Well, the poor officers showed up and took a look at the banner, and wanted
to know what the problem with it was. Keep in mind the police can and will
take action against people who are in fact breaking the law, they are not
forced to take action agianst people over Hamvention's actions. The policemen
indicated that they didn't see anything wrong. Larry however said he found
our banner offensive.
If you see Larry please feel free to ask him if he is proud of himself. Apparently
he is quite proud of himself and somehow thinks that he is going to ruin our time
at Dayton. Quite the contrary, we are not that way. As a matter of fact after a
short conversation with the police we offered them a couple of strippers for the
rest of the weekend ( The refused of course as they were on duty and couldn't
accept gifts). So, the joke is on Larry Apple, thanks to him we enjoyed a number
of laughs that would not have been possible without his silly antics. Maybe he
was mad and decided to abuse his temporary power as a security something or other.
Maybe I should have offered him a free hat.
You will notice that I had to do a little modification to one photo. The two
officers need not be identified, and the third person was an innocent bystander.
Larry on the other hand willfully took personal property with no legal right.
That is called theft.... Personally I would prefer to deal with the people
at Hamvention and have them take care of this rather than to have to charge
Larry with theft of items valued at more than $100.
UPDATE
As much as I would like to leave this story as it was on Saturday, I think it
is only fair to update this post with the outcome of the whole saga.
I continued making phone calls throughout Saturday afternoon and again Sunday
morning starting at 8:05 am. I did get a call back from one of the comitee chair
persons who said she was suprised that I had not gotten resolution on this issue.
I waited until 11:00am with the show due to end at noon I started to be a bit
more aggressive. One of the other security teams came by the booth so I asked
them to have the police respond to our booth (The city of Trottwood and County of
Montgomery both have a police presence at this event and we do appreciate them).
What the security peoople don't realise is that we can listen to them. Keep in mind
this is the Hamvention security volunteers, not the HARA security officers or the
local or county police or their volunteers. And it was very apparent to me what
was going to happen.
When the policemen showed up, they had our banner with them, and one of the oficers
who was there was in fact one of the men who watched Larry take our banner ( keep in
mind the oficer was not bound to issue a citation to Larry as I did not file a complaint).
In talking to the oficer I told him that I would prefer not to accept the banner from
him, as I had asked that Larry personally return it and appologize. I also told the
officer if Larry chose not to do this before we were packed up and done with the show,
that I would like to press charges of theft. I also told him I was sorry that he was
in the middle of this and that if there was not an immediate action from Hamvention and/or
Larry to rectify this that I would simply place a complaint so he could do his job.
About 15 minutes later, Larry Apple showed up on a Golf Cart followed by police oficers.
Larry handed me the banner but failed to actually appologise verbally. So, I asked him if
he understood why I insisted that he bring the banner back, and if he understood that our
banner was not in violation of any rules, ordinances or any part of the agreement that
we have with the Hamvention folks, and that we have been flying that banner for several
years without a problem. He stated "yes" acknowloging that he did understand. He also
asked for a receipt that he had returned it, and I provided his receipt that he had given
me indicating the banner had been returned. He also then asked if I would not bring the
banner next year. I asked him "why would I not bring our banner?". I told him about the
number of people who look for us, and about the many, many people who have come to know
us as friends because we use an acronym that we came upon by accident as an ice breaker,
and that it had already been approved by Hamvention, and no, I would not be leaving it
at home, it would be coming along next year and so on until all of us were too old to
hang it up and there were no young people who were willing to carry on the tradition.
All in all I thought it only fair to continue this story since Larry "manned up" and
returned the banner. I thought about removing it completely but thought rather than that
I would just simply tell the rest of the story for a couple of reasons. First, Larry never
actually made an apology to anyone. I also think he needs to understand that it is not aboout
what he thinks about it, or what any one person has to say. Larry violated the law, and
I'm pretty sure he violated our agreement with Hamvention by his actions. He also wasted
a day and a half of my time making it so I couldn't leave our booth and see and talk to
other people. He may have also hurt our sales, and other peoples sales as well since I was
not able to walk around as much and see what other people had to sell. That is why I decided
that this story must remain here and that I should take the time to finish it.... or is it
finished? I guess we will find out next year.
We would like to thank the Trottwood and Montgomery County police who have several oficers
on duty and on the premises of Hara Arena during Hamvention. These men acted professionally
and kept a great attitude while enduring this political battle (or at least that is what it
was until one party decided to break the law). I wish that I was able to identify them by
using their names here, but they asked us not to use their names or pictures. Gentelmen, if
you ever read this we have nothing to say but good things about your conduct and willingness
to help us clean up this petty mess of crap, and know that at least some of us who attend
this event each year appreciate your presence. I also understand that you were on duty at the
time and could not accept our gift of appreciation, but if you come back sometime when you are
not on duty we will be glad to give you a pair of our strippers, they are handy to have around
the workbench.
|