Note: See companion piece to this article written later here
The already febrile political situation in the United States of America is more than a little more febrile this morning following a shooting incident during a rally by a self declared patriot group that was also attended by self described Antifa/BLM protestors. One man, described by some on social media as a Trump supporter is dead and he was allegedly killed by a security guard hired by a news station, 9News, to provide security for one of their reporters.
Because this is a developing story it is one that is subject to a lot of rumours, some true, some maybe not. However Breitbart has from what I’ve seen the most solid of information that I’ve seen so far.
What apparently happened is one person, alleged to be a Trump supporter was involved in a confrontation with a man later identified as the news station’s security officer, the alleged Trump supporter then pulled out a can of Mace non lethal incapacitant spray and sprayed it in the direction of the man identified by many as the security guard. The security guard apparently responded, disproportionally in my view, by pulling out a handgun and shooting the mace sprayer dead. The shooter was swiftly taken into custody by local police who were, according to some reports
All this happened in Denver, Colorado and is likely to make an already tense and violent US Presidential election season so much worse. As I said there are a lot of rumours floating around about this incident and a lot of questions that need to be answered and I dare say a more solid narrative will emerge once the assailant comes before the courts. Denver police have said that the shooter was not affiliated with Antifa, which leads us down the path of wondering just how well trained the security guard was?
There is nothing wrong to my mind with reporters in potentially dangerous situations having security guards. It helps keep the reporter safe and allows the reporter to do their job without having to unduly worry about security. However the job of the security guard should not be to get involved in confrontations but to be the trained eyes and ears that can watch the situation to see how it is developing, scope out escape routes for the reporter and to monitor and respond to any potential threats, ideally by getting their principle subject out of the situation as soon as possible. If the current narrative of security guard shoots Trump supporter is proven to be true and that the security guard has acted in a disproportionate way, then it’s going to make a lot of people ask just how well trained, psychologically stable and professional are the security operatives that protect journalists?
What I do know is that this is another death at a protest which from what I can see didn’t need to happen and which will do little to reduce the current tensions in US politics.
I normally agree with you but I think that you are wrong here. I don’t know what happened so I am more responding to what you have written.
The security guard was attacked/assaulted with quite a nasty weapon – illegal in the UK. The guard had no way of knowing if this attack from a distance might be followed up by a knife attack. Therefore, I don’t think his response was disproportionate.
You called him the assailant when he had been attacked first. This is quite wrong.
You talk about finding escape routes for reporters if threatened. This is dangerous: all a group has to do if it does not want to be subject to media coverage is to threaten reporters.
Mr Pheby. You make some interesting and valid points that I shall address. As yesterday progressed more and more came out about this story stuff that I’m going to address in another article later today. Agree that the bear spray, not pepper spray as it was first reported, is a nasty weapon and is indeed a Section Five device under UK firearms law and therefore completely prohibited for possession. The level of violence at these BLM/Marxist/Antifa incidents is often quite high and both the Left and those from the patriot side have used firearms during these incidents. The spray was used first therefore technically the first to use violence is an assailant but as the security guard also used lethal force he does count as an assailant towards the man who was killed. It is an arguable point whether lethal force should have been deployed against non lethal force and I predict that this will be one of the things that any court case will debate.
As regards security finding ways of escape this happens as media workers are already targets for assault in public disorder situations. The BBC for example are increasingly the targets for hostile chanting at patriot style demos in the UK because there is a perception, sadly all too often true, that the BBC is a bit bent in its coverage. In the UK from what I’ve seen this hostility hasn’t, from what I’ve seen really gone beyond chanting about the BBC being ‘fake news’ and mocking the BBC about Jimmy Savile. In the USA the threat to journalists is much higher, not quite as high as someone reporting on say the Syrian conflict but more dangerous than the UK. The USA is very litigious and I can see a whole world of legal pain that could be caused by a media organisation sending a reporter into a hostile situation without some form of additional help on the security side. This would especially be the case if the reporter was directly employed by the media outlet and had been told to go to the protest. In Britain, or it was the situation when I was covering public disorder stuff like Wapping, the Poll Tax protests and various far right/far left flare ups in London late last century, freelances were used as they were both cheaper, expendable and paid for their own insurance.
More and more is coming out about this case that runs counter to the initial reports, including against statements made by Denver police. It appears there are claims that the guard was employed by Pinkertons the detective and security company, that the guard was photographed with a known Antifa tattoo on his arm and that the guy’s social media points to him leaning Left. If these claims turn out to be true then it begs some questions such as why did a major security company hire someone with extremist connections. I based this story on initial reports and some of these initial reports have, in a ‘fog of war’ situation turned out to be wrong therefore I will be doing a round up article of later information later today.