He was only doing his job, his job

Originally posted @ 6:28 pm, Mon 10th Jan 2011

When protestors against coal-fired power stations tried to break into Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station, near Nottingham, in April 2009, there was a mixture of bemusement and annoyance. Bemusement that they ever thought they could get in (and yet still tried to bring a fence down) and annoyance cos the costs of damage fall on ordinary people in the end (and particular annoyance about damage to a school).

Now we find out that a Met. Police Officer had infiltrated the campaign and we are no longer clear as to whether things got as far as they did because a Police Officer was actually acting to provoke the situation.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jan/10/environmental-activists-inquiry-undercover-officer

Surely there are more effective ways to deter criminal damage?

Indeed, the debate on Newsnight had both a former undercover police officer and a former director of prosecutions questioning the proportionality of it all.And now Notts. police have had to refer the matter to an independent complaints procedure.