shocked

there is a report on the bbc news site (which has really declined in quality recently – almost as it is dumbing down so as not to upset various commercial concerns) which points out that the metropolitan police force may have been economical with the truth over their use of undercover agents at the g20 protests of 2009.


i am not shocked that they may have fudged their response.

i am shocked that members of parliament didn’t ask them why they didn’t have covert officers mingling with the crowd. call me paranoid but i have always assumed that at such demonstrations that there would be a handful of covert operatives in the crowd trying to pick up titbits of useful information (this may also be because i have watched too many spy films).

true their eco copper hasn’t worked out quite the way they intended, but there is always the worry of someone going native (see learnt that from crime movies).

not only did the eco copper mess up the operation he was on by offering to speak in defence of those he was watching, but it has also meant that the met has had to come clean about the g20 protests. leading to them saying:

"having made thorough checks on the back of recent media reporting we have now established that covert officers were deployed during the g20 protests. therefore the information that was given … was not accurate."

ooops.

i guess because i expect them to have covert officers there i don’t mind them lying about it. after all it makes sense; they want to protect their operational value. hold on (you are probably thinking) what about the rights of the protesters? well as i have said i would be expecting people to be among the crowd ‘observing’ and while you are protesting and demonstrating within the confines of the law there isn’t anything to worry about.

what does shock me is the lame ‘oh how did we miss that’ style of the apology.

whoever wrote that has made them look like muppets, frankly if you can only discover that you have your own men working undercover on an operation a year or so later, what chance do you have in solving a real crime.

someone really needs to work on their spin.