Liberty - Protecting civil liberties, promoting human rights

The Foreign Secretary addressed Parliament on Monday, stating that “if you are a law-abiding citizen… you have nothing to fear”. Is this the case with Stephen Lawrence’s family? People who were not just “law-abiding citizens” but tragic victims of crime were “spied on” for four years by officers who went undercover with orders to find “dirt” on them, shortly after Stephen’s brutal murder in April 1993. The officers infiltrated themselves into the lives of the Lawrences and their friends, under “huge and constant pressure” to get any information on their campaign for justice before it “turned into an elephant”.

Undercover officers have also previously moved in with activists, forming close relationships with women and even having kids with them. They have adopted the identities of dead children, lived amongst innocent people, gained their trust and then disappeared; leaving broken, betrayed families behind. If the police are willing to abuse their power for the sole sake of their reputation, then what lengths are they prepared to go to with greater apparent cause such as fighting terrorism? So what further abuses are yet to be uncovered?
 
Modern internet technology brings challenges and opportunities for national security, so it is only natural for our government to keep an eye on connections and try to ensure the population’s safety. But how far is too far? The balance between privacy and security has always been complex but a grieving mother’s new feelings of violation surely give lie to William Hague’s assertion that “if you have nothing to hide, then you shouldn’t be worried”.
 
There is no justification in a democracy for invading people’s privacy by tapping into their communications on an industrial scale. If there were, this practice would not have been hidden from Parliament. Nor is there any excuse for intruding into innocent people’s lives only to find “disinformation” with which to discredit critics of the authorities. The practice is positively shameful.
 
Mr Hague says that we should trust “our intelligence agencies and their adherence to the law”, but how can you look someone in the eye and ask for their trust while behaving like this behind their back? Isn’t that the real elephant in the room?