Australian Comedy Group Prods APEC Security 244
ajdlinux writes "Members of the Australian comedy group The Chaser were arrested today after attempting to breach security at the APEC Leaders Conference in Sydney. Chas Licciardello and Julian Morrow were arrested, along with nine crew members (all are now free on bail), just a short distance away from the InterContinental Hotel where President Bush is staying. They had already cleared at least two police checkpoints, according to CNN, disguised as a Canadian motorcade. 'No particular reason we chose Canada,' said Taylor. 'We just thought they'd be a country who the cops wouldn't scrutinize too closely, and who feasibly would only have three cars in their motorcade — as opposed to the 20 or so gas guzzlers that Bush has brought with him.'" CNN has a photo of Licciardello, dressed as Osama bin Laden, being arrested.
Re:Previous pranks (Score:1, Insightful)
Major embarassment (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course the police are spinning this and saying that due to the arrests its 'proof' that security works and the $170 million spent on security was well worth it, despite the fact that Candian flags and fake APEC stickers on the hood are all that's required to get within ten metres of the President's hotel.
hilair (Score:4, Insightful)
Over here in the UK, the main Aussie telly we're blessed with are neighbours and home & away - I would swap war on everything for neighbours any day!!
Re:"Security was working" (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Previous pranks (Score:2, Insightful)
Those of us who are sufficiently open-minded to watch a comedy show before deciding whether it is any good or not will, I'm sure, be in for a treat with the third series.
Re:Previous pranks (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Previous pranks (Score:3, Insightful)
APEC Protest Coverage (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Major embarassment (Score:5, Insightful)
It frightens me that there's a very real chance that had castmember Chas Licciardello not been dressed up as Osama Bin Laden, they could have made it all the way inside.
It frightens you? Why?
Perhaps our "leaders" should not have so much security. Might make them concentrate a little more on not having policies which ruin so many lives and drive people to want to murder them, eh?
Personally I think it's a huge shame that I can't walk up to the Prime Minister and argue with him about his policies.
Rich.
Utterly Un-Australian (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:tagged Slashkos - kdawsonfud (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Major embarassment (Score:5, Insightful)
There is always going to be some extreme nutters who hate the current leaders and their policies.
Re:Major embarassment (Score:3, Insightful)
I think there's an issue of practicality there, though. If we could walk up to our leaders (without having to pretend to be Canadians in a motorcade) then there'd be too many people crammed around them all trying to argue about dozens of different things!
If only politicians could do what the people want, rather than what the people need.
(I'll leave it up to the reader as to whether the previous sentence is sincere or sarcastic, as best suits their PoV)
This is Australia (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Utterly Un-Australian (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Major embarassment (Score:3, Insightful)
How many new laws and restrictions on liberty would it take to reassure you?
Re:Have they gone too far this time? (Score:4, Insightful)
No, they haven't gone too far. By pointing out that the US has a huge and unnecessary motorcade in a foreign country, it opens my eyes to yet another fleecing of America by the douchebags in office. By pointing out that people may be arrested for nothing more than a prank mostly because it embarrassed the security forces supposedly increased for the visit of someone "so important", it shows me that the countries we live in suck compared to 10 years ago.
Someone needs to continually point out the failures and by doing it with comedic value, a larger majority of people will pay attention.
Re:Previous pranks (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Have they gone too far this time? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Major embarassment (Score:5, Insightful)
Let's say you stop everyone at the checkpoint and the enemy knows this. All he has to do is find a spot overlooking the checkpoint (not hard in a dense urban area), bring a machine gun, then just wait till the target shows up. So Bush's 10 car motorcade comes rolling up and are all force to stop to be cleared. Now all the guy has to do is open fire at the cars which are basically trapped between the checkpoint gate and the car behind them and even if he can't tell which one Bush is in he's bound to hit something before anyone can react in the chaos.
The only way to protect against this is to either build massive secure checkpoints which would be hard in the middle of an active city. Or have multilayered security where the outer checkpoints make sure guys carrying machine guns don't get through and the inner security makes sure everything is safe and you don't have guys dressed like bin Laden wondering around.
But really though, the news article simply doesn't give you enough information to properly critique Sydney security. For example, why was the motorcade pulled over? Did they simply get lucky or was it proper procedure to check out motorcades once they've cleared the other checkpoints? How close were they to hotel? A 'block adjacent to the InterContinental Hotel' was rather vague. Were they close enough that if it had been a car bomb that people in the hotel would have been at risk? Was there still more security between where they were pulled over and where the diplomats were staying? IE if they had punched the gas would anyone important been at risk?
The news media is just doing what the news media does, trying to be sensational. I take everything they say with a grain of salt.
In the end though was security not as strong as it could be? Probably. But is it as bad as the news is making it sound? Probably not.
Re:Major embarassment (Score:4, Insightful)
No one lives in the CBD. Unless you sleep in your office this shouldn't effect you because it is going to be a public holiday and you should have no reason to be in the CBD.
There's quite a few apartment buildings in, or very near, the lockdown zone. The Toaster, for example, is right next to the Opera House. Not to mention things like the ferry terminal being smack bang in the middle of it all, the pubs, hotels, general tourist attractions, etc. The Sydney CBD isn't like, say, central London - it's not a deserted wasteland on a non-work day.
Whoever thought Sydney was an appropriate place to hold something like APEC should be fired for incompetence. An island resort or relatively isolated hotel(s), would have been a far saner place to have all the meetings. Much less disruption to local residents, businesses and tourists, much easier and cheaper to secure.
Re:Previous pranks (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Major embarassment (Score:3, Insightful)
And don't get me started on Garfield.
Re:Major embarassment (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Major embarassment (Score:5, Insightful)
Perhaps our "leaders" should not have so much security. Might make them concentrate a little more on not having policies which ruin so many lives and drive people to want to murder them, eh?
John Hinckley shot Ronald Reagan because Hinckley was obsessed on Jodie Foster. Public figures, political or not, are lightning rods for every type of kook under the sun.
I'm sorry we don't live in the rosy, bunny filled universe you seem to desire, but that's the way things are.
What's the frequency, Kenneth?
Major nothing (Score:1, Insightful)
I'm not suggesting anyone do something stupid (go away, Secret Service, I'm not a "person of interest") but sheesh. America desperately needs some political instability.
And a president is just some guy. He can be replaced, and the current one hasn't demonstrated any particularly unusual skills. That doesn't mean he (or anyone else) should be murdered, but if his murder is a serious problem for society, then you already have a serious problem for society.
This applies whether you agree or disagree with his particular policies. We're talking about one person, who works in an administrative capacity, and is surrounded by hundreds of other people who almost certainly have even more administrative experience. He's a cog. That isn't to say he doesn't have a shitload of power and that his decisions don't end up being far-reaching. But he's not a key man whose duties someone else can't easily take over.
Re:Downer on the comedy group's motives (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Major embarassment (Score:4, Insightful)
This is true for absolute leaders (such as in the USA). For Westminister system democracies (UK, Australia, Canada etc) the death of a leader does not lead to instability. The party will usually vote for a replacment leader. It is the party that leads the country (with a strong leader obviously) rather than an individual.
The reason I'm saying this is because in such countries, the leader, although protected, is not living in total isolation behind barricades and barriers. I've seen our leaders (in Australia) on many occasions, and I usually cross to the other side of the street so I don't bump into them.
I remember one occasion in Perth when the defence minister (back then) walked in with his family to a food court to have lunch. No guards, no security (at least none we could see).
That's the kind of country I want to live in.
Re:Major embarassment (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Previous pranks (Score:3, Insightful)
Can you not see the irony in that statement. Personally I have been a Chasers fan from the first show and I also loved Friends and Cheers back when they were fresh. However I do agree that the ABC and SBS are under-rated by many Aussies.
Re:On the topic of the Chaser (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Major embarassment (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, we went to the trouble of building a new city in the middle of nowhere, I believe the idea of a "national capital" was to prevent politicians and this sort of shit away from coming into contact with the general public.
However on this occasion the politicians escaped from Canberra and "locked down" one of our two main population centers. 8:00pm on a Sat night in Canberra is so devoid of life that you could shoot a cannon down the main street and nobody would notice (or care).