Your Steam Name: ArcticSalad
Your Steam ID: STEAM_0:1:49947440
Your Character Name (If Applicable): Wilfrid Clarkson
Admin being reported: Isaac @WhiteBlood
Reason for Report: I am filing this report to have the situation that transpired re-evaluated and my warning points reconsidered. This will also serve as my formal defense statement that I feel I was not granted the opportunity to present nor was I in the state of mind to do so.
Time of Occurrence: 08/09/2018 at approximately 12:25 AM CST
Evidence to support your claim: There was no evidence presented during the sit thus I have no evidence to present here today. However, the stories presented during the sit by myself, the one that filed the report and that of the staff member in question that supposedly witnessed the latter part of the incident are in agreement with each other for most of the situation. I will begin by explaining once again the events that occurred during the situation I was reported for and the reasons behind my individual choices made during the incident.
Note before I start: Later when I decided to file a report, I asked a senior administrator if they could disclose the names of the individuals involved so that I could call them by name in this report. They told me that they were not allowed to do so and that they could be retrieved from the logs after this report is filed. Therefore, I will be referring to the main characters involved that resulted in the report as “the police sergeant”, “the two hostages” and “the hostage taker” (or “the person that filed the report”).
I was in service as a law enforcement officer when we received the call of an active armed bank robbery. The robbery involved at least four individuals armed with class A firearms. These robbers shot at us the moment we arrived on scene. Ultimately however, we were successful in taking down these armed offenders but at the cost of at least a dozen law enforcement officers and security personnel. The robbers were taken into custody and arrested.
Shortly afterwards, shots were fired downstairs and the call went out over radio that there was an armed prison break occurring. Myself and responding officers were successful in taking down these armed offenders and placing the prisoners that had attempted to escape back in custody. As a result of this situation, another half a dozen law enforcement officers were killed but we managed to get at least one of the new offenders in custody. Before I even had time to head back out on patrol, we had a group of cadets unlock the police department and jail doors and attempt to lead their own prison break. This happened a second time by more cadets immediately after the first time was dealt with. Both times, the chief swiftly fired the cadets responsible and we returned the escaped offenders into custody.
This was now the beginning of the situation that resulted in the report filed against me and the sit following it. Myself (that was a police lieutenant at the time) and a police sergeant stayed in the evidence room just outside the jail in an effort to defend it against another potential prison break. It was originally the sergeant’s idea for us to stay there. As an active supervisor and as an extra precaution, I presented a policy that was entirely accepted: 1. Officers coming down the elevator or stairs to the jails must first notify myself or the sergeant with me, 2. Detectives must present their badge at the desk and 3. Cadets and Corporals must either be accompanied by or granted permission by a supervisor before coming down to the jails. This was to be active for the remainder of the criminal’s sentences. This precaution proved to be necessary as we almost had a third breakout attempt by another cadet but was driven away with me and the sergeant being stationed there.
After this occurred, it went out over radio that a man had taken an officer hostage at gunpoint in the upstairs of the police department. Then shortly afterwards, it was said that the man demanded that there be nobody downstairs by the jails. These were the only two details stated over radio. I assumed that an officer was actively negotiating with the hostage taker and thus me and the sergeant remained downstairs, awaiting further instruction or information. At this time I did not know if the hostage taker was the only offender involved; I did not know if it was nothing more than a distraction while his buddies rushed down and broke everybody out of jail. It was vital that we kept the criminals we had in custody locked away to avoid a third massacre of the city’s law enforcement and civilians – I considered this a priority.
While waiting for further details or instruction from the police negotiator, we remained with our weapons ready. What followed was potentially the only mistake I made: without warning, a man waving a desert eagle around rushed through the door and in that split second, I reacted and took the shot at this man. In that following second two officers entered along with him and I immediately held my fire and realized two things. Firstly, I realized that the man with the desert eagle was the hostage taker and that the two officers were the hostages. Secondly, I realized that no negotiation from the police even took place. The hostage taker demanded that I put my weapon down and both me and the sergeant complied, lowering out weapons. I was ready to negotiate personally with the hostage taker and come up with a solution to this predicament. Before I had time to speak or make a move the hostage taker began getting very aggressive; he turned towards me, pointed his gun at me and fired off several shots toward me. I reacted by raising my gun and taking the shot to kill him as I felt that my life was in immediate danger of being taken by this individual. I also recognized that the hostage taker had his full attention on me and not the hostages, and both the hostages were well out of the line of fire. Unfortunately, and regretfully, my shots missed, and he took cover behind one of the hostages as a shield. The sergeant beside me was unable to react in time. I realized this was an incredibly awkward situation, and once again lowered my weapon at the demands of the hostage taker. Later during the sit, he claimed that they were merely warning shots but realistically I have no way of knowing if bullets flying through the air towards me are going to hit me or miss me. If he intended to fire warning shots, it would have made more sense to fire them in the air or off to the side. He then came out from behind the hostage he had used as cover, pointed his weapon at me again and this time put several bullets into me. I once again raised my weapon and this time I didn’t miss, swiftly taking him out. After I had done this, the staff member Isaac revived the hostage taker and said to try this again. The hostage taker continued to act aggressively with unrealistic demands (that we release the entirety of the jail’s inmates) and was taken out by the sergeant that was with me. This entire situation in the jails proceeded very quickly and lasted at the very most just a few minutes.
It was after this moment that I was teleported into a staff sit. By the end of the situation, neither hostage was harmed in any way. The only people harmed were the hostage taker and myself that ended up taking several gunshots from him. During the sit, I felt that I was being treated by the staff member like a common criminal from the very beginning. I was given little opportunity to state my defense and instead was constantly forced into the defensive on a statement to statement basis that I was being constantly bombarded with by both the hostage taker that reported me and the staff member, Isaac. During this process, Isaac seemed to be taking the word of the hostage taker that reported me over my own whenever small details in our stories did not align perfectly. There was no video nor screenshot evidence presented by any party involved.
I first began roleplaying on Monolith around the end of May 2018 and since then I have come to love and enjoy the authentic, unique and flexible roleplay environment that Monolith provided. I found it to be a community more bound by realism in roleplay rather than by a seemingly endless set of restrictions and rules. I had an especially soft spot for roleplaying as a law enforcement officer and this is what I have dedicated the majority of my time into. I have taken pride in my quickly accumulated experience as a law enforcement officer on Monolith and reached maximum level 200 before I knew it. By now, I would have reached that level almost three times over. My in-roleplay criminal record is clean in its entirety and I have never had to pay a ticket. I have also taken great pride in my record as a player on Monolith, being 100% clean of any warning points or bans.
However, Isaac made no recognition of any of this and I felt as if he treated me as if I was somebody known to break rules on a daily basis from the very start of the sit – even in his questioning and the attitude he presented. He issued me two warning points for “failure to value a hostage’s life” and at no point do I believe I failed to value the lives of my fellow officers. As somebody taking a great deal of pride in my ability to deal with hostage situations as a law enforcement officer on Monolith and as somebody without any warning point or ban on record this damaged my own self-esteem as well as my potential future as a member of this community. Isaac was by no means disrespectful or hostile during the sit, but I do strongly believe that his judgement was incorrect and that the sit could have been handled far better. The sit was ended abruptly rather than making an effort to make both parties at least able to understand and tolerate his decision. He began to explain to me information about the point system but stopped himself part way through, claiming that I “probably already know all this” despite never receiving a single warning point up until this point. I was never content with the outcome, thus he told that I can feel free to report him on the forums.
Isaac claimed that my actions were realistic, but not acceptable in a roleplay environment and this is an incredibly conflicting statement. For a community that stands out for it’s realistic nature and flexible rule set I find it difficult to understand how realistic actions, particularly something so simple, are not acceptable in Monolith’s roleplay environment.
What I also found extremely disturbing, was that I alone received the sole and full punishment for the entirety of the situation that took place. The cadets that broke the criminals out of prison several times, were not considered. The sergeant with me that committed almost all the same actions that I had was not considered. The hostage taker that, in my opinion based on experience with hostage situations, handled it very poorly and was not considered. I was the only one to receive any sort of punishment or even spoke to and I was ultimately charged with every single thing that didn’t go perfect in the hostage situation.
The hostage situation was heavily flawed from the beginning. The hostage taker made the unreasonable demand, that we release the entirety of our more than 5 prisoners that had been charged with the massacre of more than a dozen and a half law enforcement officers, security personnel and civilians. The police force made no attempt to negotiate a reasonable solution with the hostage taker. There is nowhere in the world that would ever willingly release the entirety of a jail’s inmates because one man with a gun to another man was demanding that they do so, especially when those prisoners pose such an extreme risk to the public. A key principle of hostage negotiation is to take it slow and focus on doing one-on-one trades. Realistically, you should never agree to terms that are only beneficial for that of the hostage taker and instead find some common ground where both parties can gain something out of it. For example, one of the hostages in exchange for a prisoner - that is something I could definitely see occurring, but for us to release the entirety of our inmates is unreasonable and out of the question. For the officers upstairs to let the hostage taker do whatever he wishes - I believe that was where the hostages lives were not valued nor were the potential lives that could be taken as a result of the release of the prisoners. The hostage taker made no indication that he had any intention of releasing the officer’s he had as hostages even if his demands were met. Realistically and if I were in the hostage taker’s shoes, I would have kept at least one officer hostage after releasing the prisoners because I would need a way out of the police department which is absolutely crawling with officers. At that point there was no way to proceed without putting the hostage in at least the slightest bit of danger. It is also worth noting that only one of the two hostages were ever at risk of being killed. The hostage taker only had a single pistol and kept the hostages separated. There would be no way he would have the time to take the shot on both of them before being taken out by police therefore only one hostage really needed to be considered in danger. These are my reasons for remaining in the jail area of the police department and attempting to open negotiations myself as the officers upstairs failed to do so. It is worth nothing that despite all of this, I only killed the hostage taker after he attempted to take my own life.
I feel that Isaac’s judgement was wrong and conflicting with itself. I strongly believe that at no point did I intentionally disregard and fail to value the lives of the hostages. The way this situation was handled, and the decision made as a result is disappointing to see in a community that appears to be held to higher standards than many others. However, the primary purpose behind this it to re-evaluate Isaac’s decision and reconsider the warning points I received as a result. I know that this has gotten extraordinarily lengthy, but I thank you for taking the time in making it through the entire post.
Additional members involved/witnessing: Myself, the police sergeant with me, the two hostages, the hostage taker and the staff member Isaac. As I already noted, I was unable to retrieve the names, but I am told that they can and will be retrieved from the logs if they are relevant.
Thank you for your time and consideration, I hope you all have a wonderful day.
Sincerely,
Wilfrid Clarkson
Your Steam ID: STEAM_0:1:49947440
Your Character Name (If Applicable): Wilfrid Clarkson
Admin being reported: Isaac @WhiteBlood
Reason for Report: I am filing this report to have the situation that transpired re-evaluated and my warning points reconsidered. This will also serve as my formal defense statement that I feel I was not granted the opportunity to present nor was I in the state of mind to do so.
Time of Occurrence: 08/09/2018 at approximately 12:25 AM CST
Evidence to support your claim: There was no evidence presented during the sit thus I have no evidence to present here today. However, the stories presented during the sit by myself, the one that filed the report and that of the staff member in question that supposedly witnessed the latter part of the incident are in agreement with each other for most of the situation. I will begin by explaining once again the events that occurred during the situation I was reported for and the reasons behind my individual choices made during the incident.
Note before I start: Later when I decided to file a report, I asked a senior administrator if they could disclose the names of the individuals involved so that I could call them by name in this report. They told me that they were not allowed to do so and that they could be retrieved from the logs after this report is filed. Therefore, I will be referring to the main characters involved that resulted in the report as “the police sergeant”, “the two hostages” and “the hostage taker” (or “the person that filed the report”).
I was in service as a law enforcement officer when we received the call of an active armed bank robbery. The robbery involved at least four individuals armed with class A firearms. These robbers shot at us the moment we arrived on scene. Ultimately however, we were successful in taking down these armed offenders but at the cost of at least a dozen law enforcement officers and security personnel. The robbers were taken into custody and arrested.
Shortly afterwards, shots were fired downstairs and the call went out over radio that there was an armed prison break occurring. Myself and responding officers were successful in taking down these armed offenders and placing the prisoners that had attempted to escape back in custody. As a result of this situation, another half a dozen law enforcement officers were killed but we managed to get at least one of the new offenders in custody. Before I even had time to head back out on patrol, we had a group of cadets unlock the police department and jail doors and attempt to lead their own prison break. This happened a second time by more cadets immediately after the first time was dealt with. Both times, the chief swiftly fired the cadets responsible and we returned the escaped offenders into custody.
This was now the beginning of the situation that resulted in the report filed against me and the sit following it. Myself (that was a police lieutenant at the time) and a police sergeant stayed in the evidence room just outside the jail in an effort to defend it against another potential prison break. It was originally the sergeant’s idea for us to stay there. As an active supervisor and as an extra precaution, I presented a policy that was entirely accepted: 1. Officers coming down the elevator or stairs to the jails must first notify myself or the sergeant with me, 2. Detectives must present their badge at the desk and 3. Cadets and Corporals must either be accompanied by or granted permission by a supervisor before coming down to the jails. This was to be active for the remainder of the criminal’s sentences. This precaution proved to be necessary as we almost had a third breakout attempt by another cadet but was driven away with me and the sergeant being stationed there.
After this occurred, it went out over radio that a man had taken an officer hostage at gunpoint in the upstairs of the police department. Then shortly afterwards, it was said that the man demanded that there be nobody downstairs by the jails. These were the only two details stated over radio. I assumed that an officer was actively negotiating with the hostage taker and thus me and the sergeant remained downstairs, awaiting further instruction or information. At this time I did not know if the hostage taker was the only offender involved; I did not know if it was nothing more than a distraction while his buddies rushed down and broke everybody out of jail. It was vital that we kept the criminals we had in custody locked away to avoid a third massacre of the city’s law enforcement and civilians – I considered this a priority.
While waiting for further details or instruction from the police negotiator, we remained with our weapons ready. What followed was potentially the only mistake I made: without warning, a man waving a desert eagle around rushed through the door and in that split second, I reacted and took the shot at this man. In that following second two officers entered along with him and I immediately held my fire and realized two things. Firstly, I realized that the man with the desert eagle was the hostage taker and that the two officers were the hostages. Secondly, I realized that no negotiation from the police even took place. The hostage taker demanded that I put my weapon down and both me and the sergeant complied, lowering out weapons. I was ready to negotiate personally with the hostage taker and come up with a solution to this predicament. Before I had time to speak or make a move the hostage taker began getting very aggressive; he turned towards me, pointed his gun at me and fired off several shots toward me. I reacted by raising my gun and taking the shot to kill him as I felt that my life was in immediate danger of being taken by this individual. I also recognized that the hostage taker had his full attention on me and not the hostages, and both the hostages were well out of the line of fire. Unfortunately, and regretfully, my shots missed, and he took cover behind one of the hostages as a shield. The sergeant beside me was unable to react in time. I realized this was an incredibly awkward situation, and once again lowered my weapon at the demands of the hostage taker. Later during the sit, he claimed that they were merely warning shots but realistically I have no way of knowing if bullets flying through the air towards me are going to hit me or miss me. If he intended to fire warning shots, it would have made more sense to fire them in the air or off to the side. He then came out from behind the hostage he had used as cover, pointed his weapon at me again and this time put several bullets into me. I once again raised my weapon and this time I didn’t miss, swiftly taking him out. After I had done this, the staff member Isaac revived the hostage taker and said to try this again. The hostage taker continued to act aggressively with unrealistic demands (that we release the entirety of the jail’s inmates) and was taken out by the sergeant that was with me. This entire situation in the jails proceeded very quickly and lasted at the very most just a few minutes.
It was after this moment that I was teleported into a staff sit. By the end of the situation, neither hostage was harmed in any way. The only people harmed were the hostage taker and myself that ended up taking several gunshots from him. During the sit, I felt that I was being treated by the staff member like a common criminal from the very beginning. I was given little opportunity to state my defense and instead was constantly forced into the defensive on a statement to statement basis that I was being constantly bombarded with by both the hostage taker that reported me and the staff member, Isaac. During this process, Isaac seemed to be taking the word of the hostage taker that reported me over my own whenever small details in our stories did not align perfectly. There was no video nor screenshot evidence presented by any party involved.
I first began roleplaying on Monolith around the end of May 2018 and since then I have come to love and enjoy the authentic, unique and flexible roleplay environment that Monolith provided. I found it to be a community more bound by realism in roleplay rather than by a seemingly endless set of restrictions and rules. I had an especially soft spot for roleplaying as a law enforcement officer and this is what I have dedicated the majority of my time into. I have taken pride in my quickly accumulated experience as a law enforcement officer on Monolith and reached maximum level 200 before I knew it. By now, I would have reached that level almost three times over. My in-roleplay criminal record is clean in its entirety and I have never had to pay a ticket. I have also taken great pride in my record as a player on Monolith, being 100% clean of any warning points or bans.
However, Isaac made no recognition of any of this and I felt as if he treated me as if I was somebody known to break rules on a daily basis from the very start of the sit – even in his questioning and the attitude he presented. He issued me two warning points for “failure to value a hostage’s life” and at no point do I believe I failed to value the lives of my fellow officers. As somebody taking a great deal of pride in my ability to deal with hostage situations as a law enforcement officer on Monolith and as somebody without any warning point or ban on record this damaged my own self-esteem as well as my potential future as a member of this community. Isaac was by no means disrespectful or hostile during the sit, but I do strongly believe that his judgement was incorrect and that the sit could have been handled far better. The sit was ended abruptly rather than making an effort to make both parties at least able to understand and tolerate his decision. He began to explain to me information about the point system but stopped himself part way through, claiming that I “probably already know all this” despite never receiving a single warning point up until this point. I was never content with the outcome, thus he told that I can feel free to report him on the forums.
Isaac claimed that my actions were realistic, but not acceptable in a roleplay environment and this is an incredibly conflicting statement. For a community that stands out for it’s realistic nature and flexible rule set I find it difficult to understand how realistic actions, particularly something so simple, are not acceptable in Monolith’s roleplay environment.
What I also found extremely disturbing, was that I alone received the sole and full punishment for the entirety of the situation that took place. The cadets that broke the criminals out of prison several times, were not considered. The sergeant with me that committed almost all the same actions that I had was not considered. The hostage taker that, in my opinion based on experience with hostage situations, handled it very poorly and was not considered. I was the only one to receive any sort of punishment or even spoke to and I was ultimately charged with every single thing that didn’t go perfect in the hostage situation.
The hostage situation was heavily flawed from the beginning. The hostage taker made the unreasonable demand, that we release the entirety of our more than 5 prisoners that had been charged with the massacre of more than a dozen and a half law enforcement officers, security personnel and civilians. The police force made no attempt to negotiate a reasonable solution with the hostage taker. There is nowhere in the world that would ever willingly release the entirety of a jail’s inmates because one man with a gun to another man was demanding that they do so, especially when those prisoners pose such an extreme risk to the public. A key principle of hostage negotiation is to take it slow and focus on doing one-on-one trades. Realistically, you should never agree to terms that are only beneficial for that of the hostage taker and instead find some common ground where both parties can gain something out of it. For example, one of the hostages in exchange for a prisoner - that is something I could definitely see occurring, but for us to release the entirety of our inmates is unreasonable and out of the question. For the officers upstairs to let the hostage taker do whatever he wishes - I believe that was where the hostages lives were not valued nor were the potential lives that could be taken as a result of the release of the prisoners. The hostage taker made no indication that he had any intention of releasing the officer’s he had as hostages even if his demands were met. Realistically and if I were in the hostage taker’s shoes, I would have kept at least one officer hostage after releasing the prisoners because I would need a way out of the police department which is absolutely crawling with officers. At that point there was no way to proceed without putting the hostage in at least the slightest bit of danger. It is also worth noting that only one of the two hostages were ever at risk of being killed. The hostage taker only had a single pistol and kept the hostages separated. There would be no way he would have the time to take the shot on both of them before being taken out by police therefore only one hostage really needed to be considered in danger. These are my reasons for remaining in the jail area of the police department and attempting to open negotiations myself as the officers upstairs failed to do so. It is worth nothing that despite all of this, I only killed the hostage taker after he attempted to take my own life.
I feel that Isaac’s judgement was wrong and conflicting with itself. I strongly believe that at no point did I intentionally disregard and fail to value the lives of the hostages. The way this situation was handled, and the decision made as a result is disappointing to see in a community that appears to be held to higher standards than many others. However, the primary purpose behind this it to re-evaluate Isaac’s decision and reconsider the warning points I received as a result. I know that this has gotten extraordinarily lengthy, but I thank you for taking the time in making it through the entire post.
Additional members involved/witnessing: Myself, the police sergeant with me, the two hostages, the hostage taker and the staff member Isaac. As I already noted, I was unable to retrieve the names, but I am told that they can and will be retrieved from the logs if they are relevant.
Thank you for your time and consideration, I hope you all have a wonderful day.
Sincerely,
Wilfrid Clarkson
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