new channel 7 footage, page-14

THE agents responsible for the PM's security were clumsy in her extraction from a mob, writes Laurie Oakes.
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The angry mob that dashed from the tent embassy and surrounded the nearby Lobby Restaurant - shouting aggressively and pounding on the big glass windows after staff locked the doors - clearly threatened violence.

Police, especially the Federal agents responsible for Julia Gillard's personal security, were right to implement "rapid extraction" procedures to get our political leaders to safety.

But it has to be said that the operation could have been handled better. It was anything but copybook. Clumsy is the word that comes to mind.

It is obvious the first priority in such a situation has to be the safety of the Prime Minister.

But those assigned to the personal protection detail are told that maintaining as much dignity as possible for the PM is also important.

That is where Ms Gillard was let down.

"She should have walked out like a prime minister," an expert in the field said yesterday. "Instead, she looked like a frightened rag doll."

After all, there were not thousands of protesters - just a hundred or so.

ACT police should have been able to clear a path from the restaurant to the roadway so that the PM's security people could walk her to her car.

Forming a flying wedge around Ms Gillard and Mr Abbott and making them exit the restaurant at a run was unnecessary and smacked of panic.

And it pretty much guaranteed that a female Prime Minister wearing high heeled shoes would trip and fall, resulting in the kind of undignified coverage we have all seen in newspapers and on television.

But a bigger concern is that those responsible for the PM's security were apparently taken by surprise.

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/opinion/oakes-clumsy-response-to-mob/story-e6freakc-1226255673643