Yeah, Croydon life is pretty harsh. - Updated.
nd if life is too stressful you will misfire in some way. And many will reach for a pain killer.
This post continues... As I get my head around what happened. How on earth did that many people get so stupid?
These people have obviously got themselves mixed up in a VERY complex web. Lies have a habit of building up and then collapsing after all.
There are 3 tiers to this:
Tier 1: Protect the drug supply. A culture of cover-up common in every scene; simply due to how people want to take drugs, drugs are illegal, and as such you need to access the black market to get them.
Landlords will not tolerate this one obviously. Well, unless they're corrupt. You can drink a lot more when on cocaine after all, and that will boost the takings of the Landlord. Usually this one is pretty mild, but it can go wrong with the more extreme crowds ( those willing to use violence. See Tier 3 ).
This is the basics. It exists in EVERY venue.
Tier 2: Covering up substance abuse. This one is mostly mates covering up for mates if they get too sozzled and pass out somewhere embarrassing. Again, not a biggy. And, again, only a dodgy Landlord would let them get this hammered in the first place. But...
At this stage you start to cover up people turning into addicts, and messing up in other ways as well. Hence why Landlords aren't allowed to do it. Landlords are supposed to be bastions of the community after all. If someone has drifted from 'fun drinkies' into proper substance abuse stuff they should be stopped really.
More serious than Tier 1, as proper self-harm ( through substance abuse ) has crept in. Binge-drinking would be part of this Tier.
Tier 3: Covering up violence. Ok, this is the tipping point. When it gets too serious.
As people get more and more inebriated dafter things happen. And with a common side-effect of Cocaine being violence ( as well as paranoia ) when violence shows it's DEFINITELY a problem. Violence can be verbal and emotional as well as physical.
People will do this to protect the Drug Supply. Including Landlords. This is the tier/ level of severity where innocents start getting hurt. It starts with a few punches sure, or maybe just a hate campaign, but in the end a weapon usually shows up. Dean learned this the hard way with the stabbing/murder. But then Dean refuses to do anything in writing so... Silly boy.
All 3 Landlords ( The Ship, The Shoe, & The Bad Apple ( not The Dragon! That was a typo! ) ) were willing to cover up all the way to Tier 3. As were the Punters.
Yup, nothing to salvage. It's all a mess. All of this is the act of an addict, badly misfiring, and desperately trying to hide their misfiring from passers-by. Keeping up those appearances.
Reminds me of mum and how violent she is to protect her reputation ( mum harms her kids, and then harms them some more if they tell anyone ).
Croydon croydon croydon...
Deliberately keeping me single so that I either obey or leave:
This one isn't tiers as much as styles. It's the same style over and over.
The man lies to the woman saying BLAH is dodgy or dangerous ( remember the whisky rumour? ), and at the same time makes a fuss of her. He says he'll protect her, as he's big & hairy. The woman falls for it and dates someone else. Someone possibly VERY dangerous ( 2 wifebeaters etc etc ).
So the bloke lies to the woman to get into her knickers, and because she's been bought a couple of drinks she falls for it. Then both get a-hating on an innocent target.
See what I mean? They are that thick/naive. So in many ways I feel I've dodged a bullet, lonely though it has been to do so. There's simply nothing here.
I'm having to make a few adjustments with SUN; but the group therapy, mixed with me being away from the violence, does seem to be helping. Life is slowly returning.
Oh, yes. The Mental Health Forum now has enough big people to have a proper Executive. Before it was me carrying most stuff, but now we have new people coming in long-term! Great news, as an expansion of high-ranking staff means more info coming in.
So I am no longer on my own. Re-enforcements have arrived! :)