[Noisebridge-discuss] Sat night: There's good crazy & not-so-good crazy

[Danny O'Brien]

That is a great mail, I'm really a lot clearer on what happened; thank you
for writing it.

Everyone dropped the ball on the sleeping problem when Al went on hiatus --
I take responsibility for that (not least because I was cranky at Al just
before he went on hiatus). I think we need to do the regular nightly
checkins as you say, before things get out of control.

Not having a known way to call for backup is very bad. I'm hacking up
something so that people can call a bunch of people if necessary, and I'll
make that number clear (somehow!) in the space.

Finally, I should say that if there's someone that everyone wants to leave
the space, is being belligerent and refusing, and you don't have the
resources to enforce it, that's absolutely when I think calling the police
is appropriate.

d.

On Sun, Sep 4, 2011 at 9:06 PM, Just Duncan <justduncan at gmail.com> wrote:

> Things have slowly been getting crazier this week, escalating
> to the police being called last night.
>
> In order descending order of severity and risk are:
>
> (1)  Jay (J?) who is belligerent, disclosed he has schizophrenia but
> won't take medications for it, has auditory hallucinations, paranoid
> delusions, and has basically moved into Noisebridge every night and
> day.  He disappeared for a few days last week and then reappeared with
> scrapes and cuts to his face, saying he had been arrested and beat up
> by police for doing "mime" in Union Square, was 5150'd at SF General, and
> "escaped" (his claim) when the drugs they had injected him with wore off.
> The tipping point is that he drinks heavily and generally sees NB as a
> place to come by, get smashed and party, interrupt work, ramble on with
> his latest drama, and swing from being civil to belligerent and
> threatening.
>
> Last night he was very intoxicated and, as I sat next to Kayla on the
> couch eating a burrito and enjoying the 1 beer I got with it, he came
> over to get a laptop off the table and wanted to apologize for an
> outburst he had at me earlier.  All fine and good until he decided he
> wanted a hug from me, comes over into me sitting down after I'd verbally
> thanked
> but declined, stumbles on a power cord, and drunkenly slurs/knocks into
> me...
> knocking the newly opened beer in my hand and splashing it all into the
> keyboard of  Kayla's Macbook Pro laptop.  Seeing it was his intoxication
> that had
> caused it, Kayla was furious as her computer was dead by appearance.
> She called the police and went downstairs to wait for them with Ramon.
> Prior to leaving, Ramon talked with Rolf about asking J to leave and
> Rolf asked if I would assist.  I agreed.  Alex was also enlisted and
> very rigid about the police not coming in.  I went down to find Kayla to
> see if that would work for her, but she and Ramon had gone down to 17th
> street to find police and were no where to be found.
>
> Returning upstairs, NB was clearly emptying out.  Alex said he was about to
> leave with Stephen and Mek, said it was then or never.  We all agreed and
>  J was asked to leave... which turned into him becoming belligerent,
> refusing to leave.  Meanwhile, I left them them trying to convince him to
> leave and was
> pulled to go down stairs to handle another person of concern.  This was
> successful and is detailed below.*
>
> Returning upstairs again, it was clear that Alex, Ramon, Rolf et al. had
> failed.  I was going to stay, but frankly didn't/don't feel safe being alone
> at NB with him.  I left, only to encounter the police outside with Ramon,
> Mek, Stephen, Kayla, and Alex.
> Kayla wanted them to remove him and get his name for her; she called the
> police.  Alex didn't want police to come up stairs, even though there
> was no way to remove him and he, himself, had failed to remove him.  The
> officers were an older-school/rookie-- but even the older-school had the new
> police view of "look, we know you're a collective and you don't
> want outside involvement ever.  Unless someone is dead, you can't have
> it both ways and we're very hesitant to go inside until you've all
> consensused on it and agreed to let us come in."  The younger rookie was
> clearly new and naive, telling Kala to file a claim under her renters
> policy or her parents homeowner policy... i.e. he had no clue that
> people might not have such things.  I proposed the compromise between
> everyone (Alex, Kayla, police) that we were OK for now, but if we needed
> help further would call them back.  Kala left upset that when a person
> calls for police help from inside Noisebridge that "police" aren't
> allowed in when things are out of control. Neither she nor I are any
> great fans of the PD, but they do have times and places where they are
> appropriate.
>
> Moreover, no one here knew who to call (e.g. a Board Member).  This was
> very frustrating as J stayed the night and is still here when I came
> back at 10 this morning.  The man is quasi-psychotic, is almost always
> wearing a knit cap for id., paranoid, and clueless... he was playing
> punk acid rock in the kitchen Friday night on the laptop, even after
> Rolf politely asked him to turn in down.  I, personally, do not feel
> safe with him in the space... and some basic level of personal security
> is-- per Milo's argument at last week's meeting-- in my view, a
> reasonable expectation of NB, along with the door working and Internet
> access.
>
>
> (2) Some guy named "Evan (aka Taemon?... "I'm the new guy that brought
> beer!" at 3pm on Wednesday) has recently been showing up and always
> with alcohol in tow.  Just for the record, I've got no problem with
> alcohol (I had some of one last night with my burrito), or other
> substance usage.  It is only a problem if people are using it and not
> taking responsibility for their behavior and others in the space.
> Getting angry or choosing vent frustrations with others while
> intoxicated isn't productive; having the judgment to know when it is
> best if they remove themselves from the space is.  I'm particularly
> bad, personally, at reading the difference between trolling and anger
> with someone who intoxicated or in a different "reality" space than
> myself.  "Taemon" was a pure accelerant to J's drinking/drugging & general
> craziness/instability the other night.  Both were loud,
> constantly inserting themselves into conversations not involving them,
> while saying nothing of relevance. Taemon has spent the night both times
> I've seen him this
> week; I woke him on the couch at 11am this morning.
>
> As someone who uses the space  nearly every day, this week has been
> a difficult one given the absences  due to Burning Man, greatly reduced
> presence of Robert 1.0, the "squatting" over-night by the above, and yet a
> steady stream of new guests and potential members.  I've stepped up to
> giving tours. I love
> and cherish this space, understand and know first hand that change is
> constant in life, and think Noisebridge is getting better every day.  I
> put at least an hour every morning into cleaning, do my best to do the
> "are you new to NB?" and "what are you working on?" questions, and
> encourage
> some sense of maintenance routine to keep going.  It is all good, though I
> do
> look forward to the return of others (members or not) who can help out
> with these things so I can put more time into working on the various
> projects that are demanding my time and attention.  Lately, this
> includes not only the wallets, but building a website/store, settling
> an insurance claim for my backpack stolen in June.
>
> On the positive side, I have probably given at least 25 tours this week
> and fundraising donations seem to be coming in.  The Noisebridge WW are
> also selling, 100% to the NB General Fund.  Also, Ed, has been  week
> and really helped launch an attack on the fruit fly situation.  Best of
> all, he has a particularly wonderful talent for cranking out totally
> AMAZING PIZZA!  omyn, yom, yom!  Joergen has also done some culinary
> wonders this week.  Best of all, both of these people and most people
> around this week have really pitched in and worked hard to not only get
> the place relatively cleaner, but to keep it that way.
>
> Lest this be taken as NB being "all weird and scary," let me be clear:  It
> is not.  If anything, from what I've observed over the past 3 months, it is
> becoming more excellent every week.  The vast majority of what's going on at
> Noisebridge is awesome, outstanding, fantastic, and positive.  People are
> what make this such an excellent space/community.  Nevertheless, Noisebridge
> *is* a part of the community around it and, I think, evolving for the good
> because of this.  If you are curious, want to learn, want to create, want to
> share & contribute, want to be able to do something more than covering the
> basic needs of existence... then Noisebridge is for you.  The only concern
> is that what before seeming to a few outliers has been creeping lately into
> regularity.
>
> I thus raise this issue with the following statements in mind:
> -Communication is leadership.
> -Problems are easiest to solve early and small vs. later and huge;
> Prevention is best.
> -No growth or change is possible until everyone admits the truth of the
> reality of a situation.
> -Groups working together can generally find better solutions than
> individuals acting alone.
> -This is an opportunity to improve, not a call to isolate.
>
> Noisebridge is an awesome environment/space/community
> and one that I am passionate about sharing and contributing to.
>
> Peace and thank you,
>
>
> Duncan (the Weightless Wallet guy)
>
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>
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