Special Demonstration Squad
The Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) was a police unit of the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) of Greater London . It was used in 1968 to subvert social movements on the political left, mainly in England and Wales. He was part of the Special Branch and worked closely with the Crown Prosecution Service . It was formally dissolved in 2008. The unit's activities gradually became public around 2010. A commission appointed by Interior Minister Theresa May in 2015 is to start hearings in November 2020 and present its final report in 2023.
The SDS used the names of at least 80 deceased children for the hidden identities of their investigators. Some men entered into intimate and sexual relationships with activists in their role and sometimes fathered children.
One of the fathers was Bob Lambert. He was used as Mark Robinson in the animal rights scene between 1983 and 1988 . After initially denying accusations in a confrontation by a London Greenpeace group, he publicly admitted in 2013 that he had four intimate relationships. One of the women was awarded £ 425,000 in a 2014 conciliation process for refraining from accusations of assault, negligence, deceit and misconduct in office in return. In December 2018, the High Court ruled against a motion seeking to compel investigations by the Crown Prosecutions Service against investigator Jim Boyling on charges of rape, among other things.
The SDS is investigating Stephen Lawrence's family on matters relating to public order. Stephen Lawrence became a prominent murder victim in a racist assault in 1993. With this smear campaign, the SDS tried to discredit the family's reputation as well as a key witness in the murder trial - Duwayne Brooks - and to lower the massive public pressure on the investigators. This involvement was made public in 2013 by former SDS investigator Peter Francis - after the murder proceedings of the perpetrators were completed in 2012. In 2015, a commission of the National Crime Agency was set up to investigate whether the police were to bring the perpetrators before them protected the investigation. According to an official report, the SDS was active in at least 18 cases in which families and relatives campaigned for the investigation of racist attacks.
The Assistant Chief Constable for South Yorkshire Police John Nesbit assessed in retrospect an infiltration of the National Union of Mineworkers 1984–1985. The information obtained was essential for successfully combating the strikes .
literature
- Connor Woodman: Spycops in Context: Counter-Subversion, Deep Dissent and the Logic of Political Policing and Spycops in context: A brief history of political policing in Britain . Center for Crime and Justice Studies , 2018.
- Paul Lewis and Rob Evans: Undercover: The True Story of Britain's Secret Police. Main. Faber & Faber, London 2013.
- Ruth Mosalski: The Ultimate Betrayal. Report on walesonline.co.uk, 2019.
Web links
- Police Spies Out of Lives is a group of affected women.
- List of affected organizations and networks at the Guardian
- undercover research . An independent research network.
- Website of the state commission of inquiry.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Woodman p. 3
- ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/feb/03/police-spies-identities-dead-children
- ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/jun/22/undercover-police-lovers
- ↑ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29743646
- ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/dec/14/high-court-dismisses-womans-attempt-to-prosecute-police-spy
- ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/oct/16/stephen-lawrence-inquiry-hunts-police-alleged-to-have-shielded-killers
- ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jul/24/undercover-police-spying-justice-campaigns-20-years