PC Mark Kennedy is scarcely the first police officer to include sex in his repertoire of policing skills. Nor is he the first officer to emerge from a period ‘undercover’ psychologically damaged. WPC “Lizzie James” as she was known publicly, received £135,000 in damages on the basis that the police authorities were negligent in letting her participate in the sexual honey pot operation. Will we now see a similar claim from Mark Kennedy?

It is difficult to see how he could have remained undercover for seven years without espousing some sort of sex life – he already had to overcome his reluctance to give up eating meat, and his access to money to hire vehicles, both attributes being ‘out of the ordinary’ amongst the common herd of ‘Crusties’. Could he really have got away with portraying himself as ‘asexual’ and been accepted by the group?

What of “Officer A”, living with a group of activists in Leeds for four years? Did she have to lay down her body for the public good?

The £2,000,000 cost of keeping Kennedy living amongst this group becomes ridiculous when you compare it to the stated aim of the Domestic Extremism Unit – which police insist is only to monitor the minority on the far left and right who might commit crimes such as “damaging property or trespass” to promote their political aims. Who could have imagined that humble trespass was so high on the list of police priorities?

If trespass and cutting the odd wire fence down is that important, can we doubt that even as we speak there are undercover officers living amongst the student anarchists plotting further street riots, monitoring the position of fire extinguishers, training in the art of swinging from flags, and paint splattering royal cars? Presumably they also have the unenviable task of bedding a series of nubile undergraduates of either sex to maintain their cover.

Are some of the twisted Machiavellian faces we see holding placards demanding Sharia law in fact serving police officers?

There is, after all, a further £7,000,000 of Detective Chief Superintendant Tudway’s budget to account for.

What of the political arena? Are some of the unpaid interns patrolling Westminster’s corridors reporting back to ACPO on their suspicions regarding MPs and the other interns? The unmasking of Katia Zatulieveter, aide to MP Mike Hancock comes to mind.

It would be unwise to assume that this surveillance only extends to the physical arena – many of these groups first make contact with each other via the Internet. Web sites and forums exchange Private Messages; friendships are formed; e-mail addresses exchanged, meetings arranged. The Internet, with its ‘wild west’ aura has been a prime breeding ground for budding anarchists; it would be a strange omission on the part of ACPO to have forgotten to put some ‘Twits’ and ‘Posters’ in position to build relationships amongst the on-line crowd.

We know that Alex Smith is busy building up a network of bloggers, twits, and posters to bolster the presence of the left on the Internet – he is currently trying to ‘herd cats’ and organise the far left rabble into something approaching a disciplined force – apparently this will counter the success of the disorganised but highly effective right wing blogosphere. Course it will, Malcolm. I am in regular contact with a former member of Labour’s ‘rapid rebuttal’ unit, (now happily in recovery and doing something useful with his life!) and the stories he tells me make my hair curl. Nothing much has changed in the tactics employed by the left.

Is ACPO also doing the same thing? ACPO, a private company that answers to no one except the odd toothless Select Committee?

No wonder we don’t see police officers pounding the beat any longer, they are all in someone’s bed, on under-the-covers work……

Who is in charge of the runaway train?

Dick the Prick
January 14, 2011 at 17:21

Serpico or Donnie Brasco it ain’t but good gig if you can get it. This Pc
Kennedy fella’s set up for life. His pension’s gonna be fine, he’ll have shed
loads of overtime and the boy probably smoked loads of pot too. The not eating
sausages or bacon butties is stetching infiltration a bit too far, really;
what would you do with all the brown sauce? They haven’t thought this
through.

Caedmon’s
Cat January 14, 2011 at 15:34

My mate Feaxede the fox once posed as a pooch in a bid to get the job of
guarding the Abbess Hilda’s poultry. Needless to say, it didn’t work; the
chickens saw through the pretence and gave him the brush-off…

lenko January 14, 2011 at 15:19

There was a period of my life when I was working deep undercover, and
screwing anything that wore a skirt, though obviously only as part of my
duties, distasteful though I found it. It can be a hard, dirty job at times —
but someone has to do it.

I worked under the pseudonym of Banned — James Banned.

That’s my story, anyway.

Engineer January 14, 2011 at 14:01

I’m still scratching my head a bit about the idea of Anarchists organising
themselves, and what’s more, using the benefits of a highly organised society
(widely distributed electricity, computers, internet service providers etc.)
to do it.

Oh well, I suppose they’ll grow up eventually….

will January 14, 2011 at 23:15

just to further embarrass myself as a proponent of an idea with such
unavoidable adolescent connotations…

anarchy does not mean soloist or disorder. it is usually taken to mean
without rule. it is individualism followed to a logical conclusion. leftists
seem to consider this precludes any form of hierarchy or authority even if
it be entered into voluntarily – which has become accepted as the common
interpretation and gives rise to this image of soloist disorganised
chaos.
i would argue any libertarian or opponent of collectivism or the
overbearing state should reexamine arguments for voluntary
organisation.
individuals can voluntarily organise. all the anarchist
theory ive read agrees on the proviso that so long as there has been no
coercion and everything has been entered into voluntarily (this includes
exchanges for payment) then all is well.
electricity, computers, internet
service providers etc. can all be provided and consumed without the need for
a coercive state. in fact these are some of the easiest examples. at least
you didnt ask about collective defence!
as an illustration Somalia now
has developed the most advanced cell phone networks in the whole of east
africa since the collapse of the Somali state.

will January 15, 2011 at 18:40

when i invented the term soloist what i should have said was
autarchy.

woodsy42 January 14, 2011 at 13:54

Personally I don’t have too much of a problem – in theory – with a security
force using undercover operatives. But with the huge condition that it is run
by people of principle, decency and honour and as transparently as possible
solely and exclusively for the public good to protect against terrorism and
violence.
ACPO, in the way it was set up, gives the lie to any thought of
such honour and transparency. Clearly they were created as a private company
to avoid transparency, and allowed to sell the data (that we paid for) from
the police National computer at such an enormous profit because it provides
them with what is essentially a lucrative, hidden and unnaccountable source of
income, they are equally clearly using their resources against social ‘crimes’
and for further revenue generation.
As for undercover students I believe
the police used at one time to send some police trainees to university to do
degrees as part of their police training, I have no idea if this still
happens.

Ed P January 14, 2011 at 13:42

Pedants’ corner: nubile only applies to women, meaning “of marriageable
age/sexually mature enough to bear children”

will January 14, 2011 at 13:27

I may post almost exclusively about anarchist solutions to libertarian
problems here and elsewhere but I can assure you noone is paying me anything
(sob).
Very few leftist anarchists realise that without a coercive state
they won’t be able to subsidise any socialism with taxes extorted from
believers in property rights. They will of course be free to voluntarily
collectivise into whatever syndicates, and cooperatives they like but these
will be akin to kibbutz with no coercive power over the rest of society.

Anna
Raccoon January 14, 2011 at 13:29

Yes, but are you forced to sleep with nubile undergraduates to maintain
your cover Will?

If the answer is yes, could you post an e-mail address – save me
answering the hundreds of e-mails I will get wondering how everybody can get
a job with you – paid or not!

xxxx

Anna

will January 14, 2011 at 22:58

there’s some coercion i would welcome!

Chris January 14, 2011 at 12:54

Who is in charge of the runaway train?

Likeliest answer: no one. Or rather; there are various people with big hats
and shiny brass buttons who are certain they are in charge, but they’re
nowhere near the levers. And there are other people who have their hands on
the levers, but no conception of what they’re doing when they push and pull at
them. Of course, the various people pulling the levers are all convinced that
_they’re_ in charge and that all the other lever pullers are heedless idiots.
Meanwhile there are a bunch of eejits determined to rebuild the train
mid-journey to make it faster, better and more efficient, all according to
their individual, wildly contradictory and untested plans. Oh, and there’s
some poor, disregarded schmuck who’s just broken in from Second Class
screaming about a massive fallen tree on the line ahead.

Sorry, that metaphor rather got away from me there. :-/

On a related note, I remember a short story about a totalitarian state
where the clerks kept issuing recycled orders and directives with amended
dates long after the big man had simply… disappeared. The clerks were too
scared for their careers and lives to say anything, while the functionaries
outside the bubble were too scared to question the insane orders being handed
down. I *thought* it was fiction.