Schenectady Street People, Randy King, Paying to Play at Dealing with Street People, and the Boston Violence Dynamics Seminar

This is another blog post on the Violence Dynamics -Boston seminar I attended in late May, 2018. As stated the more I post on it, the easier it will be to justify it as a business expense on the taxes -particularly if I say repeatedly "BUY MY BOOKS!!!"

In the last post, I discussed a particularly interesting program taught by Randy King on pre-attack indicators. In other words, how to better assess if someone is thinking or planning to attack you should they approach you in a suspicious manner. The session consisted of two halves, a lecture, which was quite good. King said himself during the lecture that the material was not original and most of it had come from "Dmitri" who I assume, based on later research, was Richard Dmitri, a Montreal based instructor and creator of this video. The video, by the way, is short and well worth the time it takes to watch.



It was the second half of the session, the practice session, where I had some issues. Basically, as stated in my last post ( https://peterhuston.blogspot.com/2018/05/violence-dynamics-seminar-randy-king.html ) it struck me as "I want you to pair off and interact with a partner in order to practice how not to become stuck in a situation where you find yourself locked in an interaction with an undesirable street person." In other words, the key is to NOT get targeted for unwanted, prolonged attention by interesting street people, so it seems to me the practice session began at the wrong point in the process -however, it's worth noting that the participants enjoyed it.  

Now, I know something about interacting with street people. I am, after all, from Schenectady. And furthermore I used to hang out at my friend, the Reverend Tim's store on the Jay Street pedestrian mall in the early 2000s, a time when the Jay Street pedestrian mall was rife with interesting activity by street people, something you can read about below and in upcoming posts on this blog. 

Funny. I'd never really seen these experiences as "marketable." They'd never struck me something I could use to teach others lessons that they would pay me to learn. Apparently I was mistaken. Of course, one reason I went to the Violence Dynamics -Boston seminar was to see what the thing was all about and who the instructors were and how they'd entered this field. (I mentioned last time, does anyone know if the Eisner Institute is an accredited institution? As mentioned before - https://peterhuston.blogspot.com/2018/05/violence-dynamic-seminar-boston-things.html - Tammy Yard-McCracken  describes herself as having a Ph.D., but it comes from the Eisner Institute, an exclusively on-line institution that at one time was not accredited and therefore,if not accredited, the PhD would not be considered valid by most academic institutions. Does anyone know the facts of the matter? It's worth mentioning and looking into because Tammy is a feminist trauma therapist and feminist trauma therapists with exaggerated credentials were the driving force between the wave of 1990s and later false abuse accusations including McMartin, Little Rascals, and the other daycare accusations, the False / Recovered Memory hysteria of the same period, and the Satanic Ritual Abuse hysteria of that period. Be wary of feminist trauma therapists who exaggerate their credentials. They hurt people, lie a lot, and cause trouble while claiming to do good in the world.)

So . . . it seems like my experiences hanging out on Jay Street in Schenectady actually are quite marketable if packaged correctly. As stated, King was paid to fly in from the great plains of Western Canada to teach this program and people who were quite pleased to have the chance to pay $175 a day to attend a program that included this session.  

Which brings me to the following, an op-ed piece I wrote for The Daily Gazette . 




Section: F: Opinion
Edition: Schenectady/Albany; Final
Page: F1
Column: VIEWPOINT
Author:    Peter Huston
For The Sunday GazetteDate: September 23, 2007 
Publication: Daily Gazette, The (Schenectady, NY) 
Edition:Schenectady/Albany; Final
Length: 809 Words


Beating bad behavior

Violent or disruptive incidents are never good for business




"And there she was, spinning around, one handcuff hanging from her wrist, knocking things off the shelf in the Dollar General Store with each spin, police chasing her down the aisles and stomping through these unopened bags of potato chips as they did, and with each step -- pop-pop-pop -- a bag would break and potato chips would fly everywhere." Downtown Schenectady, particularly the Jay Street pedestrian mall, has intertwined problems of violence, stupidity and people behaving badly.

In this case, the story was that a woman sat in front of the Jay Street creperie, her feet on a table, not ordering anything. The owner, another woman, informed her that the tables were for customers only, and to please remove her feet.


Explosive reaction


The noncustomer allegedly exploded, assaulting the owner with fists and a lit cigarette. Police soon arrived, a struggle and chase ensued from Jay to the State Street dollar store, where property, including flying potato chips -- pop-pop-pop -- was destroyed.

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident. Problems involving people behaving badly are a part of business and life on Jay Street.

In today's largely post-industrial Northeastern United States, property rates in places like downtown Schenectady are about as low as business rates get. Years ago, the Jay Street pedestrian mall was created to take advantage of this. There are a lot of interesting, creative, dedicated people with dreams of running a small store, art studio or restaurant. But because it's far from easy to make these enterprises work, these businesses tend to come and go. Problem people make it more difficult.

Over the past 15 years, I've had my share of run-ins with odd people on Jay Street, and there have been times when these encounters have turned violent or near violent. It's important to understand the mentality of some Jay Street troublemakers. These people are generally not predators and do not cause trouble for financial gain.

Aside from one late-night incident where I was threatened for watching what was probably the start of a drug deal, and another where I was threatened after accusing a beggar who regularly feigned car trouble of lying (I was in turn accused of racism), money had little to do with the incidents. This was not predatory violence.

Tantrum violence

It was closer to what self-defense author Marc MacYoung categorizes as "tantrum violence" -- violence committed by frustrated people less interested in changing their lives than in changing their mental state by working themselves into a frenzy where they feel powerful and important.

The obvious response, to simply jail troublemakers, is simplistic. Sheriff Buffardi estimates a costs of $100 a day to jail a person. This is a lot of money, $700 a week, particularly if the person is released without change in their behavior.

Incarceration does not reform people unless they have the ability to understand that they were arrested for behaving badly and understand if they stop behaving this way they will not be re-arrested. Some people are not able to understand this, and become repeat offenders of pointless offenses. Others simply cannot control themselves.

Many people have problems grasping the concept that their actions lead to consequences. People who behave badly in public but see arrest and incarceration as "bad luck" or the fault of the person who called the police, or "racism," or even something to brag about, are difficult to reform. And there are many of these people.

If the city authorities wish to improve the quality of life and shopping experiences downtown, they need to recognize this problem -- the interconnection between violence and poor thinking -- and face it head on.

Service agencies

Many people familiar with Jay Street say that part of the problem is the layout of city social service agencies. The Bethesda House day center is on one side of Jay and the Salvation Army's soup kitchen is on the other, with various rehab agencies on both sides, making the Jay Street pedestrian mall a natural pathway for users of these services. Although the majority of these people are harmless, they buy little, and a single troublemaker can spoil a store owner or shopper's perception of Jay Street. An examination of these agencies, their clientele and their effect on foot traffic is needed.

A greater police presence on Jay would help. Police can often deter or de-escalate problems without an arrest. Although there is a police office in Center City, ironically across from the creperie, people tell me it's often empty and has little impact. Furthermore, at least some Jay Street store owners, past and present, do not trust the police, having had bad experiences with them.

Despite this, I believe an increased downtown police presence, perhaps bicycle cops who, move fast but are approachable and personable, would be helpful.

Peter Huston lives in Scotia. The Gazette encourages readers to submit material on local issues for the Sunday Opinion section.

Copyright (c) 2007 The Daily Gazette Co. All Rights Reserved.

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