December 12, 1995

TO: Paul Wolf 510 451-3002 (FAX)

	FROM: Mark Pauline & Mike Dingle/SRL

CLIENT/ATTORNEY INFORMATION: SRL Show, November 26 1995
450 Beale Street/SF	

	Statement by Michael Dingle ,	

Prior to the beginning of the SRL "Crime Wave" show at approximately 8:35
PM, I was    informed by John Law from one of our security crews that the
SFPD were on the street behind the bleachers. John asked me to come over
and be available in case they needed to talk to someone official from the
production. I stood on the perimeter of a conversation between SFPD Officer
Jerry Lankford (Badge # 1707), and Paramedic Bundy Channick (on call for
SRL) and Desmond Crisis, leader of the Otaku Patrol, our other security
team. Although I didn't hear much of what was said, I did catch Bundy
saying that we were very concerned with safety, had an excellent track
record, etc. and the officer walked away. I was not needed and returned to
the performance area.

At approximately 8:55, John Law informed me that the SF Fire Department was
now in the vicinity. I quickly found and talked with Mark and we decided to
begin the show immediately. At 8:59 our public address announcer made the
introductory remarks, the engines were started and the show began (on
time!). As the engines were being fired up, I noticed Officer Lankford at
the center entrance to the performance area, so I ran over to him and
offered him a new pair of foam earplugs, which he accepted, and I believe
he employed them. The performance lasted approximately 2530 minutes, and I
noticed Officer Lankford and one or two other officers at the north end of
the lot, under the Harrison Street overpass, watching the performance
intently. At the conclusion, I announced over the PA that the show was
over, thank you for coming to our concert and to please to leave in a safe
and orderly fashion.

I was wandering towards the north end of the performance area, everyone
seemed very happy, and one of our crew members asked me if I would speak to
the police, which I did obligingly. I was now formally introduced to
Officer Lankford and Officer Dan Murphy (Badge 2238). I shook both of their
hands warmly and answered their questions as best as I could in my
friendliest manner. I admitted to being one of the organizers of the show
and gave my driver's license to Officer Lankford. I'm a bit unclear on what
all was said, I suppose I admitted to not having permits, explained a bit
of our frustrating history with the SFFD which precipitated the absence of
official sanctions, and in general the officers, especially Officer Murphy,
were very enthusiastic and supportive of our show. They had the name of the
video producer Dave Scardina, asked me if I could find him, so they let me
wander around the lot for a few moments, but I was unable to locate him and
reported back to the police.

They told me that the SFFD was enroute and that they would probably have to
cite me for a few things, but that they would try and get them to go easy
on us. For instance there was a benign wood fire from the Party Jail at the
north end, and I explained to the police that it would be nice if we could
burn all of the wood, which would make our clean up easier. I told them
that a show we had tried to stage at SOMAR (South of Market Cultural
Center) in May had been squelched when a member of the SFFD had told SOMAR
director Jack Davis that they ( SFFD) had heard a rumor that we were
planning a show, and if he let it take place, it would basically jeopardize
all of the SOMAR's future public events. The police seemed to understand
our predicament and Murphy said he would talk to them. Meanwhile, as
members of our crew came up to me I told them to get as much wood in the
fire as possible, the SFFD was coming and let's see if we can get it all
burnt off.

At approximately 9:50 SFFD arrived and I was introduced to Inspector Dan
Barden. I extended my hand to him, which he refused to shake. He was livid,
and basically furiously told me that he was going to throw the book at me.
He pointed at an oil spill and asked me what it was andhow we intended to
remove it. I informed him that it was hydraulic fluid and that we could
steam clean it. He said emphatically  no way, it would drain toxins into
the bay... and in general he steamed about how we should not be allowed to
do this, there are hundreds of things to cite, and reiterated that he was
going to get us as good as he could. I admitted to several things here: no
permits were in place (I did stress that we had an insurance policy), I was
aware that we had catapulted flaming hay bales into the performance area,
that we had been launching bowling balls with road flares in them, and that
our explosions were of an electrical nature. Basically I was trying to
explain the show to him, our prior difficulties in getting Fire Dept.
permission, our impeccable safety record, how we had pleased the several
thousand spectators, we are a cultural treasure of the "city that knows
how," and the usual stuff about how it would be nice to work with the fire
department, but all of our previous efforts had been futile. I also told
him that we had to have the parking lot cleared off by 7 AM. He informed me
that we were not going to do anything right now, that the Hazardous
Materials squad was coming, the Health Department, maybe he mentioned the
Bomb Squad as well, but that Fire Prevention would be doing an
investigation, the site was to be sealed off and everyone except Mark and
myself were to evacuate the area immediately. His crew moved in and
extinguished the wood fire from the Party Jail.

To assist in their investigation, I used our bullhorn and informed the
audience that was milling about the site and the SRL crew that the site was
sealed, they would have to leave immediately, and to please cooperate with
the Fire Department by leaving as soon as possible. I told SRL crew to
gather at the nearby workshop of one of the crew and await further
instructions. The response to my announcements succeeded in clearing the
area and by 10:15ish the lot was empty of all unauthorized personnel. SRL
director Mark Pauline was introduced to Inspector Barton and answered his
questions to the best of his ability. SRL high energy physicist Greg Leyh
was present until the site was evacuated and answered questions about the
electrical discharges. I was left with Officers Lankford and Murphy who had
been joined by Murphy's partner Officer Pat Driscoll. There was a lot of
good natured conversation between the police and myself. Murphy made me
promise to give him a copy of the video and to let him know when our next
show was so he could help us with permits, security etc. The SFFD
personnel, not the Inspectors, were fascinated at our machines and were
very nice, and wanted to know what everything was, why we did these shows,
when the next one is, etc.

At approximately 11:00 PM, I had to urinate and now that the site was
evacuated, I was given a police escort to the South end of the lot to
relieve myself. Upon returning with Officer Murphy, I believe it was
Lankford, but whomever it was, there was a request for an identification of
all of the machines used in the performance. I provided a walking tour of
the performance area for police and fire personnel, giving the names and
description of the functions of each machine. There was much genuine
respect for the machines from the officers, and a great deal of humor. For
instance, I'd say, "this is the Inchworm." Murphy would ask sarcastically,
in an officiously goodnatured way, "How many Inchworms?" I'd reply,
"One"..."this is the large Flame Blower "..."How many?" ..."One" etc....
until we reached the compressed gas flame balls..."How many of
these?"...and my response "three" provoked much laughter.

By 11:30 I was aware of the presence on site of the HAZ/MAT team, the
Health Department, plainclothes folks with still and video cameras, and
another solitary investigating looking guy who was poking around the lot
picking up and confiscating a large clear plastic jar that a friend had
used to collect donations from the people on the Harrison Street bridge in
the free seats. At this time I was introduced to Inspector Jerry Fox (I
believe) from HAZ/MAT. A very soft spoken, older man (I'd guess he was
pushing 60), with that reddish Irish complexion, and a real sincere way of
asking questions. I basically told him all of the stuff I had told the
police, Dan Barton, and anyone else who had asked. Always stressing our
safety record and adding stuff like the show was live to the world on the
Internet, we're the only group in the world who does this, and generally we
had a great conversation. But he would always reduce it to how the public
safety was the number one concern, what if a motorist on the bridge had
been distracted by a bright flash or explosion and driven into another car,
etc. But he did seem like an intelligent nice guy, who stressed the need
for us to work with Fire Prevention in the future. Any comment I may have
made about how I thought the Fire Department would move the audience back
too far from the performance was met with the same line about public
safety.

At 11:30  11:45ish, Captain Edward de Cossio had finally arrived at the
scene from his home in Redwood City. He caucused with the other officials
on the scene and walked about looking at stuff, he asked Mark to explain
some of the equipment. Earlier, Officer Murphy, who had bonded with me,
gave me a general instruction to just say "I don't know" when asked
questions about the technical stuff. In many cases subsequently I said that
I was the personnel coordinator, and deferred to Mark to answer. For the
next hour or so, Mark and I just stood or sat around, while the
investigation proceeded. Guys were up on the hillside where the Unabomber
puppets had been launched.  For the most part we just hung out, shot the
breeze with cops and firemen, intermittently cold and cranky, or revealing
in what fun the show had been, speculating on when they were going to be
done, would we get to go back to work, etc. There was a crew of volunteers
from the Sailor's Union of the Pacific waiting to assist us in getting the
site cleared. I was allowed by the police to receive a message with a phone
number to call them when it was okay and they would help us with the clean
up.

Around about 12:15 or so, Captain de Cossio was busy referencing his book
of code, and then Lankford summoned me to his squad car. As I was walking
over to him, he had a bunch of tickets in his hand, and as we were getting
started, there was an interruption by someone, I can't remember who, and he
told me to go sit down and he would be back to me shortly. 15 minutes
later, a young officer in one of those jumpsuit type uniforms escorted me
to Officer Lankford's car, a rather luxurious Crown Victoria. I was
resigned but cheerful, commenting on his comfy car. He began to read me the
citations, and I signed them, there were four of them with a total of nine
misdemeanor counts. Then he took my right thumb print on all of them before
giving them to me. As I rolled my thumb on the first one he
commented,"looks like you've done this before." I replied that I had
watched a lot of TV cop shows, that I liked "Cannon" and "Hunter." So we
talked about them while he finished up with me. I guess he seemed like a
former football player and might appreciate some banter about Fred Dryer,
former LA Ram playing Sgt. Rick Hunter. As we wrapped up in the cruiser, he
told me that he wasn't sure how much longer the investigation would be, and
I thanked him for being understanding and nice to us and got out of the car
and walked back to where Mark was getting his infraction ticket from de
Cossio, who also had the same two infraction charges for me. I signed for
them and asked what happened next, and he told me that he wasn't sure how
much longer the investigation would last. So I walked away.

At this point, approximately 12:45 AM I approached the plainclothes
investigator guy, standing behind the bleachers on Beale Street and asked
him who he was. He said his name was Mike from Police investigations, and
that he had taken the donations jar as potential evidence, and he thought
that they were almost finished, thatthey just needed to finish taking
video and still photos and then our crew could return and start the clean
up. I walked back over to hang out with Mark and Officers Driscoll and
Murphy. Inspector Dan Barden, who had arrived on the scene wearing a white
hat but now wearing a blue one, approached Mark and I. He told me that he
actually respected the work we were trying to do and finally gave me a
firm, warm handshake. He said that there was no way we would ever do
another show in SF and we agreed with him, saying again that we would like
to work with the SFFD. Barden told us to contact Rich Condon in Fire
Prevention the next time we had plans to stage a performance and that they
would be willing to work with us. We assured him that we would go through
the official channels in the future, and Barton departed on cordial terms.

Mark was then taken by mysterious Mike into his car, a red Honda, and
interviewed for almost 1/2 an hour. Mark told me later that Mike had said
he was an environmental crime investigator, which struck Mark as odd since
he didn't ask any questions that had anything to do with environmental
crimes, just questions about the organization, why he did these shows, what
was the purpose, etc.  like he was after a psychological profile...Hmmm.

At about 1:15 I walked to the South end of the lot where several members of
our crew had assembled on the other side of a police car that was stationed
at the south gate. I informed the SRL people that it wouldn't be long, just
a few more overview photos and video pans, and to be ready to go back to
work. The officers in the cruiser had heard that the show had been live on
the Internet and expressed an interest in knowing more, like they thought
it was hip. Finally at approximately 1:30 the photo crew was done and the
police removed the yellow crime scene tape and would only drive away after
I got a few people to remove the temporary fencing sections that were
partially blocking Beale Street. The police had left a box of donuts and
coffee.

Statement by Mark Pauline

When the show was over...blah blah blah

Thanks for all of your help Paul.

YT
	MPauline	M Dingle