Sunday, June 22, 2014

Mass Surveillance in England

An excerpt from Jenny Jones' 6-12-14 Guardian article entitled "The Met Turned Me into a Domestic Extremist--with Tweets and Trivia":

"I would describe myself as many things, but domestic extremist is not one of them. In the eyes of the Metropolitan police, however, that is what I am; and that's why my name is on a file in their secret database of 'domestic extremists.'
"In June 2013, after having paid £10 and filled out a very long form, a copy of my police file arrived in the post. I don't know what I expected to find, but the three pages can only be described as pathetic […]. 
"The supposed point of this database, which is managed by the Met, is to gather intelligence from police forces, counter terrorism units, industry and open sources about domestic extremism threats, of which I am apparently one […].
To read the complete article, click HERE.
Here's an excerpt from a related Guardian story, this one from 6-3-14, entitled "Why I'm Fighting the Met in Court over Undercover Relationships":
"I am one of eight women currently taking legal action against the commissioner of the Metropolitan police. We were all deceived into long-term intimate relationships with undercover police officers who were infiltrating environmental and social justice campaign groups. From 1995 until 2000 I was in a relationship with Mark Jenner, who I knew as Mark Cassidy – a joiner from Birkenhead.
"We were members of the Colin Roach Centre, an independent political group that had exposed police corruption in the early 1990s and promoted trade union, anti-fascist politics. For four years we lived together in what I believed was a monogamous relationship. I have since found out he was married with children at the time […].
"Having had our lives abused and disrupted by the activities of undercover officers, some of us searched for individuals for years, tenaciously tracking down their true identities. We now openly challenge those responsible for what was done to us."
To read the entirety of this article, click HERE.

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