Complaint: Jackboot

[EvilBrage]

BYOND Key: EvilBrage

Player Byond Key: Jackboot

Reason for complaint: A complete inability to play the role of HoS correctly, including a very shallow understanding of procedure and laws pertaining to the job. Due to his "mistake" of throwing my character into the permabrig (a round which many admin and players alike did witness) while it was depressurized, I spent around two hours being either treated by medical or being toted around security. I was unconscious and handcuffed or straitjacketed for a very large portion of that time. The only interaction I was offered was a tribunal in which Constantine Augustus (Jackboot's HoS) then decided to try to hold an interrogation, interrupting the tribunal. Bear in mind he threw me into the depressurized permabrig BEFORE processing or even taking a statement. After the interrogation, despite my own character Samuel Avalon pleading Not Guilty to the charges, he took it upon himself to issue a guilty verdict singlehandedly. He then began to argue he should be stuffed in the brig for twenty minutes, despite Samuel's having served far more time than that in the process of being shuttled to and from the brig, remaining in critical condition, etc. It essentially took me out of the entire round.

This was not the result of some extraordinary circumstance either; the only notable thing that even happened was a breach in the permabrig. That's it. Those kinds of breaches happen almost, if not every, game. Sheer incompetence was the only player in this game, and Jackboot held all of the cards. Furthermore - any security officer could have done this, but he was the head of security. I am not comfortable with people looking up to this kind of behavior and saying it's okay. His actions with both Constantine Augustus (HoS) and Greg Ryan (CMO) lead me to the belief that he should lose his whitelisted privileges.

[incognitojesus]

May want to detail more on the actions as a CMO.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

Quick points.

1) I at no time put you in a straitjacket. I reserve those for extremely dangerous people who are continuously hostile and there is NO other IC way to keep them contained.

2) I disrupted the tribunal to HELP you. The Captain and other Heads were already satisfied with the "evidence" of the murder, and were talking in the command channel about borging you. I planned on questioning the Captain's decision during the tribunal, but being poked by an admin had me rather blatantly end it instead. If I had not interrogated you, you'd have been a borg rather than the planned manslaughter charge for which you'd be paroled because I knew you spent so much time dealing with this anyway.

3) I apologized to everyone I could. I fucked up - rather brazenly, in a manner which surprised even myself.

4) Just because everything seems normal and calm from your perspective doesn't mean a department isn't collapsing behind the scenes and people aren't pulling their hair out.

---------

Proper explanation:

At the time, security was practically dissolving, and I had a dozen issues I had to deal with. The Command staff were breathing down my neck, I had to coordinate what was left of the non-SSD security force, the ERT was happening and I had to deal with that, and IRL I was doing some things that had me more distracted than I should be. The detective that was attacked by him in the first place suddenly had to leave IRL, officers were shouting or dropping off the face of the earth completely with SSD, the ERT was demanding information, the Captain was angry about not being informed of enough, one of my officers stole my shoes, and mebay was messaging me about the insane man that wanted to kill me saying they wanted to release him. Rather than lock you in isolation prior to interrogation and handling the matter proper, I decided to slightly skirt formalities by taking your "I think I killed him in self defense" as a quasi-confession. I elected to put you in perma for a brief time for processing while I sorted out the many problems plaguing the security department at the moment. This was to prevent you from sitting in processing, alone, with nothing to do, for an extended period of time except yell at passing officers and complain over comms. My distracted, short-circuiting-from-stress brain concluded that you'd have an RP partner, and so it would be okay!

It was during this that my brain noticed the firelocks, and decided the prisoner was being a chucklefuck and pulled a fire alarm. I proceeded to open them up while rambling in the comms about whatever issue was going on at the moment and checking OOC. It wasn't until a bit too late that I realized there was actually SERIOUS chucklefuckery going on in the form of a perma-breach. I admit that I should have checked about an atmos alarm. Especially with perma. It's ALWAYS breached. Why does it even have windows?

I tried to grab you and pull you out - I would have fuggin' apologized LOOC and IC right there and just let you go on parole and deal with the flak of "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING" because I nearly got you killed. But the firelocks were being more ridiculous than a 90's puzzle maze and Janus vampire flashed me and tried sucking my blood, so I NOPE'D out of there and tried to go EVA with another officer manning the front door. My goal then was to eliminate Janus and then, if you were still trapped inside, take you to medbay to be healed/cloned.

You eventually DID get to medbay, and I waited for them to let you out before I could actually do the processing which was now LONG overdue. I got distracted by problems again, and etc etc the tribunal happens. A LOT of time passed from then to the actual interrogation, and for that I offer a thousand apologies, as little as they are worth. Even as I was smugly talking about how I got you for manslaughter, I was trying to think of IC ways to justify just letting you go. That's what the tracking implant was for.

But then we got into that argument in LOOC where you wanted to be released immediately. I A-helped the issue, and pumpkin confirmed it was technically okay for me to brig you for the full 20 minutes, but we both agreed it would be lameballs if I did that. I was looking for IC ways to chop down your time or just give you parole, but you IC and LOOC continued to argue and yell at me, making me frustrated and unwilling to bother working with you anymore. I eventually just shoved you out of the brig with "You're on parole congrats bye" and as minimum RP as possible because I was 50 shades of done at that point.

Again, this really is my worst round as HoS. I tried to skirt formalities with processing to give someone some potentially better RP than sitting there shouting at passing officers, and ended up ruining it instead. The perma situation cascaded into the entire situation becoming a thermonuclear clusterfuck. I had ZERO intentions to kill you in perma, and had LOOC'ing Janus to "Wait I really fucked up here" been a potential option I would have done that, but sadly such a situation is a bit different from misclick shoving someone.

In brief: Security was a mess, and as HoS all of that mess fell onto me. Delegation wasn't working out, and my brain was going in many different directions and I failed to notice what should have been blatantly obvious. I in no way intended things to get so terrible, and wish I had found a better way to resolve it that would make everyone IC'ly happy. But tempers flared there at the end, and now we have this mess. And as to the brig time at the end: Pleading not guilty doesn't get you out of the brig. As far as I am aware, tribunals are only for perma-brigging issues that deal with SENTENCING, not guilty/not guilty. There was enough evidence to have you brigged for the minimum time during any other normal round.

EDIT:

Whoa, pump your brakes. I've not heard any complaints regarding Dr. Ryan outside an initial "Why did you ask your chemists to make Oxycodone?"

Do you have substantial complaints regarding my behaviour with Dr. Ryan, or are you wanting to add to the pile of anger with more accusations?

[Blue]

You know, I had figured Constantine as a great HoS, one of the better ones we had been receiving. This does sound like...a bad day for his career, at the least. I'm going to wait for Jack to say something before I make a stance, however.

[EvilBrage]

If I'd been borged, I would've had a hell of a lot more RP than I actually did, but that's not the point. This entire situation was completely fucked up, I agree with that, but not with your why. The reason it was fucked up was inadequate leadership. You skipped way too much for anything to be even relatively enjoyable - you skipped processing in favor of throwing me into the permabrig through a total of three firelocks you had to open, not even bothering to ask the AI if there was a breach in the area. The firelocks don't flip back up and down unless there is a breach. There was absolutely no reason to call the ERT in the first place, because there were only two problems: the vampire in the permabrig, and the breach in the permabrig. Both of these could have easily been avoided by using the holding cell in front, which is what's traditionally used to hold people temporarily instead of the permabrig. When you arrest a character, you take it upon yourself to ensure that they get in and out in a timely manner while still being relatively engaged in the game. Security isn't about arresting dem criminals and handing down something that might as well be a two-hour ban. If you were just going to pull Samuel out and let him go with parole, why didn't you? You didn't do it when he got out of medical, and you didn't do it when he got dragged back FROM medical, still in critical condition. Not once did you suggest it, IC or OOC, until the crew transfer had already been called, and by that time it didn't matter a lick. You didn't even have any business throwing me in the permabrig to begin with if you hadn't processed me, so walk us through that one, if you would?

As for Greg Ryan, there is - again - the tendency to overstep bounds and skip procedures that a head of staff shouldn't only know, but stress to the entire department. Other players can chime in here as well, but the root of the problem seems to be your tendency to expedite things by skipping IC rules and regulations, only to fall back on those same regulations when you want something to go a particular way. Now, there's a fun way to play heads of staff who are corrupt assholes who want to bend the law to work for them, but this wasn't anything close to fun or intentional.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

The Captain called the ERT even with the HoP and myself saying "What. Stop. No." but by then they just came and that was a thing.

--- About CMO ---

I want to avoid derailing the thread, but I also am curious as to any specific incidents where I skipped regulations. As CMO I've been doing as much as I can to delegate jobs to the staff, and paperwork is also a thing I do as much as possible. Dr. Ryan is also VERY big on his staff being respectful to ALL crew and following the law and regulations at all times. The only problems I can personally think of are making Vittorio change into scrubs for surgery under threats of not letting him do surgery, because who wears a suit to surgery? I think there's been a total of two surgeries I've elected to do over present surgeons at any one time - one rather than Vittorio because I didn't IC'ly trust Vittorio with his behaviour, and one on Phoebe because she explicitly asked to not be operated on by the only other surgeon available. Other than those incidents, I have... Not the faintest idea what you're talking about.

---- Back to HoS ----

But yes, as I said: I didn't want you to sit in the holding cell for the entire time it took for me to get a handle on the situation and get everything functioning normally. The ideal situation was that you sit in perma for that time RP'ing with Janus, then I come back, scoop you up, and after interrogation either release you on parole with a formal, written apology for your treatment or toss you back in perma if the murder charge stuck. But Janus decided to breach the permabrig while I was bringing you in there during the time that I was extremely scatterbrained and stressed. As soon as I saw the flashing red "O2" I tried to grab you and run out, but again: the firelocks delayed me and Janus attacked me. At that moment, regardless, the top IC concern of my character would be to get out alive. There was no way to handle Janus AND get you out without myself dying. As for you being dragged around as crit... I wasn't even aware that was happening. Once you left the brig and went into medbay, you were their issue and would remain their issue until medbay said otherwise. I stationed an officer to keep me updated on you and eventually bring you back, but he... Wasn't doing the best of that situation. He was the one that stole my clothes, and I was beyond exasperated. As to your "Why didn't you release me?"

I. Was. Going to. I HAD to do the interrogation. The plan was to parole you AFTER the interrogation, regardless of a shuttle call or not. The shuttle call did not change the plans. Did you forget I kept LOOC'ly saying "I'M LOOKING FOR A WAY TO PAROLE YOU CALM DOWN FOR 5 SECONDS" when you blew up at me? IC'ly there was a need to interrogate you for your side of the story. I even said during the tribunal "Don't you want your side of the story told?" after "Er, Captain? What evidence do you have to present? I've not interrogated him yet." I was trying to be completely on your side without completely breaking the IC behaviour. When I DID just unceremoniously throw you out, the ERT was confused and exasperated. Far more than if I had time to go "He's been through a lot, he's got an implant I'm going to parole him snark snark tough guy posturing".

Edited August 21, 2014 by Marlon Phoenix

[Frances]

I definitely think that this was a shitty situation for everyone involved, but the way I see it, there weren't any fuckups big enough to justify taking any disciplinary action. It sounds a lot more like Constantine having a very bad day.

Whitelist strips come for people who fuck up majorly and demonstrate either no understanding of head responsibilities, or make no efforts to improve their roleplay. Given that intent to do well was obviously here, and that Jackboot actually cooperated with staff when contacted, and expressed himself clearly, I really wouldn't hold it against him. Was putting Samuel (Brage's character) in perma instead of processing before giving him any charges or interrogating him a mistake? Yes. Was assuming the airlocks in perma were the result of a fire alarm and not a breach and going ahead with opening them instead of checking with engineering or the station AI a mistake? Yes. Was sending Samuel to medbay without an escort or even cuffs (which forced a doctor to straightjacket him, as he was a murder suspect and potentially dangerous) a mistake? Yes. But none of these things come from malicious intent, or not giving a shit. I believe this may be a story of why procedure exists, as pretty much everything that could go wrong did go wrong, but these look like learning mistakes.

More care should be put in situations like this in the future. But the consequences that came from negligence were hardly predictable ones - being straightjacketed, for example, happened because no security escort was present. Should one have been dispatched, prioritizing this situation (a prisoner dying) over whatever else security was dealing with (which from what I've seen was nothing that urgent), sure, but I don't think that's anything that you should seriously hold against a new and learning HoS player, even if the consequences were unfortunate.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

I definitely think that this was a shitty situation for everyone involved, but the way I see it, there weren't any fuckups big enough to justify taking any disciplinary action. It sounds a lot more like Constantine having a very bad day.

Whitelist strips come for people who fuck up majorly and demonstrate either no understanding of head responsibilities, or make no efforts to improve their roleplay. Given that intent to do well was obviously here, and that Jackboot actually cooperated with staff when contacted, and expressed himself clearly, I really wouldn't hold it against him. Was putting Samuel (Brage's character) in perma instead of processing before giving him any charges or interrogating him a mistake? Yes. Was assuming the airlocks in perma were the result of a fire alarm and not a breach and going ahead with opening them instead of checking with engineering or the station AI a mistake? Yes. Was sending Samuel to medbay without an escort or even cuffs (which forced a doctor to straightjacket him, as he was a murder suspect and potentially dangerous) a mistake? Yes. But none of these things come from malicious intent, or not giving a shit. I believe this may be a story of why procedure exists, as pretty much everything that could go wrong did go wrong, but these look like learning mistakes.

More care should be put in situations like this in the future. But the consequences that came from negligence were hardly predictable ones - being straightjacketed, for example, happened because no security escort was present. Should one have been dispatched, prioritizing this situation (a prisoner dying) over whatever else security was dealing with (which from what I've seen was nothing that urgent), sure, but I don't think that's anything that you should seriously hold against a new and learning HoS player, even if the consequences were unfortunate.

 

Yes, I am going to be a much bigger hard-ass on myself and on sec for procedures from now on to avoid an issue this catastrophic again. I often say people are unreasonably and extremely vile towards the security department, but I understand that it's in large partly due to how severe security can fuck up a person's round if it in itself fucks up.

Of course, this is after a bit of a break from the security department in general...

[Blue]

Completely agree with France here. Brage, I know you have a legitimate reason to be upset, but you must understand that this was all due to a series of mistakes. Surely, Jack is going to learn those mistakes and improve so that a scenario like this will never happen again.

Are we resolved now?

[EvilBrage]

Whether or not something happens isn't my call. I stand by my own belief, but I also understand that yanking a whitelist status away for one incident is also hasty. This thread is here for posterity in the event that something else comes up regarding a lack of ability to emulate a head of staff, and that's really all I can ask for.

[incognitojesus]

I would like to mention that, in the RP-Rev round that just occurred (still don't understand why people vote for this kinda stuff), Jackboot's Captain character, Dolores, did some very bad things. Although I do understand that the job of Heads of Staff is to incite rebellion among the crew, but that's not the same as, "Hey, this person did this. Instead of following the Standard Operating Procedure that has been drilled into my head for years, and the Regulations I've had to follow by the book to get to the position I'm in now, let me just execute them on the bridge with no real RP to it, even though it goes against everything I'm supposed to prevent."

Now, let me say this, so Jackboot doesn't automatically assume that, due to previous disputes I've had with him in the past I'm just nitpicking to nitpick.

Heads of Staff will make mistakes.

I don't care if you've been playing this game since its inception, you will drastically fuck up at one point or another.

I don't think this complaint warrants a whitelist removal, but it definitely needs to be here, for posterity sake at least. There's one thing where you make a mistake, and it's easily remedied. It's a completely different thing when your actions completely take another player out of the game, completely tying up your time without getting anywhere with it, and then another one of your inmates dies while on your watch. This situation could have been avoided easily.

Anyways, I do believe that, in time, Jackboot will gain more experience as a Head of Staff, and we'll see improvement from him eventually.

I do understand that Head of Staff positions are very stressful at times, and we do lead real lives outside of the computer that will interfere with your ability to react. These are 2D spessmens, after all, and not actual human beings.

[Skull132]

Anyways, I do believe that, in time, Jackboot will gain more experience as a Head of Staff, and we'll see improvement from him eventually.

I do understand that Head of Staff positions are very stressful at times, and we do lead real lives outside of the computer that will interfere with your ability to react. These are 2D spessmens, after all, and not actual human beings.

 

I'll just let this serve as the closing remark.

It is my hope that Jackboot will consider this as constructive input, and use it to revise and improve as necessary. Further action will be taken should it become necessary.