[HPFGU-OTChatter] Talking of losing perspective ....

[Shaun Hately]

On 27 May 2005 at 8:45, Kathryn wrote:

> 
> 
> The thing is Kathryn, telling the difference between a joke or other
> obvious non-threat, and a real threat can be *very* difficult.
> 
> 
> But when the threat in question is a caption in a high school year
> book I think it actually is fairly obvious, especially since we're not
> even talking about an outright threat but rather a parody of hat
> rather odd (well it seems that way to me as a UK citizen, but then
> yearbooks are pretty odd to me) tradition of giving kids in a
> graduating class "most Likely ..." titles

Would you want to be the Agent who decided that the threat was 
obviously a joke, when someone gets shot?

You have to investigate, just to make sure.

Seriously - if Hinckley had been investigated properly (and he should 
have been), Reagan wouldn't have been shot. With some of the others, 
there was no real indications to spark an investigation - in his 
case, there were.

With modern protocols, there's even a fairly good chance, Oswald 
would have been identified back in 1963 (man who had defected to the 
Soviet Union, and who was trained as a rifleman working in building 
overlooking parade route - today that would probably spark an 
investigation - and 999 times out of 1000, they'd find there was 
nothing to worry about).

Also remember that even an Agent looking at the yearbook and saying 
"This is a joke" counts as an investigation, and if he's going to do 
that, he may as well do it properly.
 
> And people should be aware that in the UK, SO14 investigates threats
> against Her Majesty and other members of the Royal family, just
> asintensely as the Secret Service investigates threats against the US
> President. There are probably less threats - but they get taken very
> seriously.
> 
> But again I think they would have to be actual threats directed
> towards the Royal Family rather than one liners in a yearbook.

I'd say they'd be treated exactly the same way - again, would you 
want to be the senior officer at SO14 who is explaining to the Home 
Secretary that the Queen has been shot - but if you'd had the same 
protocols as the *Americans* it might not have happened?

They do things differently, certainly, but these things are always 
taken seriously.

I work in an area where we have to work under similar constraints, 
though mine is in a different field. 95% of the work I do deal with 
problems that turn out not to be real. That's the way it works in 
just about any safety relaated field if you have the budget you need.

(Sometimes people in my office are actually drafted across to assist 
with VIP protection issues, but that's never actually happened to me -
 we're close enough to it, that we can be of assistance).
> 
>  I don't know who the
> third man is - there was one very active bodyguard, Superintendent
> Colin Trimming, but he's off to the right of that photo putting
> himself between the Prince and the assailant - who, luckily, was
> firing blanks.
> 
> And that's another big difference between UK Special Branch bodyguards
> and the Secret Service actually (totally on a tangent). The US Secret
> Service has a big 'intimidation' factor to their protection plan -
> lots of imposing men in suits and sunglasses. Special Branch tends to
> work more on the principle that if someone is shooting at your
> protectee you're probably screwed anyway and focus a lot more on
> makinf sure precautions are in place to try and make sure no threats
> can get anywhere near him/her. Both outlooks have the problem that
> it's almost impossible to stop a lone nut with a gun, especially if
> they're not all that bothered about their own survival.

OK - first of all, just for clarity. Royal Protection is provided by 
SO14, not Special Branch (SO12). SO12 does provide security for non-
Royals in some cases.

Secondly, the Secret Service concentrates a great deal on prevention 
and precautions rather than just obvious point protection. They do 
have a bit more focus on the latter, but that is partly because of 
the different nature of who they are protecting. Royal functions are 
non-political (in the sense that they don't have to run for office) 
and are normally planned months in advance - lots of time to secure 
the area. While quite a few Presidential functions are scheduled in 
the same way, the political nature of the Presidency means that there 
are more spontaneous events where preparations were done much more 
quickly.

Also, often members of the Royal Family do have very obvious 
protection. Other times it is part of the scenery - the clearest 
example of this may be back in 1981 when blanks were fired at the 
Queen during Trooping of the Colour.  The man in question was grabbed 
by one of the many guardsmen on the route (Lance Corporal Alex 
Galloway). The following day, the Prince of Wales found himself being 
followed around by around 50 uniformed police officers at an event.

Intimidation works sometimes - whether you use it depends on 
circumstances. The US Secret Service tends to use it all the time, 
partly because if they didn't, people might realise that there's a 
specific problem when they did.

There's also differences caused by who people are sometimes - there 
are persistent rumours that when it was decided there needed to be 
more security near the Queen during the Jubilee Concert a few years 
ago, it was decided to arm the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York 
who would be sitting near her, kind of as a last line of defence. 
Both are very well trained with weapons. Whether this is true or not, 
is anyones guess.

Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately | www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ)       | drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200 
"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one
thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the 
facts. They alter the facts to fit the views. Which can be 
uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that 
need altering." The Doctor - Doctor Who: The Face of Evil
Where am I: Frankston, Victoria, Australia