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rocketbv's review
4.0
Shocking in its telling of the lengths of police interference of people's lives for so long. This is the thin edge of the wedge which has now resulted in a Royal Commission in the UK. Brilliantly told through case studies and interviews I found it really interesting and shocked that it was so contemporary.
jyunker's review against another edition
4.0
Let me first back up about five years. I was researching my novel The Tourist Trail, wondering to what extent law enforcement agencies had tried to infiltrate animal rights groups. I had heard firsthand of an attempt of the FBI to infiltrate The Sea Shepherd Society, and I had come across several documented cases of the FBI “flipping” activists to turn on one another. But I came across little concrete evidence of undercover agents working for extended periods of time as activists. I felt confident this sort of thing was indeed happening — so I ran with it in my book — but it was mostly “fiction.”
Across the pond, it appears that this sort of activity is all too real.
A few years ago, news broke about an undercover police officer who had not only infiltrated an animal rights group but had a child with one of the activists.
This story — and many others — is included in this troubling book: Undercover.
Journalists Rob Evans and Paul Lewis have written a book that is very much hot off the press. And, according to the authors, undercover agents are still embedded in activist groups.
In 1968, in response to growing concerns over anti-war protests, the Metropolitan Police created the Special Demonstration Squad — intended to send agents undercover for long periods of time. Targets included the animal rights movement, anti-racism movement, climate change protestors — anyone that fit under the “domestic extremism” category.
My focus is on those officers who infiltrated the animal rights groups.
In 1983, the SDS began targeting animal rights organizations. Much of this book is devoted to officer Bob Lambert, who for years portrayed an animal rights activist, going so far as to help write an anti-McDonald’s brochure that led to the longest civil libel trial in English history (McDonald’s lost). He also fathered a child with a fellow activist, only to disappear years later after the child was born and his assignment concluded.
The authors identify 10 undercover police officers and estimate that there have been more than 100 in action over the past four decades. Some of the stories are rich with irony. For example, at one point an activist group was close to disbanding due to attrition of members. However, the addition of an undercover agent and a few undercover investigators hired by McDonald’s (yes, McDonald’s) convinced the members to keep going because they were under the impression they were adding new members. I don’t know if this qualifies as entrapment, but there are more than a few stories that most certainly do. The undercover agents were helping to fund operations, offering activists rides to protest and action sites, and egging activists into getting more radical.
Interestingly, a few of the police officers, after their assignments ended, often struggled to leave their fellow activists behind. Mental breakdowns were a common problem, understandable since so many men were not only living double lives but were involved in multiple romantic relationships.
Also noted in the book was the growth of a database of named activists — a database that I’m sure has expanded exponentially as the intelligence community has tapped social networks and email providers.
Lines that I once believed the US or the UK wouldn’t cross I’ve since come to believe are crossed so frequently that they don’t really exist anymore.
There are so many tragedies in this book. The stories of women who were lied to by men paid to lie to them. The activists entrapped by undercover agents who literally urged them into direct action. The phenomenal waste of taxpayer money.
But more than that, it’s a tragedy for the animals. For the planet.
I’m not saying activists are all saints; they aren’t. But the surveillance industry has grown so pervasive, so well financed, and so aggressive that it has turned all activists into “terrorists,” and every protest is suddenly a cause for undercover activity. And it is ruining what makes democratic societies so vibrant — the freedom to protest, to speak out, to believe that individuals can make the world a better place.
Originally posted on EcoLit Books:
http://www.ecolitbooks.com/2013/07/book-review-undercover/
Across the pond, it appears that this sort of activity is all too real.
A few years ago, news broke about an undercover police officer who had not only infiltrated an animal rights group but had a child with one of the activists.
This story — and many others — is included in this troubling book: Undercover.
Journalists Rob Evans and Paul Lewis have written a book that is very much hot off the press. And, according to the authors, undercover agents are still embedded in activist groups.
In 1968, in response to growing concerns over anti-war protests, the Metropolitan Police created the Special Demonstration Squad — intended to send agents undercover for long periods of time. Targets included the animal rights movement, anti-racism movement, climate change protestors — anyone that fit under the “domestic extremism” category.
My focus is on those officers who infiltrated the animal rights groups.
In 1983, the SDS began targeting animal rights organizations. Much of this book is devoted to officer Bob Lambert, who for years portrayed an animal rights activist, going so far as to help write an anti-McDonald’s brochure that led to the longest civil libel trial in English history (McDonald’s lost). He also fathered a child with a fellow activist, only to disappear years later after the child was born and his assignment concluded.
The authors identify 10 undercover police officers and estimate that there have been more than 100 in action over the past four decades. Some of the stories are rich with irony. For example, at one point an activist group was close to disbanding due to attrition of members. However, the addition of an undercover agent and a few undercover investigators hired by McDonald’s (yes, McDonald’s) convinced the members to keep going because they were under the impression they were adding new members. I don’t know if this qualifies as entrapment, but there are more than a few stories that most certainly do. The undercover agents were helping to fund operations, offering activists rides to protest and action sites, and egging activists into getting more radical.
Interestingly, a few of the police officers, after their assignments ended, often struggled to leave their fellow activists behind. Mental breakdowns were a common problem, understandable since so many men were not only living double lives but were involved in multiple romantic relationships.
Also noted in the book was the growth of a database of named activists — a database that I’m sure has expanded exponentially as the intelligence community has tapped social networks and email providers.
Lines that I once believed the US or the UK wouldn’t cross I’ve since come to believe are crossed so frequently that they don’t really exist anymore.
There are so many tragedies in this book. The stories of women who were lied to by men paid to lie to them. The activists entrapped by undercover agents who literally urged them into direct action. The phenomenal waste of taxpayer money.
But more than that, it’s a tragedy for the animals. For the planet.
I’m not saying activists are all saints; they aren’t. But the surveillance industry has grown so pervasive, so well financed, and so aggressive that it has turned all activists into “terrorists,” and every protest is suddenly a cause for undercover activity. And it is ruining what makes democratic societies so vibrant — the freedom to protest, to speak out, to believe that individuals can make the world a better place.
Originally posted on EcoLit Books:
http://www.ecolitbooks.com/2013/07/book-review-undercover/
sianami's review against another edition
4.0
Interesting, engaging, farcical and shocking. I would however have liked more details on the missions alluded to but never explored, of police infiltrating far-right groups, as well as anarchists, animal rights extremists (given an easy ride in this book in my opinion) and anti-racist campaigners. Inexcusable tactics aside, some of the targets chosen were clearly a waste of taxpayer money and it would be interesting to see more of the more justifiable targets and their work. I was glad to see a gender analysis of the sexist element of the total disregard for the lives and consent of the women the spies had relationships and even children with, by far the most appalling aspect of this book.
sistermagpie's review
4.0
Well, this is a pretty fascinating story about what the police get up to when they give themselves license to spy on citizens for belonging to certain kinds of political situations.
While the question of whether this program--which gives police fake identities with which to infiltrate political movements--are clearly there through the book, the focus is more on the way certain individuals handled the job. It raises all sorts of interesting questions about the psychological effect of living undercover, but also demonstrates how it depends on the person. Some of the most fascinating characters in the book are those that take to it naturally--especially Bob Lambert, who seems to have been given a license to indulge in all his worst impulses.
It can't help but make you think about the line between truth and fiction, and what creates identity. It also suggests some interesting things about the compulsion to tell the truth and the way a lot of these agents give into it. Would that looked different if we focused on some of the police that weren't ever discovered or didn't out themselves? We'll never know...
While the question of whether this program--which gives police fake identities with which to infiltrate political movements--are clearly there through the book, the focus is more on the way certain individuals handled the job. It raises all sorts of interesting questions about the psychological effect of living undercover, but also demonstrates how it depends on the person. Some of the most fascinating characters in the book are those that take to it naturally--especially Bob Lambert, who seems to have been given a license to indulge in all his worst impulses.
It can't help but make you think about the line between truth and fiction, and what creates identity. It also suggests some interesting things about the compulsion to tell the truth and the way a lot of these agents give into it. Would that looked different if we focused on some of the police that weren't ever discovered or didn't out themselves? We'll never know...
tykewriter's review
4.0
Before the name Mark Kennedy came to light when the lid was blown off a nasty little secret the Metropolitan Police would rather rather we didn't know, the kinds of activities outlined in this book would have been dismissed as a conspiracy theorist's fantasy.
As it turns out, forget the tinfoil hat: the conspiracy theory was very much the real deal. For the last 40 years, as the book recounts, the police have been engaged in operations that wouldn't be out of place in Stasi-era East Germany. But this is the UK, where the right to protest, to campaign for social and political causes, is supposedly a well-protected 'birthright'.
Well, tell it to the police, or at least the SDS and its successor.
This was more than just surveillance and intelligence-gathering; the spies wormed their way into key positions of trust, often becoming the lynchpins allowing activist networks to function. And in the case of some of the spies, such as Kennedy, it leaves no doubt that the man had moved from observer to an agent provocateur.
Rob Evans and Paul Lewis, the two journalists who broke the scandal, have produced an engaging, interesting, and frankly disturbing account of the activities of deep cover police spies. The authors have revealed a dirty little secret; in the process they have revealed what amounts to a cabal of officers whose operational principles involved not only contempt for civil liberties, but for the law and democracy too.
It makes you wonder what other nasty little surprises the hydra-headed beast that is the British state has on the go. But that would be a conspiracy theory, wouldn't it?
As it turns out, forget the tinfoil hat: the conspiracy theory was very much the real deal. For the last 40 years, as the book recounts, the police have been engaged in operations that wouldn't be out of place in Stasi-era East Germany. But this is the UK, where the right to protest, to campaign for social and political causes, is supposedly a well-protected 'birthright'.
Well, tell it to the police, or at least the SDS and its successor.
This was more than just surveillance and intelligence-gathering; the spies wormed their way into key positions of trust, often becoming the lynchpins allowing activist networks to function. And in the case of some of the spies, such as Kennedy, it leaves no doubt that the man had moved from observer to an agent provocateur.
Rob Evans and Paul Lewis, the two journalists who broke the scandal, have produced an engaging, interesting, and frankly disturbing account of the activities of deep cover police spies. The authors have revealed a dirty little secret; in the process they have revealed what amounts to a cabal of officers whose operational principles involved not only contempt for civil liberties, but for the law and democracy too.
It makes you wonder what other nasty little surprises the hydra-headed beast that is the British state has on the go. But that would be a conspiracy theory, wouldn't it?
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