Buckingham Palace Protest
On September 13, 2004 at 14:20 BST, a group of Fathers 4 Justice protesters appeared outside the front gates of Buckingham Palace in London, and as the palace security was distracted, Jason Hatch and David Pyke, members of Fathers 4 Justice, ascended over the perimeter fence of the palace. Hatch, dressed as the fictional superhero Batman, and Pyke as sidekick Robin, unfurled a ladder and began climbing up to a roof of an attached building. Hatch made it to the top, but Pyke came down under threat from armed police. Hatch moved along the ledge of the Queen's Residence until he was near the palace balcony, when he revealed a banner which said "Super Dads of Fathers 4 Justice". He remained on the ledge for five hours until police were able to convince him to come down in a "cherry-picker" crane. Hatch was arrested for suspicion of causing criminal damage; Pyke was charged with aiding and abetting a criminal act.
Police initially thought the palace situation very serious, and were rumoured to have considered at one point firing at Hatch. However, they supposedly discarded that idea after deducing that Hatch was no threat to the royal family (none of whom were in the palace at the time).
In addition to being the group's latest major publicity stunt, reflecting F4J's view that the UK Government has so far failed to do anything to deal with the issues that the group is concerned about, it also incidentally was the latest event in a series which prominently displayed the dismal state of security around the royal family and government institutions.
The palace breach was clearly a very troubling issue to law enforcement agencies and to lawmakers. Liberal Democrat chairman Mark Oaten called the incident "at best highly embarrassing, and at worst could have had terrible consequences". David Davis, Conservative Shadow Home Secretary, described the breach of royal security as "scandalous incompetence".
Read more about this topic: Fathers 4 Justice Protests
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