Re: Constables, warfare, and politics...

[Corun MacAnndra <corun@access.digex.net>]

Poster: Corun MacAnndra <corun@access.digex.net>

Rick wrote:
>
>Greetings good gentles of Atlantia,
>
>*How is security at large events handled? All untrained volunteers? Does
>not the BOD require constables? Forgive my ignorance I am yet a "novice"
>in the Society. Has there ever been a problem at an event worthy of
>discussing?

First you have to understand what we consider a large event. Most local
events contain at best 60-150 people throughout the day. Kingdom level
events, such as 12th Night can have upwards of 800-900 people. This is
usually cramming them into a hall the size of a community center or small
high school. These are not large events on the grand scale of things. Even
if it's a weekend camping event, security isn't that much of a problem. In
the <mumblemumble> years I've lived in Atlantia I have not seen one event
that required an in house security force.

Now if you take something like Pennsic, where the population has in the
last few years surpassed 10,000, that's where you need a security force. I
have been a member of the team running Security for Pennsic (XX to be
exact), and it can be a daunting task. The grounds cover somewhere between
40 and 50 acres of semi wooded land filled with campers. You have a
merchant area that rivals the bazaars of Marakesh in size and scope. At
Pennsic you have to have a mounted (on golf carts) constabulary able to get
in touch with the main base via walkie talkie at a moment's notice. The
problems you run into run the gamut from theft (both in camps and at the
bazaar), date rape (though thankfully those have been few and far between),
people with medical problems in need of an ambulance, the occasional
pregnant mother, people thinking (or not, as the case may be) that it's fun
to fill plastic garbage bags wtih propane and igniting them (causing all
Viet Nam vets to either perk right up or look for a foxhole because you'd
be surprised at how much an exploding bag of propane sounds like C4 going
off), fourth generation apartment dwellers who don't realize that it's not
safe to keep an open flame going inside an enclosed nylon dome tent, or
some poor drunken sot who has fallen asleep in the road. There are also the
occasional storm warnings that have to be sent out to people because
Pennsic is two weeks long and you can usually count on at least one really
good blow before it's over. And during the Gulf War the Security force was
sent out to many camps to carry messages of mobilzation to the many men and
women playing with us who serve in the Armed Forces (that was a mighty
strange time all 'round, with many folks complaining "I can't go to war,
I'm at the War!").

But for your average weekend local event we have thankfully never needed a
constabulary. Of course you must consider that even if we had one it would
have no legal jurisdiction, as that is the purview of the real police. In
serious instances, even at Pennsic, the in house Security group must give
precedence to state and local police and can not enforce the law in any
way. It is illegal to do so.

So tell us, why are you concerned about this aspect of the game?

In sevice,
Corun



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