[Noisebridge-discuss] Safety

[Matt Joyce]

Coming from "super" exclusive nycr ( and as such NYC )... but more
importantly, as a well... me, I will say this.  Picking out the crazies
isn't too hard.  Whether it's walking alone on a street at 3 am, or just
hanging out in team noisebridge most of us have some pretty awesome
vestigial animal instincts.  You just gotta listen to em and act on them
responsibly.

It's not too hard to spot someone who is really straight up off.  And if
that just means firing of some "hey I need an assist' message.  Do so.
Better safe than sorry, and no one can / should fault you for that.  If you
are in real trouble people will respond.  Just let em know.  But odds are
you have some room to work with.  If it ends up being nothing at all, that's
okay too.  Don't be embarrassed.  It's perfectly okay to edge on the side of
caution so long as you do so responsibly.

Staying calm is vital.  Not just for you, but as stated earlier... it keeps
them at ease as well.  The idea is to avoid escalation.. as it is in any
conflict.  Emanate calm, and emanate authority.   Easier to do when you
actually believe in yourself... so do that.  No regrets and such.  Once you
are in that zone, you can't be better than the situation.  You have done the
best you can.

While mental illness is tragic, it is also sometimes ( luckily not very
often ) dangerous.  Not just to you, but to others ( including the person
who is ill ).  Don't be afraid to take action.  As I said before, regret is
a pretty horrible thing, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting
the best for people.  Road to hell and such being paved with good intentions
is so much bullshit.  You do the best you can with what you have.  If you
have done that, you've done nothing wrong.

Most police / emergency services have experience dealing with folks who are
unstable.  Sometimes there is the rare exception, but as it turns out, in
cities like NYC and SFO this is pretty much their bread and butter.  They
tend to have a pretty good understanding of the situation and are total
professionals about it.  Try to have some faith in your fellow man.  EMTs
especially deserve your trust here.  They know what's possible and will do
the best they can.

It sucks that things like schizophrenia exist.  A good friend of mine was
diagnosed with it out of college.  There are treatments, but there are no
cures.  It's a horrible thing to see someone go through.  Don't mistake it
for some "alternate perspective".  It is a horrible illness that hurts
people, and the people that care about them.  You do what you can, but you
learn pretty early on, that there is only so much you can do.  And while
that is gut wrenching, it's just one more hurdle we've yet to jump and we'll
just have to suffer it.

Be careful always, but as I said earlier, regret sucks hard.  Don't put
yourself in that position.  Do what you think is right, and hope it works
out for the best.  If you get that far, you should be fine regardless of the
outcome.





On Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 8:59 PM, Sai <noisebridge at saizai.com> wrote:

> On Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 2:46 PM, Thomas Stowe <stowe.thomas at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > From an outsider (me), I'd say that any person you didn't recognize would
> be
> > "new" and if they stated that they didn't need help, either they'd be
> lying
> > or a member. You could always ask their name as they come in if you
> didn't
> > recognize them on the camera and check a registry.
>
> I think that this is unlikely to work. We tend to be, if anything, a
> bit rabid about the whole privacy thing. (Remember the flamefest over
> the idea that there might be logging of who visits when?) I'm on the
> moderate side, but even I'd be a bit creeped out by that.
>
> Also, people could easily be new but not need help, which is a tertium
> quid you neglected. Not everybody wants a tour / project / whatever
> when they come in. I think it's friendly to notice people who look
> new, ask if they've been by before and if they'd like a tour or a
> project to work on.
>
> But as a security measure? Not really.
>
> Really, this is one of those things about the NB model of openness;
> since we're against pre-screening we have to just deal with shit as it
> comes up.
>
> Which, y'know, is surprisingly rare considering how trusting we are
> (e.g. basically anyone can come in and use expensive, dangerous,
> and/or fragile tools without us even knowing their name). There've
> been, what, maybe four or so incidents in the last two years, and all
> of them handled quickly and relatively easily?
>
> Most people are pretty awesome, IME. That welcomeness is worth the
> cost of enforcement-after-the-fact.
>
> - Sai
>
> PS Your sig is still lulzy.
>
> Notice: Unless you are named "Arnold P. Fasnock", you may read only
> the "odd numbered words" (every other word beginning with the first)
> of the message above. If you have violated that, then you hereby owe
> the sender $10 for each even numbered word you have read.
> _______________________________________________
> Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.noisebridge.net/pipermail/noisebridge-discuss/attachments/20100920/3cf09196/attachment-0003.html>