RE: Hauling gear around a NANOG meeting

["Howard C. Berkowitz" <hcb () netcases net>]

I cannot resist a tale told to me, in fact, by a service provider, who was
at the Empiricon science fiction and fantasy convention in New York, some
years ago. At about 3 AM, six attendees decided to go to a Chinese
restaurant they knew was still open, and chose to take the subway. At the
time, this was _not_ a safe transportation route. To compound their strange
choice, they were all in costume.

As it was told to me, they were joined by four young men, wearing leather,
as is common to the Thief class in Dungeons & Dragons. Indeed, the laughing
young men pulled out daggers, or modern equivalents, and demanded purses.

At that point, things took an unusual turn. Some conventions allow no actual
weapons. Others will allow certain items, but "peace bonded" with a symbolic
seal on the scabbard.  Three of the convention-goers were D&D players, and,
as things developed, things went considerably beyond "That's not a knife.
THIS is a knife."

In this case, the three drew what were, indeed, not knives.

They were swords.

After the smallest woman in the group broke one of the young gentlemens'
arms, with a firm blow from the flat of her saber, things became a bit
confused...but, soon afterwards, the four young gentlemen were spread-eagled
against a subway station wall, the waistbands of their trousers cut and
hobbling their ankles.

When the Transit Police arrived, had it explained that a sword was hardly a
concealed weapon, the young gentlemen greeted the constabulary with great
relief.

You see, the remaining three convention-goers were admirers of Star Trek,
and were suitably garbed. The young gentlemen knew only a bit about Star
Trek, but just enough, considering their recent experience with true blades,
to have absolutely no desire to determine, experimentally, if the leveled
phasers were real.

-----Original Message-----
From: Christopher LILJENSTOLPE [mailto:cdl () asgaard org] 
Sent: Friday, May 23, 2008 10:48 PM
To: Steve Gibbard
Cc: nanog () nanog org
Subject: Re: Hauling gear around a NANOG meeting

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Greetings,

        I think the 0.02 take-away for this discussion is:

If you don't feel safe doing what you are doing, or being where you  
are, then stop/leave.  In almost any big city, it's really not a  
problem - there are lots of people around and things are usually ok.   
However, your intuition is usually a pretty good guide.  A corollary  
is, if you are scared, even if the area is "safe" certain actors will  
pickup on it.  Therefore, the simple act of feeling uncomfortable will  
probably raise the likelihood of you getting into trouble.

        Unless you've lived a very sheltered life, your "intuition" will  
usually give you warning WAY before you get into trouble.  BTW - there  
are a lot of big cities that I have no concerns walking alone in at  
0300.  However, not all cities fit in that bucket.  There are also  
places that you just don't go to even in the middle of the day.

        Chris

On 23 May 2008, at 17.53, Steve Gibbard wrote:

> I hesitate to weigh in here, but my observation after several years  
> of doing a fair bit of traveling to a wide variety of places is  
> this:  In any big city, anywhere in the world, there will be plenty  
> of people ready with lectures on how "this is a big city, and is  
> therefore a dangerous place. You need to be careful."  Often, this  
> will be repeated with escalating tones of alarm if it becomes clear  
> that I've been ignoring it.  Sometimes the claim will be that their  
> city is especially dangerous, and sometimes the claim will be that  
> it's dangerous just like any other big city. Sometimes it takes on  
> the form of "this is a really safe city, but don't go out at  
> night."  It doesn't matter.  Some cities really are dangerous, and  
> some seem quite safe, but there's no quantifiable difference between  
> lectures received in places that really are dangerous and places  
> that aren't.
>
> -Steve
>
> On Fri, 23 May 2008, Paul Stewart wrote:
>
> > A lot of it is common sense - New York is a GREAT city .. no question
> > and very safe overall.  But common sense will tell you not to take a
> > leisure walk through Harlem at 3AM .. having said that, I've walked
> > through Central Park (65th St.) at various times of the night and  
> > never
> > had a problem, but then again that's different too...
> >
> > Travel in herds and mind your own business - don't travel at 3AM (on
> > foot) and you'll be fine..;)  That really goes for any city when you
> > think about it...
> >
> > Take care,
> >
> > Paul
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Alex Rubenstein [mailto:alex () corp nac net]
> > Sent: Thursday, May 22, 2008 5:06 PM
> > To: Rod Beck; David Diaz; Martin Hannigan
> > Cc: nanog () nanog org
> > Subject: RE: Hauling gear around a NANOG meeting
> >
> > > I hate to break the news to the New York bashers, but New York is  
> > > one
> > of
> > > the safest American cities. This is not a controversial statement.
> >
> > While I generally agree with what Rod is saying, saying "NYC is  
> > safe" is
> > like saying "all routers are cisco"
> >
> > There are safe areas, and there are not safe areas. I don't know  
> > how the
> > Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn bridge rates, but I don't think I'd be
> > overly concerned. And, since people going to NANOG tend to have a
> > herding instinct, there shouldn't be a problem.
> >
> >
> > > New York has a lower incidence of crime than Miami, Detroit,  
> > > Seattle,
> > > Los Vegas, Houston, Atlanta, DC, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia.
> >
> > Yes, but in at least most of those locations, my Florida or Utah  
> > CCW is
> > valid.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > "The information transmitted is intended only for the person or  
> > entity to which it is addressed and contains confidential and/or  
> > privileged material. If you received this in error, please contact  
> > the sender immediately and then destroy this transmission,  
> > including all attachments, without copying, distributing or  
> > disclosing same. Thank you."

- ---
李柯睿
Check my PGP key here:
http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0xCB67593B




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