SpyCops

We’ve been watching the reaction to the LUSH #SPYCOPS display and felt we had to comment.  The tone of the attacks on LUSH seems to be that they are being unfair to the ordinary police officers who are there to protect and serve the public.  That’s not what we see in the window display.  Paid To Lie #SPYCOPS is a statement of fact.  The police involved from the Special Demonstration Squad were paid to lie.  The idea that is being peddled again is that this affects only a small number of officers and that it is unfair to target all of the police on that basis.  People supporting the “harshly targeted officers” seem to forget policing can and does go wrong and for the safety of us all should be called out when it does.   They forget that these operations against innocent people are directed from officers at the top of the police and will have been signed off on by elected politicians.  It’s as if everything from the corruption of the West Midlands Police through to Hillsbourgh, and up to the Spycops scandal never happened.  That’s to say nothing of the numerous cases, of our own direct experience, where innocent people were convicted and imprisoned on the basis of perjured police testimony.  We can not simply accept that in 99.9% of cases this is not how the police operate because that is an assumption that is based on a desire for it to be the case rather than being based on empirical evidence.  In this case this can not be passed off as a few bad apples because the actions and behaviour of the officers involved were trained, sanctioned, and instructed by their bosses over decades.  This is what the public should focus on.  That this was done against the public as a matter of sanctioned policy.  The idea of attacking the LUSH displays because they are not clear, or appear to be a misrepresentation of the police is laughable when you take into account what LUSH was trying to bring to the notice of the public.  At least 74 people were targeted and lied to by the police.   They have waited 7 years for action.  Most people, before LUSH took the bold step to put these displays out, knew nothing, or could have cared less about this case.  They do now.  If anyone wants to point the finger of blame for ordinary officers being tainted and dragged into this they should look at those running the police, and the politicians above them who allowed the police to sink to such disgusting methods.  Ultimately this is a consequence of their action bringing the police back into disrepute. Not LUSH or the victims of the #SPYCOPS.

For more information on the campaign please visit http://campaignopposingpolicesurveillance.com/tag/sds/

There will be a public meeting Scotland – Surveillance & SpyCops – at the Pearce Institute, Govan, Glasgow on Saturday, 23 June.  For more information please follow this link:  https://www.facebook.com/COPSScotland/photos/gm.437388366733862/1689262754522727/?type=3