted co-defendant has won the right to have the conviction overturned. But in a farcical twist at the hearing earlier this year – after this long-standing policy of NCND had been invented –  the police backtracked and would not fully identify Boyling. They confirmed he was a police officer but not an undercover one. As if he might have done the undercover work as a hobby in his spare time. As if confirming that this man whose picture is all over the internet was a police officer doesn’t put him at just as much of a risk as admitting he was an undercover one.

Police lawyers said they weren’t compelled to give any reason why they didn’t oppose the quashing. ‘What kind of justice is that?’ asked the judge. It’s a question we should all be asking.

NCND is another manifestation of the ‘double injustice’ faced by so many victims of police abuse; there is what was done to them, and then there are the tricks of delay, distraction and denial to try to avoid accountability. Many of those who have been spied on – the family of Stephen Lawrence and numerous other black justice campaigns, anti-fascists, environmentalists, Hillsborough families and more – can tell a similar story.

An police service interested in justice would do precisely the opposite. More, these blocks are such blatant decoy tactics, and they know it’s obvious to everyone. But as long as they aren’t forced into actually admitting that’s the case, they can conceal the truth of what they’ve done and deny justice to the citizens they abused.

If this is their response to being caught committing the starkly cruel abuse of these women – the most complete invasion of privacy that it is possible for the state to enact – then what hope can we have for the promised public inquiry?  The fight against NCND is not just a fight for the women concerned, but for everyone spied on by Britain’s political secret police, and for the hope of eventual truth and justice for the wider society.

Their hearing is on Thursday 5th and Friday 6th June at the Royal Courts of Justice on The Strand in London. Police Spies Out of Lives have asked:

  • If you are in London, please join us outside the Royal Court of Justice, The Strand, from 9am–10am on Thursday 5th June to show your support for the women.
  • Please share the graphic (above)
  • Please tell friends, family, colleagues, groups and organisations about the Where We Stand statement

You can follow the case’s progress on Thursday and Friday via the Police Spies Out of Lives Twitter.

IPCC Investigates Officers Over Lawrence Spying

The Independent Police Complaints Commission announced today that three officers will be investigated over their roles in the Special Demonstration Squad’s spying on the family of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence.

It follows revelations three months ago in the Ellison Review, confirming police had spied on the family at the time of the 1998 MacPherson Inquiry.

Two of the three officers are now retired. They are Colin Black and Bob Lambert, and they face charges of discreditable conduct.

Lambert is already under scrutiny in many other aspects of the secret policing scandal. As an undercover officer he co-wrote the McLibel leaflet that led to the longest trial in English history at which undercover police involvement was never revealed. He was named in Parliament as the person who placed a timed incendiary device in a Debenham’s store, a charge he has strenuously denied. He fathered a child with one of the activists he targeted and abandoned them both when his deployment ended. He later ran undercover operations, overseeing the deployment of several other exposed controversial officers.

The third officer is Commander Richard Walton. As well as discreditable conduct, he faces allegations of breaches of honesty and integrity.

He was an acting Detective Inspector in 1998, but by this year he had risen to be head of the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command, the unit that has current responsibility for the secret police who would formerly have been employed by the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) or National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU). Walton was moved from the post immediately after the Ellison report was published in March.

Whilst any exposure of wrongdoing and accountability for those culpable is welcome, it cannot be a parcelling off that lets anyone claim the issue has been dealt with. Any findings must be part of the material for one overarching, credible, rigorous, open public inquiry into Britain’s Secret Police.

London Assembly Opportunity to Question on Undercover Policing

The London Assembly Police and Crime Committee will Thursday question the following guests about policing and criminal justice.

 

From 10am

· Met Deputy Commissioner Craig Mackey
· Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime Stephen Greenhalgh

Subjects for questioning include:
· Met payout to victims of John Worboys
· Investigating corruption in the Met
· A public inquiry into undercover policing

From 11:30am

Mayor of London Boris Johnson will join the meeting for questions about undercover policing.

The meeting will take place on Thursday, 27 March from 10am in the Chamber at City Hall (The Queen’s Walk, London SE1).

Media and members of the public are invited to attend.  The meeting can also be viewed via webcast.

Scotland Yard in new undercover police row

Scotland Yard in new undercover police row

Today’s Observer front page carries a story on the Metropolitan Police’s latest attempts to cover up its abusive spying operations, and to prevent victims from accessing justice through the courts.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/mar/08/scotland-yard-undercover-police-row

Statement from Peter Francis on the public inquiry into undercover police

Peter Francis, former Special Demonstration Squad (“SDS”) officer has welcomed the announcement of a judge-led public inquiry into undercover policing

6 March 2014

A former Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) officer has welcomed the announcement of a judge-led public inquiry into undercover policing.

Theresa May announced the public inquiry, in the wake of Mr Ellison QC’s “profoundly shocking” findings, published today in his review into police corruption and undercover surveillance associated with the original Stephen Lawrence investigation.

Peter Francis, a former SDS officer, said: “I am delighted by the Home Secretary’s announcement to set up a public inquiry into the work of undercover police officers. I have been calling for such an inquiry since October 2011.

“When the full truth comes out about the Police’s work and activities against political campaigns and protests, across the UK since 1968, I think the public will be very shocked.”

“The public inquiry must investigate the work undertaken by police’s Special Demonstration Squad and its undercover surveillance of political campaigns in general.

“It should not be limited in relation to time or particular issues. The truth about the tactics of undercover policing will only be revealed by way of a truly independent, public inquiry, which will require those involved to provide evidence under oath.”

Information was correct at time of publishing.

Launch Meeting: New Date Announced

We invite you to the launch meeting of the Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance (COPS).

Thursday 27 February 2014, 6.30pm.

Speakers:

  • Imran Khan, solicitor to the Doreen Lawrence
  • Lois Austin, Youth Against Racism in Europe and Socialist Party
  • Harriet Wistrich, solicitor to eight women bringing legal action against the Metropolitan Police Service
  • Dave Smith, Blacklist Support Group
  • Robbie Gillett, Drax protester
  • Helen Steel, one of the women who is suing police over undercover relationships

Unfortunately, Baroness Lawrence is now unable to attend.

Diskus Conference Centre, Unite House, 128 Theobald’s Road, Holborn, London, WC1X 8TN Free admission.

Places are limited, so please book by email to cops@haldane.org

Further information: http://campaignopposingpolicesurveillance.com/ and www.haldane.org.