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Security at State events

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RosiesMaw2 Wed 17-Jul-24 12:13:46

Watching todays State Opening of Parliament (I love how well we do ceremonial!) I was thinking what a nightmare it must all be for our police and security services. A slow moving horse drawn carriage through London streets with thousands of (not necessarily all supportive) people crowding the pavements. Then I thought if the complete Horlicks of the Trump shooting at at that Pennsylvania rally which has raised serious questions about the security failures that enabled the attack.

While there was significant Secret Service presence as well as local law enforcement on the scene, a gunman was able to get onto the roof of a building about 150 meters away from Trump and fire at both him and members of the crowd. That development has prompted concerns about missteps made by the Secret Service and gaps in the coverage provided for the former president at the event

I had lunch with a friend at the weekend whose son is an armed protection officer with the Met, and spent much of the GE on duties protecting Starmer and she told me how much effort goes into the preparation of such protection- advance intel, undercover officers,etc, the physical presence being almost the least of it.
Lessons need to be learned in the US don’t they? .

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Freya5 Wed 17-Jul-24 18:28:24

I should think our American friends could learn a lot from our security teams. You don't need to visibly be swarming around someone, loaded with big guns to provide security.

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Galaxy Wed 17-Jul-24 18:35:02

I dont know yhat there is any evidence that our security is better than Anericas is there. There is obviously differences in relation to gun culture but in terms of quality of security I have no idea. We have experienced a number if incidents over the years.

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Galaxy Wed 17-Jul-24 18:35:35

Good grief excuse the spelling/grammar.

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RosiesMaw2 Wed 17-Jul-24 18:41:18

Galaxy

I dont know yhat there is any evidence that our security is better than Anericas is there. There is obviously differences in relation to gun culture but in terms of quality of security I have no idea. We have experienced a number if incidents over the years.

We haven’t had a Head of State, top politician, ex-Prime Minister or senior royal shot so on that basis the US is lagging well behind -Abraham Lincoln, JFK, Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy, Reagan, Trump….
Even Guy Fawkes didn’t get away with it.

Read the reports of the Trump shooting - heads will surely roll.

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Sago Wed 17-Jul-24 18:43:56

The best security is the security you cannot see.

You would be amazed at how many intelligence officers are in the crowd, in offices overlooking venues, on roofs etc.

Decades of dealing with the IRA means we are very good at security in the UK.

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RosiesMaw2 Wed 17-Jul-24 18:50:58

Get this!
THE US Secret Service did not put agents on the rooftop where an assassin shot at Donald Trump for health and safety reasons, the head of the agency has said.
Kimberly Cheatle, the Secret Service director, said that the “sloped roof” where Thomas Matthew Crooks was positioned on Saturday could have posed a risk to agents . “That building in particular has a sloped roof at its highest point. And so, you know, there’s a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof,” she told ABC News on Tuesday. “And so, you know, the decision was made to secure the building, from inside .”
Duh!

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Calendargirl Wed 17-Jul-24 18:55:04

And yet the security snipers who actually shot the assassin were positioned on a roof that sloped even more than the killer’s roof.

Another Duh!

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Galaxy Wed 17-Jul-24 18:55:10

We have had an entire cabinet bombed, and the fact the Queens intruder wasnt armed or dangerous was sheer fluke. I suspect their issues are more linked to their gun culture.

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RosiesMaw2 Wed 17-Jul-24 18:57:27

This was the point my friend made Sago - but nothing excuses recent lapses in security such as these.

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