Security theatre

One bit of fallout from Jeanette Archer’s stunning performance in front of 10 Downing St. on Saturday was a lively conversation about the identity of the bearded man in a grey sweatshirt who strode along behind Archer during the march.

He looked like a bodyguard, he acted like a bodyguard…but nobody seemed to know who he was. We put the question to the internet, and within hours were rewarded.

His name is James Zikic, and he is perhaps best known (to those who follow such things) as a former mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter.

[In case you were wondering, MMA is an extreme combat sport in which contestants are permitted to use the fighting techniques of wrestling and boxing but also those of martial arts such as kickboxing, judo, and karate. You’re welcome.]

As is so often the case, once we’d seen Zikic with Archer, we began noticing him everywhere.

Last September, he was one of Jon Wedger’s team of thugs bodyguards, who took exception to somebody questioning their boss, and roughed him up a bit.

Now granted, the victim in question was John Taylor, known to long-time readers of this blog as Scouser Fruitcake, and infamous for his threats to shoot the Hampstead dad, but still. There was some pushing and shoving, and Zikic does appear to have been involved.

Zikic has also guarded a woman named Hatun Tash, a Turkish-Christian evangelical preacher who works with an organisation called “Defend Christ Critique Islam” (DCCI) and who was assaulted during one of her provocative anti-Muslim rants at Speakers’ Corner. This prompted Tommy Robinson to attend Speakers’ Corner a few weeks later, where he was arrested for violating Covid-19 regulations.

Zikic guards Hatun Tash, ca. 2020

Tash herself was removed from Speakers’ Corner by police last month, as seen in this totally balanced and not-at-all anti-Muslim video:

Zikic makes no secret of his anti-Muslim beliefs. Here, he sports a t-shirt with the logo “Dweck Nawsha”, a reference to a Christian military organisation founded in Iraq in 2014 to combat ISIL. The militia, always tiny and rarely active, was disbanded last year according to the Assyrian Policy Institute.

What can we say? He liked the t-shirt so much, he got the jacket too!

Zikic is a principal in an actual honest-to-goodness security company, Halo Security Specialists, founded last year by Halsho Draey, who also seems to have experience as a “cage fighter”. It does seem logical that retired professional fighters would go into the bodyguard biz once their time in the ring and/or cage is done.

Certainly, Zikic’s professional description sounds impressive:

Yes, you read that right: Zikic has acted as David Icke’s bodyguard. In fact, here’s some footage of Zikic ushering Icke away from the crowds at a recent demonstration in Trafalgar Square:

As we say, this guy gets around.

But wait! There’s more…

However, Zikic is not the only security specialist at Jeanette Archer’s beck and call.

A couple of months ago, she posted a warning to those who might stand in her way:

In addition to Zikic, she named Dan Young and Jay Fernandez as part of her security/surveillance team.

Why Young should need this kind of weaponry is anybody’s guess.

Young, who seems fascinated with guns and pseudo-military paraphernalia, was named by Archer in a recorded message:

All right darling…the other thing I’d say is don’t tag Dan into these things because he is the worst when it comes to protecting me, and I want his focus to stay on what he’s doing, i.e. the surveillance stuff, all right? He will jump in if need be as you know, like he did with Louise Dickens, and he will cut the fuckers down. But all the other bits [inaudible] that me and you deal with, don’t tag him in, because he can’t be distracted too much like that. He’s a whole other kettle of fish, mate, that one. But I know how to manage our Dan. So erm, yeah, we will deal with these things. 

Well, that’s a roaring vote of confidence, isn’t it?

Jay Fernandez, the third member of Archer’s security and surveillance team, is a common-or-garden conspiracy theorist who refers to himself on Facebook as an “occult researcher”. He’s posted pictures of himself—at least it seems to be him—clad in surveillance LARPing gear, and toting what looks like a firearm:

Now, all of this raises an important question: why does Jeanette Archer require any sort of security or surveillance teams in the first place?

Actually, those are probably two separate questions, so we’ll look at the surveillance bit first.

Some of our readers might remember a conversation between Sharon Gale and Louise Dickens, in which Dickens related a story of being dragged out to a cemetery on Hallowe’en night by Wilfred Wong, to watch for the Satanists he was certain would be cavorting there. Or whatever Satanists do in cemeteries on Hallowe’en.

To everybody’s utter shock, absolutely nothing happened, except that Louise got mightily cold and bored.

Worst. Date. Ever.

But we were reminded of that story when we saw these photos of Zikic:

It looks as if Dickens and Wong weren’t the only people lurking about on Hallowe’en, hoping to intercept wrong-doers and stop them in their tracks.

And who else remembers Jon Wedger passing the hat last year, trying to raise money to buy night vision goggles? Is this what they were for? If so, are these people playing spy on public land, or are they attempting to invade the privacy of those they suspect of having Satanist leanings?

The more we looked into this, the more questions we had. What we do know, though, is that Archer and Wedger seem to be in control of a small group of people who are armed and ready for a fight.

It’s not a comforting thought.