OUT
OF THE BLUE
Undercover police stir the violence pot at Red Hill and their
bosses get promoted.
By
Randy Kay VIEW MAGAZINE January 22-28, 2004
Tuesday,
October 28, 2003. As police move in to remove valley protectors
at Red Hill Valley "Protester Ted" is making "oinking"
noises and loudly calling police "fucking pigs."
His aggressive behaviour is out of synch with the nonviolent
groove that has seen the demonstrators weather the months
long valley occupation with power and grace.
"Ted"
is "arrested" by police with two others, and after
disappearing for about 20 minutes, Ted is back at the Mount
Albion site with his yellow "trespassing" ticket
in hand.
"Ted,"
it turns out, is also known as Detective Ted Davis to his
comrades with the Hamilton Police where he is Staff Sergeant
in charge of Intelligence.
Ted
sounds taken aback when I call him on his office phone,
"Where did you get all this information from, how would
you know to call me?" he wants to know.
(I
don’t have the heart to tell the head of intelligence
that he was seen recently on the local news station CHTV,
being interviewed about undercover police work infiltrating
gangs.)
When
asked about his undercover role, Ted gets tightlipped and
answers "I’m not at liberty to talk about any
of that" and refuses to confirm or deny his involvement.
Ted’s
not talking but he certainly made a lot of noise at the
first day of arrests in the valley.
According
to eyewitness accounts "Ted" was "trying
to initiate some kind of confrontation" with police.
Six
Nations valley protector Donna Powless said she was disappointed
by the police behaviour at the Mount Albion site.
"Our
people were peaceful, nonviolent, and then we have this
person out of the blue come and making these remarks and
being very rude and trying to agitate the police there and
get things stirred up" she says.
Other
witnesses like Alessandra Brown report that while "Ted"
was yelling at police, police approached and asked "Ted"
who he was.
"Then
‘Ted’ started yelling ‘who the fuck are you,
I have a right to be here!’ and stuff like that"
reports Brown.
The
Hamilton Spectator report of the incident states that three
people (two men and a woman) were arrested and notes that
police "declined to name those arrested."
No
wonder.
The
last time Red Hill defenders saw "Ted" was when
he was flashing his badge and helping make arrests during
the massive police raid on the Longhouse November 6.
Dana
Plourde and a friend (Young Defender under 18-years of age)
had "locked-down" in the longhouse when the raid
began, and were cut from their equipment by their acquaintance
"Ted."
They
say "Ted" had been showing up in the months prior
to the arrests, fishing for information and monitoring the
longhouse site.
"Santa"
Dave Field was one of the people arrested October 28, along
with "Ted." Next time he saw Ted was when the
Longhouse camp was surrounded by police November 6. He confronted
him at the time about his role as mouthiest of protesters.
"He
told me, ‘well yeah, Dave, I was just doing my job,"
relates Field.
Superintendent
Ken Leendertse was the Divisional Commander in charge of
the Red Hill operation. He got a promotion to Deputy Chief
and garnered much praise in the Hamilton Spectator for his
role in Red Hill.
Spec
columnist Susan Clairmont wrote that Superintendent Ken
Leendertse "got what he wanted: no violence and few
arrests....He won accolades from his colleagues for his
measured and professional approach to the volatile situation."
(Spec Tuesday, December 9, 2003).
Isn’t
using an undercover plant to initiate violence a little
removed from a "measured and professional approach"
to a "volatile situation"?
Leendertse
won’t say anything about the subject of police infiltrators
other than to defend what he says was the overall aim of
the operation — to avoid violence — and remind
me that the police received praise from the community for
their work in the valley.
"As
far as discussion of our (police) operations, we can’t
do that because it’s not something we even discuss
in court; we use different tactics or different operations,"
he explains "if we told all the bad guys what we do,
we wouldn’t have another tool, would we?"
Using
undercover police is one thing, but using undercover police
to potentially instigate violence at an otherwise peaceful
action is quite another.
I
ask Leendertse if he was aware that undercover operations
would include the head of intelligence posing as a protester
and shouting "fucking pig"at police in the midst
of a tense situation.
"I’m
not prepared to discuss that, as it’s currently before
the courts," is the measured response.
"Is
that behaviour acceptable to you, if it turns out to be
the case?" I prod.
After
a full eight second pause on the line Leendertse says he
won’t "go down that road."
"The
bottom line is we were involved in police operations, we
used police tactics in a specific operation and our goal
was to insure that no one got hurt."
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