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.

Comments

Major embarassment

[evilgrug]

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.

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.

Re:Major embarassment

[Richard W.M. Jones]

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.

Re:Major embarassment

[TubeSteak]

It frightens you? Why? Because when Heads of State violently die it tends to cause chaos, political/economic instability and/or wars.

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? That's the dumbest thing I've heard today.
There is always going to be some extreme nutters who hate the current leaders and their policies.

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. I agree that it's a shame, but you have at least one Representative. Talk to them. They are your voice to the PM.

Re:Major embarassment

[SlayerofGods]

If the enemy can view their attempt at being stopped, it means they haven't got close to what's being protected.

But what you're trying to protect is the people in the motorcade. By stopping them in plain view you're in fact putting them at risk.

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

[drsmithy]

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:Major embarassment

[Quiet_Desperation]

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?

Re:Major embarassment

[sasha328]

It frightens you? Why? Because when Heads of State violently die it tends to cause chaos, political/economic instability and/or wars.

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.

hilair

[SkunkPussy]

I've seen some of their clips on youtube and they're pretty damn funny!!

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"

[ben there...]

According to the video, they didn't catch on until one of them stepped out dressed as Osama bin Laden. The only reason they were caught was their completely absurd attire. And the security guys pat each other on the back for that. I'm not sure which part is funniest, but I'm definitely laughing.

Re:Previous pranks

[Organic User]

I didn't link to the ABC website because it is supposed to be for Australians only to view. They aren't doing anything to non-Australians but if at the end of the month most of their bandwidth bill is from international traffic be sure they will start ip locking it. The ABC is happy with their content being available on as many possible channels (they even upload torrents of their shows to bit torrent networks) as long as they aren't paying the bandwidth bill.

Utterly Un-Australian

[Malekin]

I feel that it was utterly un-Australian to arrest these guys. It was a complete waste of police & justice system resources, and really only a pathetic attempt to legitimise the $170 million spent on the ridiculous security theatre show borking up Sydney's CBD.

Re:tagged Slashkos - kdawsonfud

[Guzzitza]

Well, considering the government is spending 170 million on security, which includes a lot of technological crap - such as choppers flying around blocking mobile phone signals, it seems important to note that all you need is 3 cars, a couple of flags, and a fake sticker to bypass all that security... I know it isn't massively relevant, but it is funny.

Re:Have they gone too far this time?

[garcia]

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!

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

[unfunk]

levy heavy sanctions against the ABC? But... how the hell would that work, considering that the ABC is a publicly funded corporation? I'm sure if Little Johnny cut the ABC's funding much further, plenty of Aussies will be up in arms over it. It really is the last bastion of quality television journalism in this country.