[Noisebridge-discuss] Late night noisebridge, not so great for working anymore.

Wed Dec 19 07:18:47 UTC 2012

I was there last night for some highlights of the drunk guy's belligerent
rampage in the space. I couldn't take him seriously enough to consider him
a threat, but then he wasn't messing with me, he was focusing all his
hostility on one person (you, Finny, it must've been...unless there were
two such drunken rampages in one night, which is certainly possible). I was
trying to work on something requiring intense focus, & was annoyed that, as
so often happens @ NB, my attention was being diverted from my work to
dealing with yet another imbecile's juvenile behavior. (Not an isolated
incident, I'm sorry to say.) I apologize for not taking a role in defending
the space & yourself as well as all of us trying to work from that fella's
escalating antics. I was on the verge of doing so, asking myself "do I want
to man up & be a good Noisebridge protector & possibly get involved in a
physical confrontation right now - because if I decide I'm going to
confront somebody in that state, it's gotta be a strong confrontation.
Can't I just keep zinemaking, ignore it & let other people's bullshit work
itself out?"

That was the easier path & the one I chose last night.  My conscience
bugged me about it even before you posted this message. I will try to be a
better protector in the near future. I remember at one point you even said
something like "doesn't everyone hear what this guy's saying & aren't you
going to do anything?" My response was to try to use humor to defuse the
situation, a transformative magic trick I specialize in but one that, alas,
doesn't work well with drunkards spoiling for a bar brawl, who tend to just
get more angry & assume you're laughing at them. (Which you are, but so
much more cleverly than they understand.) I was also rattled yesterday from
hearing about the Connecticut incident, & then the thing with Raised By
Wolves (my nickname) being evicted from the space - twice in the space of a
few days - & threatening to kill everyone, if I heard that correctly from
Josh yesterday. (Flashbacks to Jon & the incident last year that led to the
LOCKING OF THE GATE.) This is a rambling tangential attempt to say Sorry,
to you Finny, I was on your side, the guy was being an asshole, he was out
of control, & next time I will step in to say so & let the jerk know NB
isn't a place for him to come piss on the couches & start shit with people.
If necessary we will show him out for the night. Whenever someone asks for
help they should have help from the good people in the space.
Confrontations should be done collectively & I will participate when called
on to do so, because there may be a time when I need that backup as well.
Three or five people is a lot harder to defy or intimidate than one.

+11+

On Tue, Dec 18, 2012 at 9:42 PM, Andrew Byrne <andrew at pachakutech.com>wrote:

> If I could "like" an e-mail, I would do that here. Instead, I will respond
> with a
>
> word.
> -AnB
>
> On Wed, Dec 19, 2012 at 12:26 PM, Jake <jake at spaz.org> wrote:
>
>> I heard about this and the person described was doing the same thing
>> before.  I ask that anyone who sees that person to tell them to leave and
>> not come back until they come to a meeting to talk about it.  Don't wait
>> for them to get drunk, or for it to get late, but do consider gathering a
>> couple of people with you who know enough about the situation to agree with
>> you.
>>
>> If you see this person, go around the space and find other people who
>> know about the problem.  Ask them to join with you to tell the person that
>> they must leave until the next meeting.  If the person refuses, please do
>> not give up.  They are trying to wear you down, but they will fail.
>>  Continue to insist that they leave until the next meeting at which time
>> they can challenge your request for them to leave.
>>
>> A few weeks ago a problem person was confronted by three people.  This
>> person raised their voice and expressed that we had no right to kick them
>> out, even though the meeting was the next night.  Eventually others came to
>> see what the fuss was about and they could clearly see that this person was
>> being unreasonable.  The problem personsaw that more and more people were
>> united in seeing this confrontation come to a reasonable end and they
>> eventually gave up, after insulting everyone but complying with the demand
>> that they give up their key.
>>
>> they did not come back for the meeting, thank god.
>>
>> it is necessary to make the space a better place, indeed to keep it from
>> becoming crappy, to do these difficult things and confront the problems.
>> There is no way around it.
>>
>> Nobody is asking you to confront a problem person by yourself, but rather
>> to go around and find others who agree that it is a problem, and get some
>> of them to join you (the others give their sitting support to your action)
>> and confront the person with a group of at least three.
>>
>> The person mentioned below has used up their chances and should be made
>> to leave the next time they show up at the space.  They can come back to a
>> meeting to talk about it if they so choose.
>>
>> -jake
>>
>>
>>
>> Robert "Finny" Merrill wrote:
>> I went to NB for the first time in quite a while last night, and
>> around 10 or 11 I think, I noticed that there seemed to be a lot of
>> drunkenness and rowdy socializing going on. I'm not an enemy of
>> drunkenness and rowdy socializing, but one particular individual
>> (whose name iirc was Jessie, and was a friend of someone else named
>> Martin) was rather sloshed and repeatedly approached me, interrupted
>> what I was doing and spewed rather rude insults at me because I was
>> trying to get work done instead of getting drunk like him (I am not
>> kidding, he actually said "I am offended by the fact that you guys
>> aren't drunk"). Whenever someone tried to tell him his behavior was
>> inappropriate, he responded by insulting them and what they were
>> doing, trying to fight them, and throwing small objects around the
>> space.
>>
>> I observed several people get up from their work and leave as a direct
>> result of this.
>>
>> I did not feel comfortable kicking him out because I did not think he
>> would respond to anything short of threats to call the police, and as
>> a non-member I have no legal standing to have someone removed from the
>> space.
>>
>> Also, several other people in the space defended his conduct, one in
>> particular saying that I should just deal with it and that I should
>> take his insults as, in her words "constructive criticism".
>>
>> I feel like while most people who drink and socialize in the space are
>> not disruptive, the fact that drinking and socializing are so
>> tolerated leads people like this to believe their actions are okay. I
>> think we need to make it clear that if you are not working, you should
>> at the very least not be bothering people who are.
>>
>> -Finny
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>>
>
>
>
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-- 
*You should read my diaries after I die—I talk about you a lot in there.*
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