'Peter Black' undercover 1993 to 1997
Ann | 24.01.2011 22:21 | Repression | Sheffield | World
According to this article 'Peter Black' was deployed against environmental activists from 1993 to 1997, including at the M11 link road protests.
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Undercover police officer warns against giving Met control of spy unit
Rob Evans, Tony Thompson and Paul Lewis
guardian.co.uk, Monday 24 January 2011 20.03 GMT
Tim Godwin will have to explain why a Met colleague erroneously told MPs that no undercover police were at the G20 protests. Photograph: Graeme Robertson for the Guardian
The first undercover police officer to infiltrate the environmental movement has warned against allowing the Metropolitan police to take over the unit responsible for monitoring "domestic extremists".
Peter Black, who was undercover for four years, said it would be a "terrific mistake" if Scotland Yard were given control of the secretive unit, which has been running spies in protest groups.
He spoke out as the acting head of Scotland Yard was due tomorrow to be summoned to a parliamentary committee to apologise for misleading it over the presence of undercover police at the G20 protests.
Tim Godwin, acting commissioner of the Met, will have to explain why Commander Bob Broadhurst, in charge of policing the G20 rally, erroneously told the home affairs select committee that no undercover police were at the 2009 protests.
The Guardian revealed this month that, contrary to police assurances, PC Mark Kennedy, a Met officer who was undercover for seven years, was present at the London rally during which the newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson died.
Black, a former Met officer, was initially deployed against environmental activists protesting against the M11 link road. His deployment lasted from 1993 to 1997.
Undercover policing has been thrown into turmoil after revelations in the Guardian in the last two weeks, leading to three formal inquiries and admissions from police chiefs and ministers that something had gone "badly wrong".
Concerns have focused on police spies being run by an Association of Chief Police Officers unit not accountable to the public. Control of this unit will now go to Scotland Yard, reportedly to its counter-terrorism command.
Black, who is using the alias he adopted while undercover, said this plan "would be a terrible mistake". This unit started life under the Met and remained that way until 1999. Virtually all the complaints that are now emerging about the use of undercover officers to tackle domestic extremism concern the Met. Black said: "Past experience shows that the Met is simply not accountable enough to take control of this unit. There is a danger that the resource will not be properly managed and that the issues that are raising concerns will continue to do so."
It was while the unit was under the control of the Met's special branch that concerns were raised about the psychological effect of such long-term deployments and whether enough was being done to secure the welfare of those in the field. Black took part in many demonstrations and was attacked by uniformed officers on numerous occasions.
Five undercover police in the protest movement have been identified. Four are accused of having inappropriate sexual relations with activists they spied on, behaviour "never officially sanctioned".
Black, who is the officer referred to as Officer A by the Observer, told the newspaper that undercover officers routinely used sex as a tactic, with the approval of commanders, to glean information.
Meanwhile, protesters blockaded the main entrance to Scotland Yard in a demonstration against undercover police officers having sex with members of groups they had infiltrated.
Anna Jones, one of the 35 protesters, said: "These women were not able to give informed sexual consent."
Ann
Additions
Good link to 2010 article - Sued the police for Post Traumatic Stress
25.01.2011 00:34
Alias "Peter Black" was deployed from 1993 - 1997. He was inside the M11 Link road campaign plus active in anti-rasist groups
Good article about him here:- ( confirmed that he is PC "A" by the Guardian in the previous post)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/mar/14/undercover-police-far-left-secret
I guess Mark Kennedy will be sueing the police for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder also/....
Good article about him here:- ( confirmed that he is PC "A" by the Guardian in the previous post)
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I guess Mark Kennedy will be sueing the police for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder also/....
Undercover PC ~5
Comments
Hide the following 13 comments
digression sorry
25.01.2011 01:33
just that
Are there two?
25.01.2011 15:57
Maybe I'm stupid, but there seems to be one too many "officer As" here.
Stroppyoldgit
Not sure...
25.01.2011 17:29
No idea if the M11 campaign linfiltration is true, there's no real mention of it in the video clip. Think only one 'Officer A' here, just unclear about his link to the M11, but guess it possible.
Anarchist
Well it does say
25.01.2011 21:57
Perhaps that was the M11 mole. I pretty sure there were AR people there.
Sam
more pics of "Peter Black" from the Guardian video
25.01.2011 23:33
Anti-racist infiltrator Peter Black
Anti-racist infiltrator Peter Black
Anti-racist infiltrator Peter Black
Anti-racist infiltrator Peter Black
Anti-racist infiltrator Peter Black
Anti-racist infiltrator Peter Black
Anti-racist infiltrator Peter Black
Anti-racist infiltrator Peter Black
The video is this one here:
The accompanying article is here:
The black guy in the video is the interviewer, not the undercover cop!
In the video he says he first joined Youth Against Racism in Europe in the Hackney & Islington area and eventually became the branch secretary. He was around starting from the time of the big riot in Welling during the march on the old BNP headquarters.
In the video he seems to have a few misgivings about infiltrating some of the groups e.g. the ones protesting about black deaths in custody.
I'm not sure but he could have a very slight West Midlands accent?
anon
This guy was at Newbury after the trees were gone
26.01.2011 00:51
There was a period when we knew we either were under intense surveillance of had an infiltrator or both. We did have some pretty hardcore tunnels, which were eventually filled in and there was a massive police and security operation. For the police to gain control of the tunnels they must have had undercover people in the camp. They also seemed to know who were the really active people, planning actions, storing the hardware.
After one unsuccessful action from which the planners escaped, but 2 of the activists were caught the police offered immunity in exchange for the planners/ others on the action. The 2 arrestees said the police knew exactly who they wanted, I guess they knew, but they couldn't act without exposing their man inside.
climbing harness
Still oddities
26.01.2011 15:52
If this is the same guy who was allegedly infiltrated into the M11 campaign (anyone remember him?), there is no mention of that here and quite a gap of years between the period covered in the interview and the M11 struggle. An appearance at Newbury would fit better chronologically.
Stroppyoldgit
re: still oddities
26.01.2011 18:02
The silhouettes show he has quite thick lips so possibly he is mixed race, but then who isn't if you go far back enough?
anon
Still seems odd
27.01.2011 09:09
Not entirely convinced about what I can see on the vid., but I'm not sure enough to argue.
I may have been straining at gnats because other aspects of this are puzzling, especially his alleged infiltration of the M11 resistance struggle. Migrating there from the sort of heavy duty trot circles referred to in the vid., where new motorways were either approved of or said to be "not an issue" at the time, is a bit odd and it would have been hard for the migrant not to stand out like a sore thumb. He would have needed different spiel for different circles.
Nobody involved in the M11 resistance (and there's a lot of them about) has popped up to say they remember this guy. I was only an occasional day visitor there, so can't say.
Anybody remember this guy at the M11?
That campaign was almost certainly infiltrated, like others, but by this geezer?
Stroppyoldgit
M11 remembered
27.01.2011 12:14
The whole campaign was pretty crazy - lots of squats spread out over a few miles, lots of people coming and going and events like Operation Roadblock that got people coming along for the day and stopping work.
So, lots of opportunities for people to turn up and join in or hang out in squats, without being much noticed or remembered. There were a few Trots from antif-fa and anti-CJA stuff that turned up periodically, so there was some cross over.
That said, some of us involved in the campaign and in doing some of the organising of things like Roadblock, don't remember this guy. My feeling is that if he is telling the truth (and he is a cop, remember) he hung out at squats, maybe sussing out defences for evictions; that seems to have been where a lot of the cop focus was at Newbury.
He may have been at Newbury too - one of the photos looks a little familiar, but none of them good enough to really tell.
He may have been the first from his unit to go undercover in the environment movt, but not the first as such. Hampshire special branch were undercover at demos at Twyford.
Joe Hill
Joe
Peter Blexley could be his real name?
20.02.2011 13:54
Undercurrents
Is this the real Peter Black?
20.02.2011 14:05
Peter Bleksley
Undercurrents
Peter Black is not Peter Blexley
25.02.2011 22:57
We have found out now that this is not true so the search is still on to find out who Peter Black is. Any leads please send them to us at
Undercurrents
e-mail:
info@undercurrents.org