Security at Dragon*Con 2011

[m-cubicle.livejournal.com]

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?

Comments

[m-cubicle.livejournal.com]

I completely agree with you on this point. It's almost like the hotels are getting a kick out of putting jocks and nerds together in one hotel just to see what happens. The commons areas should be cordoned off for the various other groups at the hotel. Maybe give the larger money making group the larger common areas and rope off other areas for football fans and whoever else might be in town.

[thatwordgrrl.livejournal.com]

I am quite certain the hotel has much more important things to do than laugh at jocks vs. geeks.

Honestly, it sounds like you've already decided not to attend. When others here have mentioned things that have been done or are going t be, you dismiss it out of hand.

Dragon*Con will NEVER be a safe space. No con is a safe space. The sooner fans wrap their brains around that notion, the better off fandom as a whole will be for it.

What we *can* do is work to make it safer. Which is happening.

But if anything less than 100% safety is not good enough for you, then maybe you should just stay at home.

[elvishtard.livejournal.com]

I also think that people with a similar mind that you do, need to take two steps back and think about what all went on last year. He's not dismissing anything, he's merely concerned for his safety and the safety of others, if that isn't apparent enough.

A con CAN be a safe place. One HUGE factor is the booze intake. The hotels and Dragon*con are so money hungry with the amount they accumulate for alcohol sales, that they are completely casting a blind eye to the debauchery that happens. I know at some late AM time, the Marriott bars do close down. But it doesn't need to be that late at night. Especially since that whole area gets horribly congested and almost makes it impossible to even reach the elevators to GET to your room to get out of harms way.

I know that Dragon*con/the hotels are not responsible for alcohol being brought in by the con-goers either, but atleast they can regulate what's at their disposal. That would help.

[thatwordgrrl.livejournal.com]

You seem to be missing my point. I was there last year. I know what happened.

Believe me, as the person who actually DID step in to rescue somebody, I am as concerned about safety as you.

But that's not the point.

The point is that nowhere is a Safe Space, where you can just do whatever you wish without worry that you will come to harm. That just doesn't exist.

Which is not to say that we should just give up on the notion. Rather that instead of wanting a con to be a Safe Space, we work -- all of us -- toward making it *safer.* Making it less likely that bad things will happen, rather than working toward an unattainable goal of 100% safety.

[cuppaco.livejournal.com]

ITA.

[cuppaco.livejournal.com]

Is D*C taking reasonable and appropriate steps to protect the attendees? Yes
Can they do more? Of course they can.
Is some of the suggestions provided helpful? Yes.
Will enacting these suggestions make Con a "safe place"? No.
To be guarantee safety would require unreasonable/impossible/not practicable procedures. To make D*C a "safe place" would require a dismantling of Con itself.

Even if there was a "limit" on alcohol as you suggest, con goers seem to pick and choose which rules/regulations they want to follow and be strict about. The one that comes to mind is the occupation limits of the rooms, that would help address safety/overcrowding issues as well. [And we all know there many, many rooms with 10+ people in a 4 max person room and its okay (and to suggest otherwise on these boards gets you flamed)]

Personal safety is does not rest on the policies/procedures of D*C or the hotels, the individual is primarily responsible for their own well-being.

[trybutez.livejournal.com]

I'm troubled by this. Why should the Hotels, if they're obeying the law, have to protect people from themselves? If they want to sell alcohol, and people (including legit congoers) want to buy alcohol, so be it.

Now, I'm all for policing for inappropriate behaviour, but I'm an adult, and I want to be treated as such, and if that means I want to buy a beer during a time period when it's legally allowed from an establishment that is open during its normal business hours, then I should be allowed to.

And... if I turn into a jack ass and do something inappropriate or illegal after having that drink, then I should suffer the consquences of that, too.

The hotels aren't the enemy here. They're a business and its their goal to make money. Everyone assumes D*C is a bananza of wealth for the hotels, I'm not so sure. They have to bring on extra staff, they have a heck of a clean up on their hands after the *con, and I'd imagine they even have to take out special insurance during the period of the con for reasons previously mentioned.

[ringwraith10.livejournal.com]

This.

Though I was under the impression that Bob and Carl do all the cleaning after the convention... ;P

[elementalamber.livejournal.com]

Agreed. Nor should the hotel be forced to only sell rooms to Con-goers. That's a weird suggestion, to me. I don't think preventing the hotels from making as much money as they can is a sensible idea - they exist solely to make a profit. D*C goers have no right to try to dictate who is allowed to pay for a room. It's bizarre to me that they think they should be permitted to do that.

D*C security can do more than they do, yes. Checking badges and room keys sounds like a great idea, especially at night.

But when it comes to drinking and things like that, they are not the boss of me. Laws need to be adhered to, and as you said, if I do something stupid or rude, I should have to face the consequences of it.

[m-cubicle.livejournal.com]

Your missing the point. I'm not suggesting making the hotel stop selling booze or making money, I am however requesting that the hotels and dragon*con stop allowing anyone off the street who isn't A.) A Paying Hotel Guest. and/or B.) A Paying Dragon*Con guest. That is the issue here. Let the alcoholic beverages flow, but to those who have paid to be there.

[elementalamber.livejournal.com]

Oh, well, I thought that had already been decided on. Which is why I thought you were making another point. Sorry!

[m-cubicle.livejournal.com]

My mind is made up that Dragon*con should acknowledge somewhere officially that safety problems were noted last year and steps are being taken to prevent them. I am not expecting 100% safety, I AM expecting the people I am giving my money to re-assure me.I have seen nothing of the sort on their web page or otherwise. When events happen and are noted as happening and no one acknowledges it but us on LJ, something seems off about that.

Is that too much to ask for reassurance for safety? I know some of the powers that be at Dragon*con read this LJ and hoping they see this.

[trybutez.livejournal.com]

I'm curious... have you contacted the con directly?

You want them to put up on their website, where prospective con goers are looking, that they'll have a safer environment next year!

a. That might discourage someone from buying a ticket. They don't want that. It's simply speaking, bad publicity. Honestly, if they lose you because they don't put this message you want up, but gain three more members who are coming for the first time (while, hopefully, fixing the problem), then that's the way to go.

b. Even acknowleding there is a problem might leave them open legally to being responsible for any thing that happens. Again, not something they're likely to do.

c. To the best of my knowledge, and anyone, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, to date, while there have been several instances of inappropriate behaviour, there have been no charges pressed, no trials or settlements or convictions... So, that's even less incentive to discuss it.

[m-cubicle.livejournal.com]

We will have to agree to disagree here. You seem content with the way the con is going. I have contacted security twice, but from what I've heard, they don't bother e-mailing you back. Sooner or later d*con staff will have to take responsibility for that convention getting out of hand, (which it has).

Pretending like it's the same convention it was in 2003 isn't going to fix a thing. You are implying the don't ask don't tell policy here, and as we've seen in other instances, it's not the best policy. Sooner or later they will have to man up. It's one of those situations where unfortunately, they will not pay attention to the problem until someone gets hit by an object coming off a higher floor or a girl gets raped. I say no more about it.

[trybutez.livejournal.com]

Hmmm.... I don't recall any of these actions to which you ascribe to me. I do agree we have to agree to disagree though. (is that a triple negative?)

I'm not content with the situation. I believe improvements could be, and should be made. I'm simply stating reasons, reasons you might not like, why the con officially might not like to publicize the subject and instead work to improve things behind the scenes, as it were.

It's most certainly not the same convention as '03, or '98, or '93. Take your pick. It never will be again. Some things are better, some things are worse, that's the nature of the beast. But... the measure of it is in seeing whether the TPTB learn from an experience and improve upon it next year. (Or in the case of registration, ten years later!)

I'm certainly not implying a DADT solution, and shame on you for implying that I'm implying. Infact, I want the opposite. I want anyone inappropriately touched or harassed to shout out at the top of their lungs. I want the police involved. I want charges. I want any ahole predator who sees D*C as an opportunity to be so scared out of his mind he wets himself at a look from a woman cosplaying Slave Leia. And you're right, that until someone *is* raped or killed, there probably won't be much in the way of action. At least, *public* action. The need hasn't arisen for *public* action.

A couple of years ago someone was murdered at SDCC. Yet tickets still sold out the following year. Last year someone was stabbed to death with a sword at my local Ren Faire. Yet they opened on time this year.

I don't like this stuff. I want to stop it before it happens. But you can be assured that the con isn't going to make it a news item until, well, it's a news item.