Escort police knock down 80 yr old woman

[4plusthehound]

Escort police, protecting Sophie Wessex, knocked down an 80 year old woman yesterday.

Why does SW need a police escort? Motor bikes surrounding her car?

AIBU to think this is madness?

@4plusthehound it's also pretty obvious you had no fucking clue who Lord Mountbatten was and you've just done a quick Google to try to cover up your ignorance.

I don’t think the people who attempt to kidnap or injure royals or politicians etc in these circumstances just wait for a blacked out car to pass and try to look in the windows.

Im getting sick of those royals. Its always about them. And who is she anyway. A non descript person who we all need to bow and scrape to just because she married another nondescript person who happens to be a royal.

I’m surprised they never reported it as somehow being Megan’s fault

I watched the Crown!

How do you know it was driver not the pedestrian at fault? It is not always the driver. And how do you know whether the Wessex family need police protection or not? Are you a security expert? Do you have intel on what kind of threats are made against Sophie or any of the working royals? The police share that with you do they?

Your indignation seems to be based on an awful lot of assumptions and very little actual knowledge.

Prncess Anne was driving through London when some nutter tried to drag her from her car and passers by were injured. If something did happen in a more crowded London of today I would imaging the scenario could be a lot worse not just for the royal/poltician/visiting dignatory (or whoever) but for anyone in the area.

I don't understand why you are expressing such a strong opinion on something you have clearly not thought through very much.

It won't be a case that all royals will need a police escort at all times. The security services and the police will be monitoring the level of threat against each individual, what event they're going to (the more high profile and publicised will need more protection) etc.

The anti royal protests happening will increase the threat level too.

4plus the hound.
I really cannot decide if you’re simply a piece of work,or stupid. We have god knows how many terrorists in this country,she is a high profile royal( more so in recent years) is married to the son of the late queen and we’ve just had a coronation. In regard to the latter ,we will still be on high alert.
These people receive death threats(credible or otherwise) every single day. The fact you ask “why her?” in itself makes her high risk ,because no one is getting close enough to Charles or William ,so a lesser royal married to one in the line of succession, would send a message.
You also do not know if credible information of a threat has been received,and likely won’t in the majority of cases.
Im guessing you don’t think those in witness protection or the likes of Salman Rushdie deserve police protection?
We not only live under constant threat of Islamic terrorism,but the situation in Ireland is starting to kick off,I personally remember how we had to daily check under my partners car for IRA bombs back in the 80s ,he was in the forces. These royals serve the public and put themselves at risk every day, whether you like it or not they need protecting.
I suggest you grow up.

Poor woman, I hope she pulls through. As for SW who on earth does she think she is having a police escort? I can guess who is paying for it too. Why do we put up with this?? Why? Their idea of work is standing in a garden eating canapés, whilst we pay for it. It just makes me mad. A needless accident happened escorting a pointless person.

Interesting it's Sophie who's in agony.
Meghan had multiple death threats made against her yet the RF refuses to allow H&M fund their own security. It's simply hypocrisy at best and forbid it, racism by the divine RF.

I do agree that I’ve witnessed police motorcades drive aggressively and what I consider to be too fast for the conditions of the road. A vast majority of London central roads are now 20mph, and they certainly exceed that limit. I echo what a pp said that it’s almost impossible for them to go excessively too fast in areas like Buckingham palace or Downing Street, but once they get out of those super heavily congested tourist spots, they definitely exceed the speed limit of the road.

This particular stretch of road where the poor lady was injured is a 20mph road I believe.

I know the road too. It's busy and it has lots of traffic lights. The crossings are not necessarily in the most convenient places, but they're there. I knew the sequencing of the lights, how to cross quickly and when to run. I stopped doing this when my first-born arrived, as I realised I had responsibilities and taking an additional five minutes to cross the road was and irrelevance.

Right - but this cop knocked down this woman to help Sophie wade through traffic.

Were you there? Are you a witness? Do you honestly believe that he saw the elderly woman in the road and thought we need to get through this traffic, she’s old, she’ll drop like a skittle! You appear to have decided that because you don’t believe Sophie warrants an escort they are therefore at fault. Let the police investigate the matter the way they investigate police collisions, which is with much more scrutiny than any other driver/rider.

Does anyone remember about 2001? the 'sting' when one of the papers made recorded of Sophie Rys-Jones talking to a fake sheik making disparaging, indiscrete clangers about Cherie Blair and other prominent figures including Queen Mother who she called ''old dear'' ! She worked for a PR company too, so should have known better- I thought she would never recover but it seems all forgotten now.

It is not weird at all. None of you know what chatter security services have picked. They may have picked a direct threat. The driving conditions were awful and we don't know if the woman stepped in front of the rider, or of the rider lost control.

The is really no need for escort police on motoer bikes

Well clearly those who have slightly more knowledge about these things than you, deem it necessary

Op, you sound like a bitter and twisted woman. Is that the impression you hope to give? Mean minded and acidic.

The woman stepped into the road. Plenty of witnesses said just that.

If it wasn't Sophie (who is pretty in offensive) it would be an extra layer of politicians who at least half the population at any given time would be infuriated by.

I don't why people don't think this through.

Most western dmeocracies have a double layer of leadership - president/ prime minister (like France) or president / chancellor (Germany) , or monarch / prime minister (like us and the Nordic countries). One is usually head of state and the other head of the executive (the bit with the day to day power).

So if we were not paying for Sophie we'd be paying for a president's security. and unlike Sophie who has been doing the job since 1998 and will continue for the rest of her life elected officers change every 4, 8, 10 years and in most countries they get protection for life (and often for their families too, who might do nothing for the country at all).

So we could be paying for the security for 5 or 6 or more still living ex presidents, spouses and families. Instead of which we have non-political people in our royals who we pay for because they are giving their lives to service (you can be smug and silly about eating cake but you must know that's a pathetic attempt to summarise what they do) and most of them keep going decades past the retirement age. The Duke of Kent carried out 78 engagements last year and Princess Alexandra 44 despite both being very frail and in their late 80s.

with hevery decade there are fewer working royals being protected not more. The oppostite would happen is we were a republic.

Far from being expensive, they are very cost efficient. This is not in itself an argument against a republic - you might believe a republic is worth paying for but make that argument including where the money would come from instead of bleating about royal security costs without thinking it through.

So come on then OP. Who in your wisdom deserves a police escort? It's obvious you have a specific list of who YOU think deserves one and who doesn't!

I hate this argument that they work hard for the country. Charles did less than 12 weeks work, spread over the whole year, in 2021. And some of his engagements were his own personal interests eg Duchy Originsls. Sophie did only a small fraction of that. It’s farcical to imply they are slaving away on our behalf week in week out.

2021 is a shit year to take as an example. Public engagements were curtailed because of this little thing called Covid-19.

By all means talk about how little work they do, but choose a better year as an example. 2019, perhaps.

Most of the country were on Lockdown for months on end in 2021.

The poor woman was knocked down on the Pelican Crossing that crosses the westbound A4 West Cromwell Road at the (blocked off) end of Nevern Road.

I would doubt very much that a woman in her 80s would try to "nip across" a busy three-lane major road, so I think it is safe to assume she was probably using the Pelican and crossing on the green man.

The police rider should be arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving, just like any other person who did the same.

Clipped?

She was thrown 40ft across the road.

Nice bit of ageism PicaK