Banned

The Omni Commons is dedicated to creating and maintaining a safe space for all. Unfortunately, this means that we must occasionally require certain individuals to leave and stay away from the Omni's physical or virtual space. Individuals who have been banned or asked to leave may appeal to the Challenging Dominant Culture working group to arrange for conflict mediation. Email: cdc [at] lists [dot] omnicommons [dot] org

If the Omni Oakland Collective (or any of its member collectives) consenses to ban or suspend a person, that person is immediately and automatically banned from the entire premises of the Omni Oakland Collective, including all on-premise areas of its member collectives, groups, tenants, subtenants, common areas, and external parts of the building such as the smoking area. If any member of a collective asks a person to leave for safe space reasons, that person is immediately and automatically banned from the premises, until mediation can come to a resolution. All people who have been asked to vacate the space may seek mediation, conflict resolution, and to have their voice heard by the delegates. For additional information about this, please also refer to the Safer Space Policy and our Conflict Resolution Policy.

In a perfect world, the Omni would never have to ask anyone to leave nor ban anyone. Unfortunately, the reality is that due to our open and welcoming nature, many people who have been pushed out of other spaces for inappropriate behavior move on to the Omni. Most of the individuals on this page have been found to have caused problems in other spaces. As a response to this phenomenon, sudo room has forged a safe space reciprocal ban agreement with Noisebridge. As such, all individuals on Noisebridge's 86 page who were banned for safe space reasons are not welcome at the Omni. If you feel that you or the Omni might benefit from a reciprocal ban agreement, please contact the Challenging Dominant Culture working group, or the member collective most similar to you.

Individuals asked to leave or banned from the Omni physical space

• El or Ellis - 2021-10-27
  • Set fire to items in CCL hallway (see email "El or Ellis set fires in the building")
  • No picture available. 5'10" with short black dreadlocks and a hat, talks about fire a lot

• Steve Kingsley - 2020-06
  • Safe Space ban via Counter Culture Labs
  • Reason: Racism

• Carl Crott - 2020-06
  • Safe Space ban via Counter Culture Labs
  • Reason: Racism and misogyny

• Thomas - 2019-01
  • Safe Space ban
  • Asked to leave for following a sudo room member to their home and threatening them with violence.

• Cheyanne - 2018-05
  • Safe Space ban
  • Asked to leave for safe space reasons after repeatedly becoming aggressive in the space and sexually harassing a member.

• Bobby Qui - 2018-05-02
  • Safe Space ban
  • Asked to leave after a series of reports from Village members of escalating harassment and theft.

• Blue - 2018-04-21
  • Safe space ban
  • Asked to leave for threatening multiple members when asked to leave for sleeping in the space.

• Jacob Appelbaum - 2017-11-20
  • reason

• Morgan Marquis-Boire - 2017-11-20
  • The Verge article

• John Draper - 2017-11-20
  • Buzzfeed article

• Ryan Jason Martin - 2017-11-01
  • Safe space ban
  • Statement from sudo room consensus decision: "The sudoroom community stands by our existing safe space ban of Ryan Martin for reasons of prolonged intimidation and harassment. We will seek more information, but prioritize supporting our long-time community members. The ban will continue unless it's overturned by a member vote at a future sudoroom meeting."

• Sean/Shaun Fantahun - 2017-03-02
  • Banned for physical violence against a member

• Daily Swa Laurel - 2017-02-07
  • Banned for online threats of violence toward a member.

• "Johnny Honestly" - 2016-07-13
  • banned at 7/13 sudo room meeting for alleged harassment, sexual harassment and assault of a sudo room member
  • also for alleged repeated threats toward member on the email list
    • The banned person has expressed desire to participate in mediation as of 2016-07-20.

• Diana - 2016-06-08
  • Banned for physical violence against a member
  • Additionally has been using the space as their living room (playing WoW all day) and caught sleeping at least twice.

• Jackson - 2016-05-31
  • asked to leave for verbal threats made after being informed all mail to individuals must be addressed "c/o ' an omni collective'".
  • postal worker informed omni that it must get a new mailbox as people on the steps were breaking in to get their mail.
  • several others have witnessed his verbally threats on other occasions.

• Sand - 2016-05-30
  • Banned for repeated sleeping and lying about it

• Eian Moon - 2015-08-25
  • Asked to leave for threatening violence with a cane
  • Ban initiated by: Omni Commons

personperson

• Ranette - 2015-06-23
  • Asked to leave for threatening violence and physically assaulting a person in the space.
  • Ban initiated by: Omni Commons

• Egon - 2015-06-09
  • Asked to leave due to repeated behavior that violated the safe space policy.
  • Ban initiated by: Sudo Room
  • Photographs:
• 

• Sam Atman - 2015-06-03
  • Made threats about to the effect of (paraphrasing) "you (sudo/omni) are not dangerous and I know people who are"
  • Sam Atman is not welcome in the space for safe space reasons.
  • No mediation as of this writing.
  • Photographs:
• 

  Sam Atman - @djinnius twitter profile

• 

  Sam Atman - @mnemnion github profile

person

• Kwe - 2015-06-01
  • Asked to leave due to repeatedly and knowingly breaking the no sleeping rule.
  • Conflict Steward/Mediator: seeking mediators, [formerly] Julio
  • Photographs available on Google Images
• Violet/Pidgein - 2015-05-28
  • Asked to leave due to repeated behavior that violated the safe space policy and violating an agreement of nonengagement with a person they were undergoing conflict mediation with.
  • Conflict Steward/Mediator: Jenny/Niki
  • Photographs:
• 
• 

• Manual (also goes by 'Manny') - 2015-05-27
  • Ban initiated by: Sudo Room
  • Asked to leave and never return for repeatedly stealing from sudo room after being repeatedly told not to.
  • May assert that 'Jake told me I can take e-waste'

• Mischa Spiegelmock aka wooster - 2015-03-25
  • Ban initiated by: Sudo Room
  • This is a safe space ban.
  • Harasser who targeted individual members
  • Took control of sudo room IRC channel and refused to hand over control to actual sudo room members. Lied to freenode about his asscoiation to sudo room which made it harder for us to regain control.
  • Trolled sudo room online in multiple ways.
  • Here's a photo

• Ted (also goes by "Teddy") - 2015-03-08
  • Asked to leave due to repeated behavior that violated the safe space policy.

• Stan - 2015-02-09
  • The collective/community they were identified with: Counter Culture Labs
  • Ban initiated by: Sudo Room
  • Asked to leave due to repeated behavior that violated the safe space policy.
  • Mediation is already in the works.
  • Conflict Mediator: Jake

• Steve Bloom - 2015-02-08
  • Ban initiated by: Sudo Room
  • Asked to leave due to repeated behavior that violated the safe space policy.
  • Steve has been asked to attend a sudo room meeting to seek a mediator and steward.

• Kwic - 2015-02-07
  • Asked to leave due to repeated behavior that violated the safe space policy.
  • Mediation was already underway before Kwic was asked to leave. Mediation with others is currently being set up.
  • Conflict Mediator: Mary
  • Photographs:
• 
• 

• "Perry" - 2015-02-03 -
  • An olderish musician (guitarist & uke-player), claiming to be a member of FNB but who was verified to be not, who has been discovered to be wandering drunk around the space, and in so being transgressing boundaries of personal space, private dance rehearsals, and disrupting meetings. Has been asked not to come to the space drunk, agreed, but did so again anyway. Therefore, in response to the last instance where an Omnier's space was violated while he was drunk, he is provisionally banned pending conflict resolution with Omni, which he should arrange.

David T

• David T - Indefinitely banned from the sudo room physical space pending mediation 2015-01-08
  • The collective/community they were identified with: sudo room
  • David T asked someone in Sudo to borrow headphones. This went into overborrowing teritory; he left omni with them. The headphones were someone's property, a discussion about this occured, culminated into a physical and verbal confrontation.
  • Jenny talked with David T and said he's not welcome at sudo room until he engages in conflict resolution.
  • David T has since shown up outside the Omni and has continually be difficult to remove from the building.

• Chris - Indefinitely banned from the Omni physical space 2015-02-04
  • The collective/community they were identified with: Food Not Bombs
  • Sleeping in the space and getting aggressive when told it wasn't appropriate
  • Food Not Bombs contacted Chris about this and he has agreed to stay away from the Omni. He is currently undergoing mediation.
  • Conflict Steward/Mediator: Jenny/Kevin

• Chris B - 2014-12-17
  • The collective/community they were identified with: Sudo Room
  • Ban initiated by: Sudo Room
  • Repeatedly sleeping in the building
  • Habiting the space for domestic use
  • Sudo Room finds Chris B in bad standing and require that he re-apply for sudo room membership upon proof that he's found sustainable long-term housing.

• Scott Cohen - 2014-07-30
  • The collective/community they were identified with: Sudo Room
  • Ban initiated by: Sudo Room
  • Violated safe space policy.

• Zach Houston - Indefinitely suspended from the Omni on 2014-07-22
  • The collective/community they were identified with: Bay Area Public School, Timeless Infinite Light, Contemporary Art Museum of Oakland (CAMO), Omni
  • Omni-wide suspension initiated by: Timeless Infinite Light
  • BAPS had also previously requested temporary suspension of Zach from its own membership, pending conflict resolution process
  • Violated Omni safe space policy.
  • Extant mediation policy could not accommodate complexity of the issue.
  • Suspension pending development of more robust conflict resolution or transformative justice model procedure.

• Ariel (Unknown last name. Anthony Repetto might know.) - 2013-09-04
  • The collective/community they were identified with: Sudo Room
  • Ban initiated by: Sudo Room
  • Violated Sudo Room safe space policy. Prior to Sudo Room moving to Omni
  • Repeatedly came in after being banned and refused to leave.
  • Hard to kick out. Getting multiple people to line up shoulder to shoulder and walk her out has worked previously.

• Anthony on a bike with guitar
  • The collective/community they were identified with: Sudo Room
  • Repeatedly caught smoking in the building

Banned

These individuals have expressed such damaging behavior that they have been permanently banned from the Omni Commons. They may request mediation, however, it does not have to be granted to them.

• Zachary Running Wolf
  • Discussion of banning was initiated at the Delegates' meeting on 2017-7-6 after many months of ZRW ignoring Omni community agreements to not sleep or store personal belongings at the Omni, and after outbursts when ZRW yelled statements like "F--- immigrants" and used the N word. Over those months, when people reminded him about the agreements or raised concerns about his behavior, and when caught sleeping, ZRW usually responded loudly and aggressively, refusing to take responsibility, and sometimes threatening the person or the Omni. In addition, he rarely cleaned up after himself in his workspace or the kitchen, despite being asked to do so.
  • During the discussion, Food Not Bombs clarified that ZRW is not a member. It was decided that the rules about admission to the building for non-members be applied to ZRW.
  • Before the next meeting on 2017-7-20, ZRW warned a member who is regularly in the space to stay away from the entrance hall Shattuck side windows the following night.
  • 2 people representing ZRW attended the meeting that night to inform us that ZRW demanded an apology from the Omni and a key. The issues with ZRW's behavior, his threats, how people feel unsafe in the building with him due to safer space policy violations, and his history of vandalizing the building or equipment of organizations that banned him, were discussed. The final proposal passed was to continue enforcing the usual access rules for non-members with ZRW, to go ahead with mediation if he requested it, and to automatically ban him if vandalism to the building occurred. His friends agreed to communicate this to him, and to discourage him from vandalizing the building.
  • At 2:30am on 2017-7-25, a beer bottle was thrown through the Shattuck side window adjacent to the main door, resulting in the final ban.
  • UPDATE: On Feb 22, Running Wolf was given a keycard as a member of BAPS after mediation with SEEDS.

• Mark aka Xer0Dynamite aka Dreaming Forward aka Lone Ranger - 2016-8-19
  • asked to leave due to discriminatory social media comments and offensive in-person behavior in the space. Also banned from Noisebridge for safe space reasons, and thus is reciprocally banned from the Omni.

• Arif - 2016-08-03
  • The collective/community they were identified with: Counter Culture Labs
  • Ban initiated by: Counter Culture Labs
  • Several CCL members stated that he made them uncomfortable, and that they would not feel safe having him work in the lab.
  • Banned from BioCurious for repeated highly unsafe behavior in the lab, antisocial behavior, and verbal aggression.
  • Banned on grounds of reciprocity with BioCurious. He would first have to resolve his ban from BioCurious to be able to lift his ban at CCL.

• Anthony Repetto - 2016-04-06
  • The collective/community they were identified with: Sudo Room
  • Ban initiated by: Sudo Room
  • Violated safe space policy and put the Omni in danger
  • Multiple incidents of aggressive behavior and disruption of paid events
  • Threatened to kill himself at the Omni causing ~20 cops to show up and enter the Omni
  • Has caused the cops to show up at Omni twice.

• Matthew Stephenson - 2014-09-25
  • The collective/community they were identified with: Sudo Room
  • Ban initiated by: Sudo Room
  • Violated safe space policy
  • Repeatedly slept in the basement, claimed to be a hitman, creeped on a member
  • Seeks attention through claiming access to power, money and resources

• Timon - also goes by 'Ayer' on 2014-05-28
  • The collective/community they were identified with: Sudo Room
  • Ban initiated by: Sudo Room
  • From the meeting notes: "Regardless of Timon's current membership status, we find him in "bad standing" with regard to sudo room's values, specifically with regard to "safe space". We ban Timon from the sudo room, for an indefinite period."

Need Permission Prior to Visiting

The following residents/tenants of 2141 Broadway (Bay Area Public School and Sudo Room's old location) are not allowed in the sudo room physical space and anywhere in the Omni, unless they are explicitly granted permission by consensus at two consecutive sudo room meetings and at least one Omni Delegates meeting:

• Johannes
• Billy

Previously Asked to Leave

These people are no longer unwelcome at the Omni. This data to be removed one year after expiration.