Palace guard loses his cool

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http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/527 ... lashes-out

this is the first time i have heard of this happening

the soldiers over here that patrol the palaces do get a lot of grief so i'd expect them to be able to lash out every now and then, i've seen videos where cops in america have beaten a teenager to the ground because of the kid swearing so why is this such a big deal?

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most people think i'm a bit strange, even abnormal. normal is the majority, the average, what is most frequent. if you lived around here, you'll see the positive of not being normal

The guard should have kept a lid on his anger, but I feel sorry for the guards at the palace with all those sightseers who keep on bothering them.

I have always felt that out of respect for them I should just let them get on with their jobs without bothering them. I do not think the men on gaurd there are allowed to talk to the general public under normal conditions, so you should not talk to them. It must be a bit like having a chatty dentist who keeps talking to you while he is fixing your teeth. I find some chatty dentists to be tiresome becuase I can not reply as I have a mouth full of dental tools.

Once of twice when I have been walking past other buildings guarded by the military the sentry has called out "good evening", all I did is to politely reply "good evening" and wave as I walk on by.

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Health is a state of physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity I am not a jigsaw, I am a free man !

Diagnosed under the DSM5 rules with autism spectrum disorder, under DSM4 psychologist said would have been AS (299.80) but I suspect that I am somewhere between 299.80 and 299.00 (Autism) under DSM4.

this isn't the only incident sadly:

Palace Plonker

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most people think i'm a bit strange, even abnormal. normal is the majority, the average, what is most frequent. if you lived around here, you'll see the positive of not being normal

I wish some people weren't pricks. This mock the guard thing is getting really old. .... wait... "getting" old?

I say "Hurrah!" and hope that cools out a lot of idiotic tourists! Guards are guards, after all. Out with 'tradition', I say! Give those tourists something to ponder on!

Merle

i think guards should be able to give off a warning shot or two if someone's causing a problem, it might make them think twice if guards are given a bit more power.

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most people think i'm a bit strange, even abnormal. normal is the majority, the average, what is most frequent. if you lived around here, you'll see the positive of not being normal

Guarded meltdown topic

Tempest in a bearskin hat! This guard may be severely disciplined, if not outright sacked. But there has to be an inquiry into what these guards are allowed to do, when the tourists get out of hand. Perhaps other police can be stationed nearby to assist/intervene.

Two stories regarding the military guards in London.

Many years ago I was walking through London looking at the sights and I got as far as St James's Palace. At the time the Queen Mum lived there but now Prince Charles is in residence. I wanted to walk across a graveled area but I was not sure if I was allowed to, knowing that the guards were not allowed to talk on duty the conversation went something like this:

"Keep this quiet mate because I don't want you on a charge, if I walk across that courtyard will I be OK or will you shoot me"?

"One warning shot sir, then I go for the head"

"OK, thanks, I'll find another route back to my hotel"

I therefore found another route back to my nice warm bed and I presume that the guard had a quiet night. Three years ago I was back in London and I visited Horseguards Parade, this establishment is guarded by two different regiments including guys who sit on horseback. After having a quick look around I saw two double doors with windows and inside were a handful of troops, I then walked towards the door for a closer look.

"YOU THERE, STOP"! !!

Two guys were walking towards me, they were in full ceremonial uniform but they had swords drawn and I could tell that they meant business. I just put my hands up, said sorry and walked back into the courtyard.

So, these guys are real guards and they have a job to do. Despite being the finest army in the world they will, once in a while, lose their cool. Be nice, they have guns and swords and they know how to use them.

Vanilla Slice

I will never understand the desire to tick off people with loaded weapons, especially if they're trained to use them...

Sounds like the punk deserved the boot. It isn't fair to pick on these guys.

I think that the traditional guards at London palaces should be replaced with armed soldiers. According to my college Spanish teacher, the Palacio Real (Spanish equivalent of Buckingham, it's where King Juan Carlos lives) as well as other places like the main court, are guarded by army troops with submachine guns, and they DO mean business, and will not hesitate to point their guns at anyone. Spain has had decades of experience with homegrown terror, so they wisely junked tradition and went for the jugular. I'm surprised that Britain, with all the grief that the IRA gave them, hadn't replaced the traditional guards with real soldiers ages ago.

Since 9-11 the US Capitol and the White House have been guarded by Marines, and they do not let tourists anywhere near them, they don't even do tours anymore, the tourists have to look at the buildings from raised bulletproof platforms a half mile away, and all purses are confiscated and all pockets emptied lest any terrorist think of drawing diagrams. Downtown Washington has so many barricades and blast walls it's more like Baghdad. Some people here may remember when President Clinton closed Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the WH a dozen years ago, and bicyclists and rollerbladers glided by past the WH fence. Well, NOBODY except the Marines are allowed there anymore.

Rumor is they've made it so that the Capitol-WH area could function as a Green Zone during mass chaos in the US, the politicians would bed down in the basement of the Capitol and food would be helicoptered in. Self-contained power and water supplies and everything. The UK needs to get serious about guarding the royals and can those guards in favor of REAL guards, soldiers in uniform with guns who mean business. The tourists tend to forget that those guys have a real job to do. With real Marines, I assume that mistake would not occur.

These are real soldiers however in these regiments they do both active duty (usually aboard like Afghanistan) and ceremonial duty in both instances they are armed. However ceremonial is not really security. If you think that standing perfectly still in a box is good security then you are very much mistaken. There have other security besides this for these buildings and the royal have the royal protection force, which is part of the met police.

Ceremonial duty is just part of the discipline of being in these regiments.

UK has long made adaptations due to IRA bombings. These solders stay very much on the outer walls. They have security barriers beyond this.

My dad was in the foreign office and witnessed two IRB bombs. One was the one that tried to target the garden of Number 10.


The other was a recruitment office for the military near Whitehall. He was walking down the road with a colleague and suddenly there was a blast. He said it was like slow motion all the widows shattered at once and cascaded to the ground.

He was just standing there and his colleague was rapped round him hugging him tightly.