(UK) Recording reveals police efforts to recruit BLM activist as informant

Source: The Guardian

Recording reveals police efforts to recruit BLM activist as informant

Swansea activist Lowri Davies recorded call from officer in ‘frightening and distressing’ attempted recruitment

Rob Evans and Damien Gayle
Mon 25 Oct 2021 14.00 BST

A secret recording has revealed how a covert police unit in Wales tried to recruit a Black Lives Matter activist to be an informant.

The anti-racism campaigner Lowri Davies shared the recording with the Guardian to raise awareness of what she alleges were “distressing” techniques used to try to manipulate her into providing information to the police.

Davies, a Swansea University law student, is one of the main organisers of a local Black Lives Matters (BLM) group that regularly supports protests about the deaths of black people after contact with police.

She said two police officers spent 90 minutes seeking to convince her to become an informant, imploring her not to tell anyone about the attempted recruitment.

But Davies exposed the attempt by recording a phone call from one of the covert officers. It is the first public evidence that the police have sought to recruit a mole within the Black Lives Matter movement in the UK.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/oct/25/recording-reveals-police-efforts-to-recruit-blm-activist-as-informant