Bullying will not be tolerated…

It’s with a heavy heart that I find myself writing this post but it needs to be said. Having previously been a victim of bullying and harassment, I have an understanding of the anxiety it can cause an individual. I now find myself in a similar situation only surprisingly with a (now-ex) Team Brisk member, Psymill (Jonathan Wood).

I messaged Jonathan recently to ask his position and opinions on stream teams as I wanted to understand his stance on Team Brisk. I was asking this because he is very invested in his own team, which is completely fine. My view is that if you have a team of your own and still want to work together with us and our members, that’s fantastic. But if not, and you want to focus solely on your own project it raises the question – “Is it really worth being a part of another group if we’re not to help each other and/or work together?” – This was an opportunity to see whether or not Jonathan felt that being with us was important and worthwhile, or not. A simple enquiry.

Jonathan’s reply left me somewhat dumbfounded. He immediately embarked on a rant about being removed from the team due his disabilities. I was gobsmacked. Firstly, I didn’t even know Jonathan was disabled and secondly, I wasn’t asking him to leave the team, merely enquiring as to it’s importance to him. His next course of action was to remove himself from the team, then post the following statement along with screen shots of our private messages on his public Psymill Facebook group and also his personal Facebook page.

Now at this point he had very much crossed the line. Not only had he not read and digested my initial message, he was now using the reference of being removed from a team because he is disabled against my name. Anyone with any sense can see from my correspondence that there is no reference about disabilities. Period. And to suggest that I have issues with people with disabilities is frankly disgusting. Team Brisk includes people from all races, shapes, sizes, colours, genders and with disabilities, conditions and ailments. We do not discriminate, and so for him to put that out to the public is disgraceful.

I would also like to point out that the following image shows two unanswered messages to Jonathan from myself, that were not included in his Facebook posts.

An array of toxic and spiteful comments have subsequently been made on his Facebook posts with a number of his followers agreeing with him, simply following his rhetoric. Anyone who has posted comments in my favour stating that there was never any reference to being disabled, have quite literally had their comments removed by him too, thus attempting to show a very one dimensional narrative. He has further fuelled the flames with more spiteful and untrue comments and is playing some kind of victim role. Why? I have no idea, but make no bones about it, this is unequivocally, straight up bullying and defamation. To publicly slander someone’s name and reputation by spreading hate, vitriol and lies is completely unacceptable. I can look at this from the perspective of someone who has been victimised in the past and it makes me sick to my stomach to yet, again be on the receiving end of such obnoxious behaviour.

I am however, lucky enough to have four decades of experience in the music industry and have been able to build a considerable following in the real world and the streaming world. But ask yourself this, if you are a much smaller dj/performer/streamer and someone like this came along with a much bigger followership/influence and did this to you, it could potentially damage you psychologically and also impact your streaming career. I have seen people suffer from extreme anxiety from bullying, not only in the workplace but on Twitch. I’ve seen people stop streaming altogether because of this kind of thing. I’ve witnessed one guy who was so stressed he put a knife to his wrist on stream, thankfully he didn’t harm himself it however, he lost his account and channel from it as Twitch shut him down. These are the affects this kind of behaviour can have on people. I am not going to tolerate it. Make sure YOU do not tolerate it either.

The truth always comes out and will always prevail.

Stay safe guys xx