[Noisebridge-discuss] Theft at NoiseBridge

[Jake]

I think the most helpful thing people can do is learn firsthand what 
happened in these two incidents.  I have learned a lot and I think things 
were definitely handled excellently.

The thief tried to escape after being caught taking the wallet, and he was 
physically blocked football style.  He did not throw punches or use any 
physical force that I saw intended to injure, only to escape.  When he 
made it to the top stair, and Robert was on the second stair, there was a 
danger of one or both of them falling, but they were pulled back into the 
space.

If that guy had used violence (which I feel he did not) I think we would 
have called the police.  But I would not have objected to calling the 
police on him anyway, especially since he did not give back Sasha's phone 
even though we were telling him we would let him go if he returned 
everything.  I had to reach into his pocket and take out the phone, since 
he wouldn't admit it was there.  Did i mention he was a crackhead?

In both incidents we had the advantage of a large number of people 
standing by to intervene when necessary;  ten on one makes force less 
important.  There will come a day when someone gets caught stealing and 
there are not enough people (who are alert and willing) to stop them from 
leaving with stuff.

I think the best thing we can do is be aware, spread the stories around 
(they are good stories) and hope that enough people are ready when the 
next thing happens.  Oh, and fix the gate.

As for the second incident, which happened yesterday, it had very little 
to do with theft and everything to do with mental breakdown.  Some of us 
are familiar with schizophrenic/bipolar episodes and are more prepared to 
deal with that kind of thing, although I must say it took me a minute to 
realize what was going on yesterday.  But it won't be the last time this 
kind of thing happens.  There may not be much we can do in that situation 
except avoid losing the key to the laser, keeping the person having the 
breakdown from getting Tazered, and keeping ourselves from getting too 
messed up by the whole thing.

I think we all did our best in both situations, given what we knew at the 
time.  That means that we will do better next time, whether theif or 
cuckoo, if we can learn from what has recently happened.

-jake

Ever Falling wrote:

i think it would be massively helpful if people knew clear guidelines on 
how to carry out a citizens arrest and detain someone if the extreme case 
ever arose so the perpetrator can be properly handed off to the police. It 
would be good to know what can and can't be done with people being 
violent, destructive, or overly disruptive in the space past a round of 20 
questions.