Yeah, "hecklers do more damage than any official crackdown" is spot on. I saw the same thing happen at a speaker event downtown last year. The police just stood there looking bored, but three guys with a megaphone managed to drown out the whole talk in about five minutes. People started leaving in droves, not because they were scared but because it was pointless to stay and listen to a shouting contest. The thing is, hecklers force you to choose a side emotionally, and when it gets heated like that, nobody feels safe to actually talk. Cops at least have rules they have to follow, but there's no rulebook for a guy screaming in your face who won't stop. It killed the whole event way faster than any official shutdown would have.

Wasted a whole weekend once trying to fix a static crackle in an old amp, only to find out it was my phone's charger buzzing on the desk next to it. I felt like such a FOOL when I unplugged that thing and the noise just stopped dead. Makes me wonder how many "dead" CRTs I've tossed over the years were actually fine, just vibing with the room around them.