Thread by @copscampaign

Welcome to our new followers in the wake of the #SpyCops Bill. If you're new to the #SpyCops scandal, here's a thread of some key details about Britain's political secret police.

#SpyCops have spied on more than 1,000 groups since the Met's Special Demonstration Squad was founded in 1968. The public inquiry @ucpinquiry refuses to release the list of groups. Here's a partial list that @undercovernet managed to work out
theguardian.com/uk-news/ng-int…

#SpyCops often took active roles in organisations, steering policy & berating people for not being more 'hardcore'. They spied on numerous open democratic organisations from trade unions to hedgehog rescue groups. Targets were overwhelmingly from the centre & left of politics

#SpyCops orchestrated countless wrongful convictions, lied in court, withheld evidence that exonerated the accused, & used their fake identity to be part of lawyer-client meetings. We've had 50+ convictions quashed, but it's a fraction of the true total campaignopposingpolicesurveillance.com/2017/02/16/law…

#SpyCops spied on grieving people seeking the truth about what happened to their loved one, such as the family of Stephen Lawrence. Resources that should have been spent catching killers were instead used to obstruct justice.
campaignopposingpolicesurveillance.com/2018/02/14/whi…

#SpyCops stole the identites of dead children. In 2013, the Home Affairs Select Committee demanded all families were informed by the end of the year. The Met ignored it, instead issuing a vague generalised apology to nobody in particular.
campaignopposingpolicesurveillance.com/2016/11/11/spy…

#SpyCops deceived dozens of women into long-term relationships. These often went on for years, living together & integrating into families. Every second they spent, the officer was on duty, paid to be there, activities & interactions monitored by an unseen group of handlers.

Many women deceived into relationships by #SpyCops have taken legal action against the Met & had to deal with a 2nd injustice of obstructions, delays & lies. Some tell their stories on the @out_of_lives site
policespiesoutoflives.org.uk/our-stories/

#SpyCops illegally passed personal details of people to the Consulting Association which ran illegal #blacklisting of workers in the construction industry. They held files on thousands of politically active people, their friends & families, & ensured they were kept out of work.

For the full shocking story of construction industry #blacklisting, see the explosive book by @daveblacklist & @philchamberlain, published by @newint
newint.org/books/new-inte…

#SpyCops whistleblower @realspycop named 10 Labour MPs who were targeted. They took time in the Commons to demand to see their files, but were ignored. This fact makes it all the more disappointing to see Labour MPs abstain on the #SpyCops Bill.
mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/f…

#SpyCops only began spying on the Green Party's @GreenJennyJones after she was elected to the Greater London Authority. They spied on her while she was on the Metropolitan Police Authority, the Met's oversight body.
theguardian.com/politics/2014/…

The Met promised they would destroy its #SpyCops files on @Greenjennyjones, but a whistleblower revealed it still existed - & documents were then hurriedly destroyed to make the check look good.
theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/j…

Earlier this year, the Independent Office for Police Conduct found #SpyCops had destroyed files in direct breach of an order to preserve them for the public inquiry. The IOPC said 'former police managers have refused to engage with this investigation'
metro.co.uk/2020/03/18/met…

No police officers have faced any criminal charges for any of the activities of #SpyCops. Only one - Jim Boyling, who had 2 children with a woman he spied on - has been sacked.
bbc.com/news/uk-englan…

The swathe of revelations about #SpyCops has led to the public inquiry @ucpinquiry, which finally starts next month, 7 years after the Home Secretary promised it. It has granted anonymity to most officers, in case identification & accountability is distressing for them.

Most of the revelations about #SpyCops have come from research by activists themselves, whose lives & #families have been invaded at huge state expense because they want to make a fairer world.

For a more detailed primer on the #SpyCops issue, see the site by @out_of_lives

spycops.co.uk