Message from the Blacklist Support Group: Public Inquiry into Undercover Policing is currently under threat.
The Home Office has launched a phony consultation into the Inquiry’s future – without consulting the survivors. It’s clear they hope to either scrap or severely limit the scope of the inquiry before it starts looking at more recent abuses by undercover police.
WE ARE CALLING ON EVERYONE TO BOYCOTT THE OFFICIAL CONSULTATION WEBSITE AND MESSAGE THE HOME OFFICE DIRECTLY.
The spycops inquiry must be allowed to complete its work.
Please share this message to your networks
We need widespread public support to put pressure on the Home Office, and we have set up an action page asking everyone to sign up to let the Home Office know there is support for our demands: http://ucpi.uk
If you were personally affected by the spycops or you have direct experience of the issues the Inquiry is investigating you may want to send a more detailed submission about why it is important that the Inquiry completes its work (we will be putting together materials to support you doing that. If you would like more information contact: info@campaignopposingpolicesurveillance.com )
Launched in 2015 to investigate spying on political activists and campaigns for justice, the Undercover Policing Inquiry has just finished open hearings about the Special Demonstration/Duties Squad (SDS) which operated from 1968 to 2008. A final report on the SDS is due in 2027.
However, there is still another unit that hasn’t yet been touched by the inquiry – the National Public Order Intelligence Unit, covering undercover policing in social movements from 1999-2011. There are survivors of abuse and misconduct by this unit who’ve been waiting since 2015 for answers about what was done to them, only to have the Home Office threaten the future of the inquiry just when that was supposed to start. This is not justice.
We already know that the very serious issues exposed so far in the Inquiry also apply to other undercover deployments. However the full extent of the misconduct and abuse will not be clear until disclosure is made and if the Home Office curtails the inquiry it may never come to light. We need your help to stop this cover up!
Tranche 4 is supposed to investigate the NPOIU. Tranche 5 looks at other undercover police activities, and the Inquiry is yet to make much-needed recommendations for how to protect the public from abusive undercover policing in the future. So far the inquiry has exposed:
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- Officers who deceived women into long term relationships
- Police stealing the identity of dead children for their undercover identity
- Miscarriages of justice
- Officers acting as agent provocateurs, disrupting groups and playing pivotal roles in organising
- Spying on trade unionists and elected politicians
- Collusion with private companies, including firms blacklisting trade unionists
- Spying on justice campaigners and grieving families
- A racist, misogynistic policing unit that subverted any notion of democracy, prepared to break any laws or spend unthinkable amounts of money to protect itself.
- Deliberate attempts to disrupt and destroy political organising
This isn’t just historical. The legacy of political policing in the SDS and Special Branch that this inquiry reveals is very much in evidence in TODAY’s climate of political repression. This is even more the case with Tranches 4 and 5.
Don’t let the state cover-up more recent undercover operations. Get involved and help save the #Spycops inquiry.
ucpi.uk
SAVE THE SPYCOPS INQUIRY | Stop The State Cover-Up