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Australian Comedy Group Prods APEC Security
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.
The third series of the Chasers War on Everything started yesterday. Back in the first series they did a prank with Virgin Blue booking e-tickets under the names 'Terry Wrist' and 'Al Kyder' (you can watch the clip here). This prank should be aired this Wednesday.
Tomorrow people living in Sydney will be getting a public holiday and the city will be complete lock down mode.
These guys are seriously the funniest thing on Australian TV. They are extremely witty and some of their comedy is so well thought out, you really wonder where they get it from. There is some great footage of this weeks episode on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxXAr0R43dQ where they try to see how big a weapon they can smuggle in to a jail, including a rocket, a small canon (disguised poorly as a babies pram) and a tank! Some very clever gags about APEC also. Have they gone too far this time though? With times so security conscious, dressing up as Osama and getting that close to the US Presidents quarters, they are lucky they weren't fired upon! Funny though.
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Actually... if they hadn't been stopped he wouldn't have gotten out. Therefore they were pulled over first, which seems to indicate that the security was on to them at least some what.
/Just saying
And truthfully from a security stand point this makes sense.
You don't want to stop a motorcade at the first checkpoint otherwise an enemy (I know it's Australia, just saying) could just set up watching the check point and wait for his target to be stopped there. What they should be doing is wave an 'obvious' motorcade through the first level of security and then check them out deeper in where it's safe.
Further the article doesn't make it clear what these check points were. Perhaps the first one was just a couple of guys on foot charged with turning away anyone that doesn't have clear business in the area, and not what everyone pictures when they think of a check point as barbed wire, sandbags, gates, guys with machine guns, ect.
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It doesn't frighten me at all. The whole episode is a complete farce.
Tell me: Why can the CBD of the biggest Australian metropolis suffer a complete lock-down in the name of a pyjama-party for a few world leaders, while Melbourne can't even host a car-free day in part of its CBD? It strikes me that something is wrong with our priorities.
Just an FYI for everyone out there, the Chaser is a show which is broadcast by the ABC, a PUBLICALLY FUNDED channel here in Australia. They constantly poke fun of security, politicians and current affairs shows (among other things). They are a great example of democracy done right.
For some interesting clips see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs3SfNANtig
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnP0snh_1cU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3grHjibNdA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BOMOVV2pf0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc5xTZGUrRQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GViD0Zwc3Bg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-6F8GN8eXI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwJ9s1RdGhc&
Many more are freely available on youtube and other sites. The ABC doesn't mind you distributing them either.
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. Well, the fact that you're reading a CNN report on it kinda skews the whole thing - check out http://www.abc.net.au/news for a more Aussie view on it. The Lateline (our country's best/most reliable news program) report claimed that the motorcade pulled up - of their own accord - outside Bush's hotel, and that security wasn't alarmed until Chaz stepped out, dressed as Osama bin Laden. The chief of police then went on record as saying that his boys did a good job, and that the arrest of the eleven people involved proved that the $160 million was well spent.
I'm sorry? Would it have been "well spent" if those cars were laden full of explosives and detonated outside the hotel? I doubt it.
That said, I love the chaser boys; they know a good prank when they see one, and also know when they're crossing the line... not that it ever stops them.
And truthfully from a security stand point this makes sense. Only one problem. That's not what happened.
The Australian Army did not let it in and were the only ones to check inside of it. Also, this was filmed months before APEC when the only security concern with the opera house was preventing drunk students from farting in the tubas.
When Argumentum ad Hominem falls short, try Argumentum ad Matrem
As a Sydneysider, I have to say the APEC security was already seen as a farce even before the Chaser's stunt (which 86% of people responding to a Sydney Morning Herald poll thought was "funny"). But more to the point, the over-the-top security is all seen as being because of President Bush (not Putin or Hu Jin Tao), our Prime Minister's "great mate". Hu Jin Tao (the Chinese President) flew into Perth with some offsiders, had some meetings with Woodside Petroleum, and then bascially travelled the length of Australia including a visit to a sheep grazing property in rural NSW which the local school children attended, before arriving in Sydney for APEC. In Sydney, one resident remarked that they saw Hu's motorcade from an overhead pedestrian bridge, from which any nasty person could've chucked a rock (or a bomb) at it.
The reality is that there have been only two political assassinations in Australian history, both in Sydney (in 1894 the Burwood (Sydney) Mayor was shot by the deranged town clerk; and the 1994 murder of John Newman MP for Fairfield (Sydney), for which a corrupt local councillor Phunong Ngo was later convicted). I don't think Bush or any other politician is in danger here (except from being satirised). Sadly the people most inconvenienced by all this security are the residents and businesses in the Sydney CBD and tourists (including Americans).
We're desperately in need of some humour in Sydney right now, as the security (and rhetoric about security) has reached absurd levels. Chas getting out of the motorcade in front of Bush's hotel, dressed as Osama Bin Laden, was the funniest thing I've seen for ages. Every time we saw a po-faced politician or policeman denouncing the Chaser team, we just laughed harder.