Ethography of a political attack

[Brooklyn_teacher]

Hi guys, Ii am writing a paper for a class I'm taking right now and I need your help. It's a kind of sociology called Ethnomethodolgy which is devoted to basically microanalysing how people accomplish things that we kind of take for granted in life. An example would be.... when you walk through a door and there's someone who wants to go through, it's very rare that you bump into each other and it's very common that you avoid a collision and decide who's going through first without ever speaking to them. Another would be how you know when two people in the street know each other as opposed to just happening to walking close. Yuo know, right? You just know. How does that happen.

Well, I have to analyse a video and describe how people accomplish the stuff they do... and of course I went for a fight. I read as much academic literature as I could on how violent situations develop on a social level and believe me, YOU GUYS ARE WAY AHEAD. There is one book I can recomend to you all that I really think you'll enjoy though. Here it is:

http://www.wunderkim.com/Collins%20-%20Violence.pdf

It has a lot of good stuff that I think you guys will recognise his insights. Here's the attack, it's quite a famous British incident...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpqWFDXTkus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XTiI1e-wVc

I am grateful for any analysis you have of the body language and the way the incident goes.

[ato]

Prescott was transiting through a choke point, where he was successfully ambushed. That he was able to retaliate with a punch is only because his attacker chose a raw egg rather than something more lethal. As ambushes go, it was very simple; the security detail should have noticed it ( if there was a security detail). In the future, I'd expect body guards to maintain a wider perimeter around Prescott, or have him completely surrounded by security when passing through narrow passages. Wouldn't count it as a fight, the damage (humiliation) had already been done.

[finnegan]

The protectee needed to be taken away from the area immediately, get him off the X.

If you notice as he hung around the hostility grew and it emboldened another protester that didn't harm him but could have.

Protectee is a protectee and politics are irrelevant. Just making that clear. No way in hell should a deputy Prime Minister be permitted to mingle so up close and personal in such a volatile political climate as he was wading into.

Get Off the X.

On a side and personal non professional note I respect the hell out of him for fighting back and not taking any shit.

BT check out The Gift of Fear by Gavin Debecker. He is the USA's leading expert of threat analysis and violence prediction.

[Brooklyn_teacher]

Great stuff about the choke point and getting off the X. Two things I hadn't seen. Keep it coming, please!

[ato]

In a duel both parties share equal amounts of risk as they maneuver for position. This was no duel. The attacker used the terrain to position the victim so that his flank was exposed to attack. With careful planning and patience, the attacker was able to spring the ambush with little risk of failure.

[Brooklyn_teacher]

I got that bit, I write in my paper that it was actually organised more like an assassination, albeit a kind of theatrical one, rather than a street fight.

[pathfighter]

Given the type of class it is, I'd be interested in exploring why it is that Prescott felt it was appropriate to retaliate with a strike, rather than fall back/escape and rely on his bodyguards. Is there something about Prescott, his background, temperament, previous training perhaps. That looked like a boxing jab if I've ever seen one.

[finnegan]

That most likely is the fault of his protection team.

Procedures for events like this must be gone over with the protectee. For example "Mr Prescott we will do such and such if this happens. Listen only to us, dont resist what we do "

Look at the image of Pres Reagan getting whisked into the limo as opposed to the Prescott incident.

Path you used the term bodyguard, remember there is a difference between protection and bodyguard work.

Dignitary protection means you cover (the protectee) and evacuate (the protectee). No searching for where the bad guy is, no pursuit of him, cover the protectee and evacuate him far away from the area.

[Faust]

Guys, don't let this particular thread fall asleep. For the life of me I can't contribute anything reasonable, but I'd like to learn some more of that discipline.