News & events

21-03-2018

Spycop victims walk out of Undercover Pol


Campaigners and victims of political policing withdrew en masse from the Mitting Inquiry today, frustrated at the judge's insistence on protecting the identity of police officers involved in deceptive relationships and infiltration of the Lawrence campaign. - Mohamed Elmaazi, OpenDemocracyUK, 21 March 2018

“No justice, no peace” and “sack Mitting now” were the cries from campaigners and victims of political policing as they blocked the main entrance of the Royal Courts of Justice, after storming out of the latest hearing of the Undercover Policing Inquiry (UCPI).

Campaigners held aloft a large banner with the words "Tear Down the #Spycops Inquiry's Brick Wall of Silence".

The frustrated group of men and women left Court Room 73 – where the latest Inquiry hearing was held - in protest at Sir Mitting's decision to keep most undercover police officers' identities a secret. They were unhappy, too, at his perplexing insistence on accepting at face value claims that police have been acting in good faith and that undercover names need to remain concealed. Calling himself an "old fashioned man", Mitting apparently considers it highly improbable those officers who were married would have engaged in any improper behaviour while undercover. A proposition that is difficult to challenge so long as Mitting insists on keeping the cover names of those very officers secret. Read the full article here. See responses from campaigners and victims after the walk out here.