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dragoncon_lj_archive2011-05-24 05:03 pm
m-cubicle.livejournal.com) wrote in dragoncon_lj_archive2011-05-24 05:03 pm
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Security at Dragon*Con 2011
EDIT: With the great response this post is getting, let's try and make something happen here. Send Dragon*con security any ideas you may have in ways to improve security for the 2011 show. Go to the contact security form through the D*Con web page. Get as many people as you can to do the same. Pass the word along. Select "security" from the drop down menu. The hotels and Dragon*con MUST agree to start checking badges or room keys at the hotel entrances to keep the non-con goers out. Why should we pay and others not?!
dragoncon.org/dc_contact.php
Since it doesn't seem like anyone has addressed this issue for D*Con 2011 recently, I will go ahead and put it on the table.
As I'm sure many others noticed, last year there were several security concerns during the convention. I remember reading all the different posts of women being accosted and "felt up" by individuals who had no badge and nothing to do with the convention itself. Letters were mailed to the hotel and complaints filed. Since then, it has all gone quiet.... Has anything been done by the hotel or Dragon*Con to alleviate this problem? Or, are the powers that be just hoping we would all forget about it and just deal for next year?
I have noticed every year the convention getting more and more filled with people who have come to the hotels thinking they would be getting a free "freaks on parade" show. Individuals include: Football fans, nearby college students, and random people off the street hoping to get a free good time at the expense of those who paid to be there. It's not the same convention it was 5 years ago, the con is changing and not for the good.
Before I go dumping more hard earned money on a convention that is already getting ridiculously priced, are any of these issues going to be addressed? What is to keep random grabby pervs away from my girlfriend or friends? With everything getting expensive these days, I need some re-assurances that this will be a safe convention and the money will be well spent. I wonder what the ratio is of people who just wander in off the streets is, to those who actually paid for a badge?
dragoncon.org/dc_contact.php
Since it doesn't seem like anyone has addressed this issue for D*Con 2011 recently, I will go ahead and put it on the table.
As I'm sure many others noticed, last year there were several security concerns during the convention. I remember reading all the different posts of women being accosted and "felt up" by individuals who had no badge and nothing to do with the convention itself. Letters were mailed to the hotel and complaints filed. Since then, it has all gone quiet.... Has anything been done by the hotel or Dragon*Con to alleviate this problem? Or, are the powers that be just hoping we would all forget about it and just deal for next year?
I have noticed every year the convention getting more and more filled with people who have come to the hotels thinking they would be getting a free "freaks on parade" show. Individuals include: Football fans, nearby college students, and random people off the street hoping to get a free good time at the expense of those who paid to be there. It's not the same convention it was 5 years ago, the con is changing and not for the good.
Before I go dumping more hard earned money on a convention that is already getting ridiculously priced, are any of these issues going to be addressed? What is to keep random grabby pervs away from my girlfriend or friends? With everything getting expensive these days, I need some re-assurances that this will be a safe convention and the money will be well spent. I wonder what the ratio is of people who just wander in off the streets is, to those who actually paid for a badge?
no subject
Secondly to your secondly, regarding the bellhop... There are a *lot* of assumptions made here. Just because he laughed means/proves nothing. You don't know where he was going or had been, or even if, technically speaking, he was on the job (though the uniform implies, but does not prove, it). Because he laughed and muttered something under his breath which you admit you couldn't make out, doesn't mean a thing. He might still have sent said pic to security, or shown said pic to security the first chance he got (say, when he was done with whatever task he was currently assigned)
You wanted him to report this situation, as it was, in your words, JOB to do. I ask you, how do you know he did not?? You're assuming he didn't, because it reinforces your notion of his behavior, but you cannot know this.
I'm also not saying what she was doing was attractive, though she clearly had/has an exhibitionist streak in her. What I am saying is... Correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds as though you would have been satisfied by anything less than this bellhop stopping what he was doing, and rushing up there to physically correct the situation himself (something for which he is probably neither trained or prepared to do). Of the several other solutions to the problem... and there were several... he may well have done one of them without your being witness to it. (probably not, but you can't know)
And... if you legitimately thought it was a safety issue as you claim.... or even just inappropriate behavior for the Con... and you legitimately believe this bellhop failed to act as he should, then, yes, I would say the onus falls to you to act. If you didn't, when you could have, then some of the responsibility for the consequences of those behaviors could, arguably, fall to you. Did you at least report the bellhop to the hotel once in your room?
How can the hotel, or anyone else, remedy a problem (Be it the girl or the bellhop) if they're not made aware of it?
It seems in alot of ways, we're trying to scapegoat the hotel staff for everything we don't like that's happening at the con, from serving alcohol to inappropriate behavior. I don't particularily care for this trend.
Regarding the Sunday night hall raid... Again, I wasn't there. And again, I've seen hotel staff do some stupid things at times... Could they have handled it better? Possibly. Probably, even. But you were in a highly trafficked walkway (During con, I consider all the hallways highly trafficked) You weren't in a public seating area, during a time when the hotel was cracking down on room parties, in response to a dangerous situation, and again, for all you know, someone in one of the rooms called to complain about you all. I think this was very much a nobody was right, nobody was wrong, situation.
I do agree with you that the hotels cost a *lot* of money. And yes, the service should be superior to the Holiday Inn Express/Red Roof, whatever... but ask yourself, honestly, if the service, under the circumstances, was really as atrocious as you describe. Maybe for you, it was, and for that, I'm sorry, and it does beg the question of whether they deserve your patronage. There are other Con hotels.
For me, I've always had great service from both the Marriott and the Sheraton. (We got terrible service from the Hyatt one year, and for that reason, that hotel is last on our list of places to stay.) The instances you describe, I ask, are they the exception, or the rule, because that's what makes the difference.