Government Sponsored Crime
Societies have to govern each other. That’s just how it is. If there’s a large population, someone has to have an air of authority to keep those in their place to prevent crime occurring and therefore people will continue to be protected.
Brutal Bobbies
And who are these people? It’s the police, isn’t it? They’ve got a bad reputation, to say the least. Just look at their handling of the G20 protests where Ian Tomlinson was struck by a police officer with a baton and later died... needless to say, nobody was arrested for either manslaughter or even murder for this unprovoked attack. The recent student demonstrations saw Jody McIntyre, a young man who suffers from cerebral palsy, dragged out of his wheelchair across concrete. It was caught on camera: but what about the things that we didn’t see?
By no stretches of the imagination am I saying that all policemen are bad. It just seems that all the ones that I’ve encountered have been nonchalant and careless. So have those that my friends have encountered; whether the police have been called to sort out a domestic disturbance and “written it off” because as a mixed race couple it was expected that the male would beat the woman or whether it was a school friend who was beaten up on her way home (the school refused to take responsibility as it was off premises, and the police claimed that it was a school matter).
As much as my negative experiences have made me sometimes ponder as to the use of police forces both nationally and internationally, especially in cases of gross police brutality which seem to keep surfacing, it makes me question something more: the role of police in society.
Undercover Under The Covers
Over the past few months a case of a Mr Mark Kennedy, an undercover police officer who was an infiltrator to an eco-warrior activist group in England, but had “gone rogue”. A court case which tried to bring the activists to justice for their crimes has fallen apart, owing to Kennedy’s lack of co-operation after his overwhelming guilt over whole affair. Found out by his activist friends, Kennedy, known as ‘Flash’, suffered a nervous breakdown and now lives in hiding and is scared for his life. In a similar fashion, other undercover police officers have been identified and confirmed to ease the mind of activists up and down the country with a worrying similarity popping up in every case: the use of sex as a tactic. Typically, undercover policemen are given counselling and time off from duty, but Mark was offered none of this, thus after ten years of being totally immersed in a tight-knit subculture he had totally assimilated to those on whom he was spying.
Surely enough, if you enter a relationship with somebody you do it out of love or affection for that person. If they gain that through falsities... then that must be surely illegal. The same goes if you were to take that further, right? Scotland Yard has defended this as a tactic saying it was used “regularly” but women’s rights groups have been protesting against this, and rightly so. Any sex gained through lies or a fake identity is rape, because I can bet you that the female victims of these undercover police officers wouldn’t have participated in either a relationship or in sexual activity if they would have known the true identity of these officers. Therefore, by default, it makes it rape through deception.
ConDem Condone
Worst of all? The government condones it, but then again, it just pokes even more fun at the sorry excuse we have of prosecution of rape with our lowly conviction rate of just 6%: and many rapes aren’t even reported. When Scotland Yard gives the go-ahead, publicly neutralises it in the name of “national interest” for information. How would you feel if it was your sister, cousin or even mother in this situation?
With all due respect, that information could have been secured in a myriad of other ways without gaining consent for sex under a false identity and given a government payslip at the end of the month.
Sub-Ed Note: As with everything on theSprout, this is the author's personal viewpoint; we at theSprout get all Swiss and take a neutral stance on things. If you disagree with the article, leave a comment below (remember everything has to be moderated first, so it won't appear immediately) or submit a counter article to us.
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IMAGE: CCTV Cop, Mass Photo Gathering, Trafalgar Square, London, 23 January 2010 by Dr John2005
3 Comments – Post a comment
neilramsden
Commented 64 months ago - 26th January 2011 - 11:01am
"Any sex gained through lies or a fake identity is rape, because I can bet you that the female victims of these undercover police officers wouldn’t have participated in either a relationship or in sexual activity if they would have known the true identity of these officers. Therefore, by default, it makes it rape through deception." - Isn't that saying that these women are really shallow? Surely the decision to sleep with the guy was based on his personality as much as the fact that they simply appeared to share opinions. Also, does the first line I've quoted mean that if a man or woman claims to be a pilot or something equally impressive on a night out and it results in going home with somebody, is that rape?
dirty
Commented 64 months ago - 26th January 2011 - 17:29pm
The example I've used of the undercover police officers who had relationships with activists. While they were undercover, they assimilated wholly into the movement: they are paid to act like you, dress like you, talk like you and imitate you in every way and form. I'm not calling the women shallow, but I am calling them human, When you embark on a relationship with someone you do it based on their personality and their whole self, and if that self has been constructed by the government it is false and they have manipulated and exploited their positional for sexual gain.
Personally, if police officers are here to serve, embarking on a sexual relationship it's an abuse of public office and targeting women for sex to further be accepted into a group is using sex as a tactic: they were aware of this, whereas the women did not. They were used, manipulated and targeted to secure information. In my eyes, that is not acceptable.
the gamer
Commented 61 months ago - 14th April 2011 - 10:36am
police officers are just like us with a job they can commit a crime like everyone it unfair that police get more power than civilians with there jobs.