I did not plan to be the one to force the issue; I had hoped to avoid even the slightest hint of "unilateral action", but todays' crisis seemed to call for what we might call "citizen's arrest". Responding to repeated calls for help, I blocked a user and all his known puppet accounts. This action requires immediate review by the Arbitration Committee.
If the committee wants to unblock him before making a decision, that's fine. That's what Fred and all them are supposed to do: figure out how to handle a case where everyone else has given up. If they want to keep the block in place while they investigate and make up their minds, that's fine too.
I vote to ratify/endorse/support/agree-with Ed's bans. Bird and its sock puppets have explicitly announced its intentions of doing harm to Wikipedia. It needs to be restrained while its allegations are evaluated.