Police infiltration of activist groups is nothing new - even apparently as 'provocateur'

From Tony Thompson The Observer, Sunday 14 March 2010

'Officer A reveals how the SDS operated totally outside the law: "If I were a regular police officer and I wanted to plant a bug in your house or your office, I would need to get all kinds of permissions. But the SDS can put a person in your car, in your house, in your life for 24 hours a day for five years, and nobody outside the SDS will know anything about it.

"Unlike regular undercover officers, members of the SDS do not have to gather evidence with a view to prosecuting their targets. This enables them to witness and even engage in criminal activity without fear of disciplinary action or compromising a subsequent court case".

Soon after he made contact with the YRE and his target, Officer A claims he gained his spurs as a provocateur. What began as a small demonstration turned, with his help, into a violent attack on the police. "That day developed into a major ruck", he says. "At the end no one would have believed I was a police officer.'

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