[New] Industry News At A Glance

We cast our eye over the main stories impacting the security industry. Here's what's appeared on the radar since the last issue.

Trump Settles With Protesters Who Said His Bodyguards Attacked Them

Donald J. Trump on Wednesday reached a settlement in a civil case brought by protesters who said they were attacked by his bodyguards in 2015

In September 2015, in the early months of Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign for the presidency, the protesters staged a demonstration outside Trump Tower during which they said the candidate’s bodyguards violently attacked them. They said Mr. Trump himself was responsible, because he had explicitly authorized the bodyguards to use force. They also sued his company, the Trump Organization, and several guards.

A lawyer for the protesters, Benjamin N. Dictor, said, “The sidewalk belongs to the people, it doesn’t matter whose name is on the building. We think that today’s resolution confirms that.”

They said in their lawsuit that Mr. Trump’s longtime personal bodyguard, Keith Schiller, had taken one of their signs, ripped it to pieces, and then struck one of the protesters on the head. They said there had been other attacks from other, unnamed bodyguards.

Mr. Trump’s lawyers argued that Mr. Schiller had been doing his job and that it was he who had been attacked by the protesters.

Excerpts of Mr. Trump’s questioning under oath were made public in April. Asked about Mr. Schiller’s behavior on the day of the protest, Mr. Trump insisted that the bodyguard had done nothing wrong. “He went out — I didn’t know about it. But he went out, he heard there was a disturbance and he went out. And he took a 50-cent sign down that was racist,” he said.

Haitian politician & Bodyguard killed in apparent gang attack

Eric Jean Baptiste, lottery business magnate, and a bodyguard were killed in Laboule 12, a leafy hillside area in Port-au-Prince, after attackers opened fire on their vehicle, officials said. Jean Baptiste, 52, headed the center-left Assembly of Progressive National Democrats Party and once sought Haiti’s presidency. Ricardo Nordain, a party official, said Jean Baptiste’s armored vehicle flipped over when it was ambushed.

“He represented a lot,” Nordain said. “His assassination shows we do not have leadership in this country.”

Gangs have long had a presence in Haiti, but their power has grown in recent years amid a broader deterioration of democratic institutions and security conditions. United Nations agencies said this month that gang violence in the capital has displaced some 96,000 people and that gangs have used rape to terrorize the local population.

Roberson Alphonse, a well-known Haitian journalist with the newspaper Le Nouvelliste, was attacked in his car this week by armed assailants. He is recovering. In one of his last tweets, Jean Baptiste mentioned the attempt on Alphonse’s life.

“The life expectancy of people in Haiti is 24 hours,” he said. “Who will be next? Will he have the same luck?”

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US Supreme Court rejects appeal in case against Turkish president’s bodyguards

The US Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal to dismiss lawsuits against two of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s security staff who allegedly assaulted protesters outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence in Washington DC in 2017.

Turkey applied to lower courts requesting the cases be dismissed, citing immunity under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.

But the lower courts ruled that the the events in 2017 were not covered by the act, and that the lawsuits would go ahead under the Supreme Court’s ruling.

During Erdoğan’s visit to the United States in May 2017, a brawl broke out between Erdoğan’s supporters and -the mostly Kurdish- protesters. Two people were arrested for assault, while nine others were injured and taken to a hospital after the DC police unsuccessfully tried to separate the groups.

After the brawl between the Turkish President’s security and the proKurdish protesters drew international condemnation, DC officials issued warrants on assault charges.

Erdoğan responded to the charges by saying that the demonstrators were associated with terrorist organisations. “What kind of law is this?” he asked, “If my security guards cannot to protect me why would I bring them with me to America?”

The New York Times analysed the video of the incident and spotted that after the security chief leaned into the Turkish president’s car, he spoke into his earpiece, and three guards ran toward the Kurdish protestors.