NYPD: Harry and Meghan were ‘recklessly’chased by paparazzi through New York

[pipsfromthefuture]

Apparently there is enough to arrest two individuals as well.

"Paparazzi did chase Prince Harry and Meghan Markle “recklessly” through New York last year, police have confirmed.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex said at the time that they and Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland narrowly avoided a “catastrophic” crash while being pursued by paparazzi after leaving the Women of Vision Awards at Manhattan’s Ziegfeld Ballroom on 16 May. [...]

However, in a hearing at the High Court on Wednesday, a judge revealed New York City Police did investigate the car chase and found paparazzi did display “persistently dangerous and unacceptable behaviour”.

"Investigation confirms Harry, Meghan, Doria were recklessly endangered in NY

'I've never defended the paparazzi, their behaviour is appalling and borderline criminal. Frankly I encourage the NYPD to make arrests if evidence is there.'

Yes I'm puzzled by the whole palaver. At the time I don't think anyone disputed of course the paps will have chased them for pics and that is not nice or ok.

The question always was why tf did they put themselves in such a situation and what on earth were their security thinking with the taxi and 'distraction'. They should perhaps seek advice and liaise with other far more VIP celebs who travel around without this circus.

"In fairness I think the paps who followed them should be named."

"And the papers who hired them should be named and shamed."

I don't think there has been a recap yet about the communications following the NY car incident.

Harry & Meghan’s legal representatives sent the following to the Backgrid agency:
"We hereby demand that Backgrid immediately provide us with copies of all photos, videos, and/or films taken last night by the freelance photographers after the couple left their event and over the next several hours."

The Backgrid legal representative replied with:
"In America, as I'm sure you know, property belongs to the owner of it: Third parties cannot just demand it be given to them, as perhaps Kings can do. Perhaps you should sit down with your client and advise them that his English rules of royal prerogative to demand that the citizenry hand over their property to the Crown were rejected by this country long ago. We stand by our founding fathers."

Backgrid also released a press statement which said they had 4 freelance photographers covering the awards event, 3 in cars and 1 on a bike. (The statement was longer, this is just a brief extract). In effect, Backgrid have 'named and shamed' themselves.

Harry and Meghan could have filed a lawsuit that ordered Backgrid to hand over the footage and photographs ('the evidence'). I'm not aware if they did so. If no such lawsuit was filed shortly afterwards, Backgrid would not be obliged to retain the evidence.

After Backgrid admitted they had 4 freelance photographers at the event, the NYPD had the ability to ask for their names as part of their investigation. The 2 possible arrests might not be within this cohort.

If the NYPD have the names, they were not included (not even in redacted form) in the letter in the judgment.

Ah that’s pretty interesting!

Exactly 😂

But for some reason certain posters keep trying to twist things to make the conversation about Murdoch and pretending people are defending the paps. When literally no one has defended them. No wonder Harry has no ability to take accountability, his supporters won’t allow him
to 😂it’s all Rupert Murdochs fault that Harry jumped into a cab and insisted on a well publicised public journey to a rent a celeb event, he did an inception Jedi mind trick on Harry and forced him to make all the poor choices and then got him to leverage it at the trial, and made it look like Harry was engineering the event to make it appear in a certain light to make his point to a judge - makes sense 😁

Well put, Stormzy ... and the sheer convenience of it all is exactly why some of us are refraining from too much comment until more is know (if it ever is)

Agree with you but also harry should not put the public in danger either.

He also should be named and shamed. He should also explain why he exaggerated the event just so he could use it as leverage at his trial.

The Sussex team did have their own security that night. But they are Harry’s employees so buck stops with him, he is responsible for their bad decisions.

Ah interesting! And good point!

Of course it does 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Post Leveson, the British paparazzi doesn't behave like this now.

Is this a rhetorical question?

Murdoch! Paparazzi!

You really are a poster of a singular idea aren’t ya 😆

Exactly. And it wasn’t even the British paps, so no reason for us to fork out even more for his security.

The Home Secretary is thinking ‘Nie mój cyrk, nie moje małpy’.

Very illuminating indeed! And puts a completely different perspective on those that keep trying to drown out any criticism by shouting paparazzi over and over again.

What an excellent post.

Ah people have mentioned there’s more to it all, interesting! It’s already drawing suspicion as it stands, so yes it will be fascinating to
see how it unfolds.
@StormzyinaTCup great post outlining the cold hard facts

I've seen some commentary about the validity of the letter. I'm going to wait and see, but there are some apparent discrepancies on the face of it (literally on the face of it). I think there will be some FOI requests being made by journalists to the NYPD.

Going back a moment to the vehicle swapping, what I don't understand is why??
Why , would they get out of a secured vehicle with blackout windows that the paps can't see or photograph through and jump into a very visible yellow cab with clear windows, in front of the very paps they are apparently trying not to be seen by??

Can someone explain what the actual point of this was ?

Because it seems bizarre if they really don't want to be seen or photographed!

There are a number of pictures of them riding around with the windows rolled down so the photographers can get a better shot!

Really???

Yes, the FOI might well be a useful route to finding out exactly what's gone on. Luckily, on the whole, the US has a greater expectation of openness than we do, and of course there's little chance of interference from the RF

In all the circumstances "wait and see" seems a wise approach, partly because of the endless "inconsistencies" we've already seen and also because the question of why there have been no arrests remains

Yes. When they came over for the Platinum Jubilee for starters. So all the evil racist Brits and British media could have a better look at them.

Also on the Whistler visit just gone.

If that's correct the Whistler open window's a bit of a surprise, Mymilkshake ... in Canada's winter temperatures a wide open window is hardly what you'd expect and it's not as if there'd been any lack of photo ops alreaxdy

Well if that's the case , they clearly do want to be photographed then!!!

It would be like me complaining someone is looking at me through my windows , whipping open the blinds and curtains and standing there waving!! 🙄

You can find it online @Puzzledandpissedoff . They wind down the windows and wave as they are slowly driving past onlookers situated at the Helly Hansen store.

My post on page 4 of this thread has the full current situation regarding 'the letter', as I understand it.

In summary, at the time of the NY car incident there was no-one at the NYPD with the job title of 'Chief of Intelligence'.

The person with the most similar job title is Thomas Galati. He was the 'Chief of Intelligence and Counterterrorism'. However he stood down in March 2023, so is unlikely to be sending letters about an investigation after he left, using an incomplete job title he no longer held.

Thomas Galati was replaced by Rebecca Weiner, whose job title is given as 'Deputy Commissioner, Intelligence & Counterterrorism'. As the judgment refers to the letter from the 'Chief of Intelligence' as 'he', it's not likely to be her (for absolute clarity, she uses female pronouns).

Some media reports have suggested the name of the person who sent the letter on behalf of the NYPD was John B. Hart. This name isn't mentioned in the judgment at all. If it was him, his job title is 'Commanding Officer - Intelligence Division'.

The FOI is asking for the copy of the letter that was produced in court to be released in full. It will clarify who from the NYPD sent the letter, and of course will also highlight if a clerical error was made in the judgment (for example by referring to 'he' instead of 'her', and using a non-existent job title).

The whole pap thing is pretty much why the Royal Rota exists to stop the mad scramble for pics. Media take it in turn at events and share the photos.
But Harry being Harry thought it was there to spite them and resented that system and wanted to be free to invite his own favoured media to his events and control it himself. As he must now realise this is an impossible task and a rota system is in fact a marvellous idea!