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Jason Bishop – new allegations of undercover policing of protest

Netpol | 26.07.2013 08:40 | History | Policing | Repression | London

Netpol has been asked to publish the following statement on behalf of former friends of an activist known as Jason Bishop, who they now believe to have been an undercover police officer.

Netpol have published this statement as we feel it adds important information to the debate about undercover police officers.

This is the latest in a long line of disclosures relating to the infiltration of protest groups by specialist units of the Metropolitan police including the Special Demonstration Squad and later, the National Public Order Intelligence Unit.




After a detailed investigation by former friends and activists, there is now no doubt that the activist known to many people as Jason Bishop was an undercover cop working for the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS). Jason lived in Kilburn, with a flatmate we haven’t been able to trace who was involved in animal rights activism. He drove a landrover, and allegedly made his money from pirated dvds and software.

Jason was described by another undercover cop, Jim Boyling, as his replacement, including details of the vehicle he drove, and his exit plan. In Paul Lewis and Rob Evans book –Undercover– The True Story of Britain’s Secret Police, he is described as a “bearded, stocky man with black wavy hair in a ponytail”. However, those of us who knew Jason can confirm that, unlike the description given in the book, Jason’s deployment was far from “uneventful”.

Jason joined Reclaim the Streets (RTS) and a variety of other campaigns in around 2000, and was active, particularly amongst the Disarm DSEi collective until he left in 2005 to live in Holland with his girlfriend. He attended several Earth First gatherings, anti war protests, and was close to those organising the Fairford coaches – the coaches which were on their way to a protest at a military base when they were stopped en masse and illegally forced to return to London under police escort. Despite lots of attempts, no-one has been able to contact him since late 2005.

Jason first became involved in RTS in around 2000, and in common with many undercovers, made himself invaluable by doing a lot of the driving in the preparation for Mayday protests. He was arrested driving a van of manure to the Guerrilla Gardening Mayday in 2000 although no charges were ever brought against him.

He was also involved in organising mass demonstrations against Defence Systems Equipment International (DSEi) – the world’s largest arms fair – from 2001 until he left in 2005. However, despite four years of attending organising meetings, he didn’t appear on the now infamous spotter card found in 2005.

Despite going to many organising meetings, Jason was never on the front line at protests, always preferring to be either driving or hanging around the edges. Neither would he take part in any actions which would likely lead to immediate arrest such as locking on to prevent access to a military base. He professed to preferring small covert actions, and was regularly involved in direct action training.

During 2005, Jason developed his exit plan, spending an increasing amount of time in Holland. He had a Dutch girlfriend, who he claimed didn’t like his involvement in radical politics. However, he returned for the G8 protests in Scotland and for DSEi in London.

He was arrested at the G8 as part of a massive police operation to arrest a minibus of London based anarchists who were involved in the protests. Those arrested were interviewed by the Scottish Serious Crime squad, charged with the most serious level of conspiracy to commit a Breach of the Peace (carrying life imprisonment) and remanded in custody for court the following day. At court, there was extremely tight security, and whilst the activists denied taking part in any criminal conspiracy, there was serious talk of those arrested being remanded in prison. However, late in the afternoon, all charges were dropped with no explanation ever given. It is worth noting, according to undercover whistleblower Pete Black, “if there was any chance of the SDS officer going to prison, they would not go.” He further states “I know of cases that were pulled because the SDS officer would have been charged with something serious”.

Unfortunately, this is just the latest in the list of exposed undercover operatives, and it certainly won’t be the last. We have no evidence to suggest NPOIU practices are any different from the SDS, nor any evidence anything has changed post Kennedy. It is therefore imperative the outrage felt at these retrospective actions is carried through to challenging something which is alive and kicking in the present.

Netpol
- Homepage: http://netpol.org/2013/07/25/jason-bishop-new-allegations-of-undercover-policing-of-protest/

Comments

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good work but ...

26.07.2013 14:41

mostly focussing on covert public order policing is not going to safeguard non-protest mode workers for humanity (and that is most of us)

i think its time to aim higher

heath bunting
mail e-mail: heath@irational.org
- Homepage: http://irational.org/heath/


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Congratulations

29.07.2013 14:05

on finally getting this information onto Indymedia without it being 'dissapeared' but really...
"NETPOL believes ...intrusive monitoring of political dissent is an unacceptable and authoritarian practice that has no place in an open and fair society". Now exactly which open and fair society would that be. Do let me know and I'll book my one way ticket tommorow. Also Jason and the rest of his kind (SDS and NPOIU) were NOT simply monitoring, they played actve roles in organising and carrying out actions.

Rob


The Manure

03.08.2013 19:47

WAS he arrested with a vanload of manure prior to Guerilla Gardening? That was the story he came back with. It wasn't on the day of the action but, as far as I remember, the day before or two days prior. My rather vague memory was that someone else went with him to help load etc.

If anyone can remember who that other person was, we might be able to establish if there really was an arrest, albeit a "blue-on-blue" one, or indeed any bags of manure

Did anyone see a custody record or any other evidence he'd actually been arrested?

Did some other person suggest a place from which manure was available or did Jason "Bishop" say he knew somwehere? Was a phone call made to arrange it?

If there wasn't an arrest, then the accompanying person might be suspect, too. I make no allegations as I have no recollection of who it was and can't even now be 100% sure that someone else DID go with him, merely that it was talked of. Even if someone volunteered and it was arranged, he could no doubt have wriggled out of being accompanied with some excuse later.

Stroppyoldgit


@stroppyoldgit

04.08.2013 13:39

I met Jason outside Charing x cop shop with his brief who was very excited about the mayday cop operation being directed "at cabinet level". His brief was advising Jason to just plead guilty to the cops but there was another person (or people) involved who had'nt been interviewed and I advised Jason to say nothing (which he did).

Rob


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