Anthony Kiedis incident. Your take?

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AlexisInfectious®

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Anthony Kiedis fight with Bodyguard - YouTube

So, the lead singer of Red Hot Chilli Peppers is told by security not to enter the hotel, but he ignores the order and tries to enter anyway, which results in a fight.

The reaction by most people (both in the comments and the scene itself) is along the lines of mocking the guards for "not realizing" who he was. EDIT: Sorry for sucking at giving context. The guards didn't have anything to do with him. They were hired to protect the Rolling Stones, who were scheduled to leave shortly after; they didn't know the RHCP were staying too.

I can't help but side with them in this case. So what if he's the vocalist of RHCP? They were doing their job, and it frightens me to think that the average person considers celebrities to be above the rules. I find the constant screams of "He's the lead singer of the RHCP!!!" annoying. Is that supposed to make the guards stop? If you look at the beginning of the video, by all accounts Anthony acted like an idiot. It's not clear but I think you can see him sucker punch the first guard out of nowhere.

What do you think?
 
What is the context of the situation? Were the guards out there trying to keep fans or random people from entering during prep for an event that involved the guy in question? If so then the guards failed at doing their job because they didn't recognize somebody that should have been allowed to pass.

The guy who stopped him also just looked like a guy in a suit to me. If I were a celebrity and wasn't expecting to be stopped for simply walking into a building I would certainly be suspicious of some random guy trying to stop me. If that's the case then I think his actions were appropriate for what he was thinking. As soon as the easily identifiable police came into the situation it diffused almost instantly other then the calming down part involving the guy in question yelling about the man in the suit putting his hands on him.
 
Sorry for not giving context.

What I gather from reading around is that the Rolling Stones were also staying at the same hotel. They were scheduled to leave at that point and the guards had orders to not let anybody in until the Rolling Stones left. No, they weren't involved with the RHCP and Anthony didn't have permission to enter.

You have a point about the guard being hard to identify wearing a suit only. However, his body language wasn't confrontational (hands up, trying to explain). It appears that the singer went straight for him.
 
I think it's ridiculous that they shut off a building to let celebrities leave

I've been in a couple situations providing security and one thing I've noticed is that 1.) You have to look the part and 2.) You have to demand that role with how you project yourself. Being that I was in military uniform in most of these instances I obviously looked the part. However, there are still a lot of people that will ignore you or attempt to move by you if you don't demand acknowledgment through how you voice yourself and your body language. There are very few people who will try to push past you beyond that, and that's when physical intervention takes place.

The security guard in a suit in that video had a "please listen to me sir, I need your attention" rather than a "Hey, I'm security, stop right now" attitude in body/verbal language. In my opinion the security guard didn't look the part and also didn't take authority resulting in the situation.

Regardless of that I do think the commentators comments were all dumb. I'm sure that was paparazzi though, and I doubt they live in the same world the rest of us do.
 
Yep the interaction between Anthony and the guard isn't precisely crystal clear. It may be that either of them is wrong.

What bothers me is people with the notion that the celebrity is right by default. Good point about them being possibly paparazzi.
 
If you're going to close off the entrance to a hotel, you have to close off the entrance to the hotel. You can't have one guy in a suit trying to corral people.

If some guy had tried to prevent me from entering my hotel by getting in my face, I'd have reacted badly too.
 
It looks like ye olde classic misunderstanding to me.

However... my question is who is old mate in the white shirt and baseball cap that gets bundled quite neatly into the suitcase trolley? If it's Anthony Keidis' bodyguard, nice work there.... not.

paul
 
The singer was told not to enter and he got what he deserved. I don't agree with shutting everyone out so the Stones can leave, but he was expected to behave like every other person trying to enter.
 
So if some random guy in a suit got up in your face and tried to physically prevent you from entering a hotel you are paying to stay at, you'd be totally fine with that?

If there was a barricade that Kiedis had to cross, then yes, but there was no indication that I could see to suggest the hotel was closed or that the security guy who accosted him was acting in any official capacity.
 
Seems like Chilli Pepper was a bit too fiery. If a guy tries to stop you going somewhere, it's generally good manners to hear him out before you try and punch him. He might be telling you there's an anthrax outbreak in the lobby.
 
If some random guy in a suit tries to prevent me to enter a hotel, I don't punch him in the face.

I will demand an explanation, figure out if he's legit, and otherwise call the police (which were waiting 20 steps away mind you).
 
If you come to a place that belongs to other people and are asked not to enter, you do not enter. If you doubt the identity of the person asking, you verify. You don't ignore him, you don't try to force past, and you certainly don't attack him. Even if you're operating on the assumption that this is a setup for an attack, the best route is to get out, not escalate.

Seriously, he appears to have been asked at least three times. The guard didn't 'get up in his face'. He was using passive body language and standing in the way. Kiedis closed the distance, escalated and initiated the physical altercation.

It's certainly not just celebrities that react dismissively or defensively to instructions from the employees of the establishments they're in.

And it's definitely reasonable to shut down traffic to let high-profile people through. Not because they deserve special treatment, but because mobs of fans and paparazzi are collectively stupid and dangerous. That's totally separate from the risk of deliberate attacks and the cover a crowd provides for the setup.

And Ero's nailed it on the body language. It makes an enormous difference to the monkey-brained types who will attempt to dismiss and socially dominate anyone who threatens their perceived control. It's an insecurity issue and generally when their display fails they fear to push it further, but if they feel that they're "winning", they'll never quit.

The only issue I have is that many private establishments (especially low-risk "service" oriented ones like hotels) discourage or outright discipline assertive behavior from security personnel as they perceive it as a threat to business. Shutting down disruptive or hostile patrons generates complaints as these types will generally attempt to "get the last word". These complaints are often perceived by management not as a disruption stopped but as lost business. So order maintenance tends to take a backseat to "customer service". I have seen places where even standing in the way as this guard did would have been grounds for disciplinary action, especially since it ended in violence.
 
But was it clear that the guard was a guard empolyed by the hotel?
It could just as easily have been a bodyguard for the stones, who decided that they wanted to keep everybody out. And in that case, the guy would have had zero authority.
 
I bet you 20:1 that a couple of these security guards lose their jobs, no matter who was in the right.
 
Even if it was and Kiedis knew it, his reaction was absolutely out of line. Hell, the situation would likely have been over well before he could get someone with proper authority to remedy it. And even if the guy was employed by the Stones, that doesn't mean the hotel didn't authorize the shutdown.

Bottom line is, don't act like a chimp when asked not to do something, even if you feel like you should be able to do the thing.
 
Well done to him for refusing to listen to the security, its VERY IMPORTANT that no one is treated better than anyone else. the rolling stones deserve no special treatment over anyone. Even if it was royalty I would refuse to wait for them. they are human beings no more no less.
 
Say whaaat?
What if, instead of the Rolling Stones, they were trying to evacuate an injured person and wanted to have a clear exit?
What if a child had gone missing and they wanted to keep things under to control to stop people leaving and entering?
Bomb threat?
Flood?
Gas leak?
Gun-man on the loose?
Just sheer logistics of handling crowds and crushes means that it's stupid to go blundering into a situation just on principal.
The Rolling stones deserve no special treatment but the potential hoards of people there to see them certainly do.
And actually...given events like Mark Chapman/John Lennon and the various stalkers we here about famous people do actually deseve special treatment.

While I agree with your principal here (I wouldn't bow to the Queen for example) you can't blanket act the same way in all situations.
 
That's a fair point but you know I meant people who just want to have special treatment as they think they deserve it for no other reason that than some lapdog told them they are more important than other people, ie rock stars/royalty/ politicians
 
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