Confessions of an Undercover Cop
Mark Kennedy spent seven years as an undercover cop, living a double life, juggling two identities, and dealing with a pressure of lying to people everyday. And if that wasn't difficult enough he fell in love with one of the people he was spying on. This is story of one man living two lives and what happened when all came crushing down, when Mark Stone was exposed as an undercover cop.
His childhood was uneventful, happy... normal. His dad was in the police, he was a traffic officer. Mark joined the City of London Police in 1990 and then he was transferred to the Metropolitan Police. He worked on some very interesting stuff such as investigating race and hate crimes against minority groups.
In the mid 90's there were lot of operations on preventing street level drug dealing and lot of them were undercover. He passed the course and shortly afterwards he was accepted onto a team. He was a test-purchase officer, part of a whole investigative team usually based on particular London estate. Basically he'd go and buy drugs from a suspected dealer and other people would be photographing the event and watching his back and latter on arrests would be made.
With practice he adopted a new personality, he opened up lot of doors, he met lot of different people involved in crime, and he broadened up his horizons. He was so good that one time when a dealer was arrested, and when they told her that she sold drugs to an undercover cop, she wouldn't believe it... she was keep saying "no way, he's a friend of mine."
Soon, the National Public Order Intelligence Unit got interested in him. He didn't even know that such unit existed. He was invited to a couple of meetings and interviews and he was finally selected. He was told that his role will be to provide information to the authorities so they could proportionally police demonstrations.
Why on earth is anyone making a documentary which allows him to give "his side of the story". He abused thses women many of whom will tell you that they were raped by the state. I hope he is not making any money out of this film and the women's grief.
Corporate "PIGS" were definitely behind this and that's why the "PIGS" (police) have nothing to say!! Stop supporting the "Corporate World"!! ...start with WalMart!!
I think he was duped, an now he knows this. Let the person who has never made a mistake or been conned moralize. And does he think it is right to get paid for the interview? what a question if the answer is no then the question should be is it right to show the interview? good luck Mr whoever you want to be so long as you do good from here on in.
I remember when this story came out and the first pictures of Kennedy/Stone were released. I immediately recognized him from the first Climate Camp action in England, near the DAX power plant. His eyes give him a very distinctive look and I recall him as serving food at one of the camps, I believe it was the Nottingham group. He did not seem out of place at all but totally blended in. I can definitely understand the feelings of hurt and betrayal from those who were personally involved with and trusted the guy, but I think that some of the comments here painting him as a horrible human being are way off the mark! Spies have ALWAYS been encouraged to use sex as a way to get close to people they want information from and indeed, after this story broke it transpired that this was not a unique situation and that other undercover officers were sexually involved with their marks. What was different in this case is that Kennedy/Stone had a genuine love affair that was completely mutual. Very complicated indeed! Also, after living another identity for 7 years, can it really be said that Stone "did not exist". Clearly he was an aspect of Kennedy himself. This was a guy who joined the force for what I would call "the right reasons". Not all cops are a--holes and I believe this man when he talks about the community work he did to combat racism and improve police relations with the public. It was not his fault that in the course of his work he got selected for this assignment to infiltrate the activists and I am quite sure that at the beginning he would have no way of knowing that they were not violent criminals. Also, some of them are! Take it from someone who also used to be a part of the exact same scene. By the time he figured out that this was a bogus assignment, he was essentially in too deep. What was he supposed to do then, quit his job, go confess to the activists and hope his girlfriend didn't dump him when he told her he was a cop?
It does not sound like a simple situation at all and people so quick to judge should recall that these are humans we are talking about, not cardboard cutouts of "cop" and "activist". In the end, I think that the Kennedy/Stone case had a positive effect on both the image of activists in the UK and changes to the way undercover police work is done. This poor guy was used badly and the people who feel he used others badly should remember that the knife can cut both ways. It certainly did in this case. Bottom line: no one got busted as a result of intelligence gathered by Kennedy/Stone so how is he a "snitch". Grow up and understand the complexities of life, people!
what a mess, the government, police brutality, his personal life... what a waste!
Busting petty drug pushers and infiltrating protest movements isn't admirable, even less so when you realize how the British soldiers allowed the drug trade to continue uninterrupted in Basra during the Iraq war.
That is why police departments shouldn't put people undercover for years, and why they often don't because it is damaging. It is damaging for the officer, damaging for anyone he interacts with etc. He thinks these criminals care for him, because he had to think like that to survive and succeed at his job, so now he basically has some seriously issues.
Learn to forgive.
I think if people want to break into private property or conspire to break into private property even for social justice reasons the police have a duty to uphold law and order. I do not agree with their violence and beating people however but you cannot have people cutting into fences or breaking into buildings etc. After all breaking into a building caused a president to resign. His flaw was breaking the code of intimacy sexually for which he obviously shows remorse and thus was not psychologically profiled sufficiently by police or has been said by some he may have made the perfect candidate for the job from a strategic point for the police. If I owned a business and was breaking no laws I would expect that society would prevent people from willfully breaking into my establishment.
This poor guy is looking for a little sympathy, and I would like to give it to him. He is such an exemplary specimen of human ambulatory excrement and I am very sorry that he did not have his entire skeletal structure rearranged in the form of having his cranium repositioned to some dark odiferous orifice in the posterior of his body. But, on the brighter side, I sincerely hope that he never has a minute of peace for the rest of his life, he at least deserves that.
One has to question whether Britain is a democracy. I don't think so. Ever since Thatcher, Britain has been acting like a mini-me America, doing everything America does, following America along the path to a totalitarian, plutocratic police state.
Interesting how lots of time was devoted to his love of this activist girl, yet hardly anything to his wife and kid(s). I feel sorry for them.
Long time viewer, first time comment. I have only scanned the comments but I think everyone kind of missed the point. The police that this man worked for knew exactly what would happen, intended it to happen and desired it to happen. They cherrypicked the perfect candidate to operate this for profit operation for the benefit of big corporations. He fit perfectly because he was a misfit as a police officer and therefore fit too important criteria for the job 1. he was disspensible and 2. did not resemble or have the typical appearance of a cop. Also they must have profiled this guy to know that he is kind of a dolt in that he seems not to have figured out not only did they know he started a relationship but probably counted on it so they could disavow themselves if he started to make some noise.
The police are like any conglomerate, it that they are smart, efficient and laser sighted to accomplishing their mission. They planned this perfectly starting with the person they chose to be the star of the show. They yanked the cord and the rug at the perfect time and this guy still hasn't figured out it was planned all along. I don't want to sound demeaning but to contrary, I hope this guy starts to think critically and see if he has any recourse.
who is going to believe or like a professional liar?
I thought it was a very good documentary. A couple of things stood out to me. The part where he says the results of his efforts devastated lives and that the people he's infiltrating are not selling drugs, guns, or involved with the sex trade industry, they are people with a social function. After 7 years of undercover work and not one person convicted of a crime, that pretty much proves that. I'm sure after being tossed away like a bum after all the work he did, he now realizes he was just a corporate puppet.
That guy is crying now... Well you should have never been a grass in the first place. Snitches end up in ditches!
Just show how much and how far the government will go to get their needs filled..But sadly the crooks go free like Oliver North,Kissinger, Powell etc
Very interesting doc, touches on so many moral issues. Having just watched the Brit Marling movie 'The East' there were quite a few sticking points here for me on both sides of the many arguments it throws up.
I'll add, as someone from Ireland that followed the Dublin Mayday riots closely I can tell you that in my experience the media certainly gets its cake and eats it too. Plenty of our national papers here feel no qualms about switching sides on any given story to up their sales quotas.
Two faced prick. No one likes a snitch....even the Police don't respect them.
no wonder he's wearing an 'ACAB' t-shirt.
Mark's under cover and personal life became a series of really big mistakes and bad decisions. I wouldn't want to be him or involved with him.
The most disturbing part of this doc for me was watching those defenceless kids in Copenhagen getting their skulls kicked in. Reminded me of the Toronto police.
I think unbeknownst to him at first, Mark's under cover role was to support big business and government interests. The police force was being used. NPOI was being used.
I agreed with the ex Minister of the Environment's speculations that none of the activities sanctioned by the NPOI,( in this doc), were intended to actually protect the public.
On the other hand, we can't have people taking over nuclear power plants!; A very unsafe and risky thing to do. Can you imagine the catastrophe if something technical went horribly wrong?
Its really hard to tell the good guys from the bad in these troubled times...
He seems remorseful. That is -both- Marks.
Stricken by his professionally personal deceit.
But also conflicted by the behavior of the police, that were, supposed to be policing his saftey.
I hope Mark finds solace to any regret.
The truth can set you free...
+1
I remember seeing this sleazebag on the news.
in my mind, if you sleep with somebody who thinks you're somebody else, you're a rapist.
As soon as he started developing intimate relationships with people he had read intelligence files on, he stopped being an agent of the law and became a self serving sociopath...love, lol i doubt he even has the capacity to feel love.