I Like Being 'Boring' At Events

During occasional ‘safe fun’ or event security management assignments, my role is be ‘boring’.

Quite a feat in this 'blue', Democratic city where red blood flows a little too frequently during revelry.

I like being ‘boring’ at events where organizers are my partners in ‘safety creation’. This means I consume no beer, liquor or other intoxicants and can focus without distractions.

It’s a service to patrons and proprietors to have someone who makes sure their good time doesn’t go bad. Arising from a spiritual and strategic commitment to ‘creating safety’, events are seen as microcosms of positive potential or problems found in society.

A peaceful, enjoyable occasion reflects those elements found in society. They are a vision of how things could, and should, be.

Conversely, its absence also reflects elements found in society. They too are a vision, one of how things should not be.

Uneventful and eventful gatherings are analyzed to see what was worth replicating or eliminating going forward.

The event is society and society is the event.

The art and science of ‘safe fun’ strikes a balance between folks expressing themselves without that expression negatively impacting others. It’s a worthwhile balancing act.

‘Safe fun’ creators play referee and are partners with those hosting occasions. While hosts handle myriad management issues, safety is one important item they don’t have to worry about.

Sadly, the lack of safety concern by certain bar owners and organizers led me to shift away from today’s urban event scene years ago. It’s a part of my commitment to community safety that had to end.

I have watched the urban event scene devolve from a few arguments and rare fisticuffs of my early ‘Generation X’ days to modern mayhem where frequent arguments, active gunfire and mass shootings are a norm.

In recognition of indiscriminate violence hovering in the background of inner city Millennial and ‘Gen Z’ gatherings, I’ve urged younger event security professionals not to take chances I’ve summed up as, ‘Baghdad risks without Baghdad pay’. Indifferent bar owners and organizers unhesitatingly step over bodies on the way to the bank.

Content to ‘roll the dice’ with lives of patrons and protectors, these owner-operators need strict oversight by local and state governments in order to keep their alcohol licenses. Such venues are an unacceptable nexus attracting crime, disorder and loss of life.

I offer as exhibit ‘A’ the last urban bar owner with whom I had the displeasure of working. He’s a 'ghetto' acting tough guy who pretends to be a leftist activist to his progressive clientele while threatening and scamming Black organizers who have events inside his establishment.

For many nights I was the sole security person there. He booked a steady stream of high risk, low quality events where brawls or gunplay were what his crowd considered normal.

Fortunately, they didn’t replicate shootouts but I broke up a lot of arguments en route to becoming fights and escorted one domestic batterer-against his will-off the property. I witnessed him strike his female companion.

The bar didn't want the police called to his site of barely managed chaos.

Another night I had panicked patrons tell me someone pulled an AK-47 rifle out of his trunk near the bar. I didn’t see the weapon and thankfully, no mass shooting happened.

Incredibly, this bar owner didn’t want customers searched nor tightly regulated. The fact his bar is in a high income neighborhood that frowns on noise, trash and danger his urban base brings, is perpetually lost upon him.

He personifies the type of greedy, indifferent urban bar owner who always shrugs their shoulders after the smoke clears from incidents or cries foul if authorities finally come calling.

Negligent alcoholic outlet operators know their customers are dangerous but refuse to hire enough event professionals, licensed private security companies with armed guards or off-duty law enforcement to adequately manage problematic patrons and protect the surrounding community.

I grieve for young event security professionals in this era. They often aren’t adequately compensated by edgy ‘watering holes’. Their liability, injuries and deaths are forgotten after the next transaction at the cash register.

‘An oasis in a disruptive desert’.

For nearly a decade, I’ve worked exclusively with cool event folks whose philosophy mirrors my own. Together, we create ‘safe fun’ far removed in intensity from violence often in the general vicinity.

They offer an oasis in a disruptive desert and I enjoy such good vibes. So much so in fact that I only work with cool event organizers whose business model isn’t replicating correctional facilities or housing project courtyards.

In such moments, I like being ‘boring’ at events. Being ‘boring’ means adding alert, accessible safety and support to peaceful people having fun.

Not a bad way to spend a day... or night.