[Noisebridge-discuss] Unwelcome person at noisebridge

Mon Sep 20 17:31:27 UTC 2010

I think it's important to remember that while schizoid personalities can be
very upsetting, especially to those of us whose interpersonal toolkit is
built primarily around rational discourse, they're very rarely actually
dangerous; as the saying goes, they're more afraid of you than you are of
them.  Being calm, giving clear instruction, and remembering that talking
rationally won't make them more rational (just like talking louder won't
make someone understand english) are all helpful, as is hanging onto a sense
of whimsy.

Dr. Bobby in particular response to Authority; in this case, the fact that I
happened to be wearing a tie probably helped.  He seemed to respond to
gentle persuasion by attempting to express Authority -- a straightforward
dominance play:  If you're not telling him what to do, he will try to tell
you what to do.

I'm not sure that there's anything that we can do to prevent having crazy
people in the space, except making the space more tightly filtered -- and
that does not seem worth the price to me.

--S

On Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 12:18 AM, Michael Ashmore <motomike at gmail.com>wrote:

> Hm. So a weakness of hackerspaces, from a threat modeling perspective,
> appears to be the injection of undesirable personalities / the mentally ill.
> Like, what the fuck do you do about those guys?
>
> I mean, seriously.
>
> Makes you remember what locks were originally invented for. Freaky, huh?
>
> -Moto
>
> On Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 12:05 AM, Robert Fletcher <lobatifricha at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> I did say kicked out.  Three of us went over to him and told him that he
>> was being very disruptive and that he'd have to leave.  He said he'd be
>> quiet and that he was leaving soon anyway.  He stuck his head in a book and
>> we went back to what we were doing.  Within a few minutes he was back
>> riffling through boxes and making weird gestures and comments.  We got back
>> up and told him he had to go or we would call the cops.  After some bustling
>> about ("I have to run to the bathroom", "Is this mine? I'm not sure if I
>> brought this...", "Let me check on the bottom side of this chair to see if
>> anything of mine is under there.") we finally convinced him that it was safe
>> to leave and escorted him out the front door.  Thankfully it was a peaceful
>> encounter, if prolonged and particularly awkward.
>>
>>
>> On Sun, Sep 19, 2010 at 11:26 PM, Neil Kandalgaonkar <neilk at brevity.org>wrote:
>>
>>> On 9/19/10 10:29 PM, Robert Fletcher wrote:
>>>
>>>> We kicked someone by a similar description out of Noisebridge Saturday
>>>> afternoon.
>>>>
>>>
>>> I assume you meant to say "kicked out".
>>>
>>> How did you remove him?
>>>
>>>
>>>   He was climbing on desks, rooting through boxes, ranting at
>>>> no one in particular and generally making a nuisance of himself.  He was
>>>> clearly beyond the level of imbalance we typically see at the space and
>>>> seemed to be a danger to himself and others.  He was wearing a hospital
>>>> gown and a skirt around his waist, neither of which hid much.  I gather
>>>> his name is Robert (Bobby) Owens.  Others said they have seen him at the
>>>> space before, though he seemed more subdued and sane on prior occasions.
>>>>
>>>> --Fletch
>>>>
>>>> On Sun, Sep 19, 2010 at 9:45 PM, Hephaestus <hephaestus at antipunk.net
>>>> <mailto:hephaestus at antipunk.net>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>    As we were leaving 2169 tonight, a man was coming into the space who
>>>>    was obviously unwelcome. Several members asked me to escort him out
>>>> of
>>>>    the space, and when I tried he got very hostile, loud, and
>>>> disruptive.
>>>>    Some members were obviously afraid of this man, and he was behaving
>>>> in
>>>>    an agressive manner while following them around the space very
>>>>    closely. When he failed to leave after several requests, we called
>>>> the
>>>>    police. The police eventually arrived, exclaiming 'NOT YOU AGAIN!',
>>>>    and quickly escorted him away.
>>>>
>>>>    He is 5'9, approximately 160lbs, Caucasian, balding white hair
>>>> trimmed
>>>>    very short, in his early to mid 50's, wearing an olive drab jacket, a
>>>>    yellow tie-died dress, brown cut off pants, flip flops, and a pastel
>>>>    blue baseball cap with a pink flower on it. If anybody got a picture
>>>>    it'd be helpful.
>>>>
>>>>      He is the person Shannon had to remove the other morning. Is he the
>>>>    person who showed up this morning without pants?
>>>>
>>>>    (p.s. Rubin, I fully expect you to carry out your threat to 'punch
>>>> the
>>>>    next person who calls the police to noisebridge.' It was me.)
>>>>
>>>>    --
>>>>    Hephaestus
>>>>    _______________________________________________
>>>>    Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
>>>>    Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
>>>>    <mailto:Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net>
>>>>
>>>>    https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
>>>> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
>>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Neil Kandalgaonkar  |) <neilk at brevity.org>
>>>
>>
>>
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>>
>
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-- 
Shannon Lee
(503) 539-3700

"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science."
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