Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Backup Ribbon Project

The Backup Ribbon Project has been around for many years throughout many conventions. It's mission is simple: they provide ribbons to people who request them so that at a convention, if someone is feeling harassed, they can go to this person as someone who can "back them up".  I hadn't heard of them till last year. The gentlemen in my party last year wished to obtain these ribbons but they were all out.

This year Dragon*Con came out with an official statement on the group.  Now I understand that Dragon*Con would have had to say something for legal reasons. Something absolving themselves from affiliation is annoying but necessary in today's sue happy society. Instead they came out and demonized this group making statements like "good intentions can lead to bad situations" and "potentially dangerous situation". I felt the Backup Ribbon Project response addressed this statement well.

My personal issue with the detractors is I feel they are missing the point. To say that more police presence will fill their niche, places an unfair burden on the police. There are over 40k Con goers alone. Now add football fans in town for a game and regular hotel guests and that is quite a lot of people to police. As the saying goes "When seconds count, the police are only minutes away." That's not meant to be a slight on the police but more to point out the reality of the situation. Most of these harassment situations happen because harassers think they have found easy prey. Even my self, at 5' 4", standing next to a harassed person and glaring at the perpetrator has caused them to quickly move on. I didn't do anything, I didn't say anything, I just stood there and that was enough.

Stating Con goers should look out for each other is unrealistic. In today's society people tend to ignore other people even if they are obviously in trouble. This ribbon isn't about heroism or vigilantism it's about stating "I won't ignore you." If you need me to stand next to you and say "NO" with you I will. If the situation requires anymore than that police should be involved. This is just about a group of people standing together saying I don't like your behavior go away. I found it very disappointing that the Dragon*Con staff should go out of their way to create unsupported panic and, I believe, scare people away from standing up for themselves and others.

Now back to your regularly scheduled program.....

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