Campaigners for the truth over what happened and who infiltrated swathes of perfectly legal organisations from the disgraced Special Demonstration Squad and the National Public Order Intelligence Unit said they’d had enough yesterday as the Undercover Policing Inquiry continues to stall. Speaking at the demo today, a rep for the Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance (COPS) said:
We’re here today to demand our files for 40 years of being spied on. They’ve been delaying long enough, they’ve been blocking releases of information, and we’re here to get our files — we’ve even brought the box to put them in. They’ve got til 5pm!
The Inquiry, now headed by the controversial choice of John Mitting, has shut down numerous avenues of investigation recently and indicated a sympathetic attitude to police requests that their undercover officers should remain anonymous — essentially denying victims any form of justice.
In a recent report on the case, Pitchford Watcher noted that politicians are finally being brought into the picture in a more visceral way, as it transpired MPs Jeremy Corbyn, Diane Abbott and Bernie Grant has all been put under surveillance in the 1990s.