[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Public library rant (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 12/10/2004 7:47:40 PM EDT
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My wife is a librarian and every day she comes home with complaints about the homeless people that pretty much live there and do whatever the hell they please. We've got registered sex offenders that frequent the place and the staff is always calling the police on them when they start following people around. Drug addicts who will sleep for six or seven hours and then suddenly wake up and go off, throwing chairs and books around for no apparent reason. Grown adult homeless that will take books away from kids, drag them out of chairs, all because the kid is in "there space". Man that place is a dump. A few weeks ago, my wife calls me at work all in tears. She had to call the police on one homeless guy because he was walking around jacking off. The police ran him off, but he comes back and writes "bich" and "I can kil you" (his spelling) on my wifes car. So I spent the rest of the night driving around the library area and finally found this nasty asshole and introduced him to my tire bumper while reminding him to stay away from my wife. I swear, I would have killed him if I could get away with it. Today was the icing on the cake though, one of the librarians found a chair at the end of a row of books with semen all over it and the surrounding area, (big deal, they find cum there all the time) only the place tha chair was found overlooks the children's reading area. I wish it was legal to kill these people. Rant over. |
It's a sex crime here too. I don't know why they didn't run his ass in. I guess the policeman felt like giving him a break. I'd love to catch some pervert jerking off there, see how well he can do it after his manhood gots stomped on. Libraries are no place for kids anymore. |
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IIRC, recently there was a big Supreme Court case in which the court found it was illegal to ban crazy homeless people from the library, no matter what they do, because it is a public institution. So, jail time and discreet ass-stompings are the only real options. |
Actually, he probably didn’t want to have to throw his handcuffs away after using them on the guy. Probably didn’t want the guy in his cruiser, either! Incidentally, lots of homeless people are seriously unhinged. Presumably you’ve talked to your wife about ways to protect herself. Personally, I’d also get the library administrators involved in this – they have a duty to give her a safe work environment. Is this the only library in the area? Seems to me that a transfer might be in order. |
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It's a law enforcement issue. It appears as though you will have to force the hands of your law enforcement officials to clean this area up. Write a letter to the editor of your local paper. Shine the light on the roaches and they'll scatter. If these derelicts know that the police will be regularly patrolling the area, they'll go somewhere else. It's that simple. |
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What's funny is the police department is one block away and the library shares the same parking lot with the civic center and DPS. It is a rare if the police aren't called at least every other day. The administrator is fully aware of the situation there but won't do a thing to get them out, she won't even limit access to porn sites on the computers, my wife is constantly having to restart computers that have locked up because of all the porn pop-ups. The new branch supervisor is helping as much as she can, she's an ex-probation officer for sex crimes offenders and knows how to handle these people and what to watch for in their behaviour, but she is limited by the administrator. The admin feels that the homeless and crazies are patrons too and need to be treated as such. Would a letter or series of letters to the paper help? My wife says it is a matter of time before someone gets hurt and that people should not be bringing their kids there. |
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Actually, call the main number of your local paper and ask for the city editor. The city editor makes story assignments. Make specific mention of the semen in the children's section. They'll be on that like flies on shit. The timing is perfect, because they're getting into the annual news drought that runs from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day and they'll jump at anything they can get. There's a reason why Ukrainian elections and this business with the Rumsfeld Q&A session is getting so much press right nowt -- there's not enought news to keep people busy. edited for foolish typos |
This is a better idea than the letter-to-the-editor. Nothing like semen on children's books to gin up a little public outrage. |
By the time this is all over, there may be a new library administrator. Newspapers tend to be a little more tenacious than TV stations, but if contacting the paper doesn't work, try TV. What they lack in consistency, they'll make up for in drama. Also, when talking to the paper, they may want you to agree to not talk to any other media about it until they run their initial story. This is an okay deal to make, because it shows they're seriously interested. You can make the tip anonymously, but any documentation you can come up with will make a world of difference because it will give them something tangible to work with. If they say they're going to do a story and then it doesn't appear within a week or so, contact them again to check the status and tell them you're going to go to a competitor if you don't see some movement. |
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Time to start making phone calls to the mayor, Chief of PD, news stations, newspaper, a local TV investigative reporter, whoever you can get to to hear you rant. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Oh by the way--the library has never been a safe place for kids--it is still our job as parents to watch out for them--ALWAYS. |
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MarianLibrarian is a children's librarian(IU MLS '04), and I'm currently a full-time student in the Indiana University MLS program. This is sort of a problem depending on where you live, for sure. She doesn't have it at her library, because she works in a small town. I'm going into special or law, most likely, so I won't have to deal with it...which is probably good for the perverts in question. Yes, I'm a 'different' kind of library student. 
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She should make everyday bring your video camera to work day........................ Also, I think individuals can be banned from public buildings, if there behavior warrants it. The key is who is banned, must be kept track of and why. If threats were written on a car, a 2nd call to the police would be in order. It may also make someone with stripes, or bars wonder why the first incident didn't lead to an arrest. Registered sex offenders, if they are still on "supervision" may very well have conditions such as no being where children are. If they don't, perhaps the probation/parole guys could be called, and reminded that would be a good idea. 911 should be called in a lot of those circumstances, man attacking child etc. |
Write the local paper, get press on the situation. Public pressure and outcry will get things fixed- no one is going to want to be sending their kid to the library when they know Johnny the homeless pervert is jacking off to them in the childrens section, and something WILL get done about it. The library is for PATRONS not for people loitering, jerking off, etc. I guarantee your wifes adminstrator will have her ass in a sling the minute this hits the papers. It is bullshit that should be allowed to happen, and I am sorry your wife has to deal with that. Dawg [edited to add] I am curious, is this an older library? Most of the newer ones I have worked on are designed to minimize areas that aren't visually controlled by the staff. Sure, you can't cover everything all the time, but sounds like there might be some areas that cannot be visually secured. Of course if someone wants to masturbate in a library I guess privacy is probably not their first concern.  |
[Keanu Reeves]Shoot the admin.[/Keanu Reeves]` Eh. Ok, you seriously want help, here's a suggestion. You mentioned finding semen all over a book which was in an area overlooking the children's area. 1) Semen contains DNA. DNA can be submitted to laboratories for analysis and matching. Matching a known sex offender with a new sex offense would probably be a damn good way of getting that one sent back to prison. Does TX have a three-strikes or two-strikes law? 2) Put a video camera in, focused on that overlook, so that you can see who is there and what they are doing. Put up surveillance signs if required by law; don't if the signs aren't required. This will help in catching anyone who doesn't leave a sample behind. |
I'd love to have a platoon of marines or any other group of men with dignity, self-respect and concern for women and children stationed there. I honestly think the local p.d. would turn a blind eye to a little re-education of these people. |
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I noticed your from Texas. What public library is this, might I ask? Mine, which is located in Crowley, TX, seems nice. Haven't been there in a few months but it was nice when I left. Perhaps some of these people need to be introduced to the ASP expandable baton? Ben |
OMFG?!!! You're fucking kidding me??? It's gotta be Mahon Library right? I can't imagine that shit happening at Godeke. Hell, I can't imagine it happening at Mahon either! I know Mahon is downtown, but c'mon! Where I live in Arizona, the city has municipal security officers patrol the library. It's their job to run off the malcontents and call the cops on the hard cases. The librarians just explain the Dewey Decimal System to folks. |
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I used to take my kids to Mahon library all the time but now I just go get books for them myself. It's just sad that you can't take your kids to a library anymore.help Jerry. |
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As noted most newer larger libraries have better visibility in the childrens section.But with the vast majority of libraries, they are relatively small, and the only way to get better visibility is cut the shelves down. As can be readily imagined that is not particularly viable. I mean you need to have the books out for the customers. You want to hear "strange" people stories, talk to Reference Librarians in Public Libraries, Ma has one Russian Emigre , older, hairy, shirt open to sternum, big orthodox crucifix who has discovered some miracles to revolutionize the field of space travel and needs to send e-mails to our senators because NASA doesn't believe him. Bad breath, more silver in his mouth than a fine restaurant. Roller Coaster man, 15 cents short of a full dollar, get's dropped off several days a week by his ?? and spends all the time he can get on the internet looking up things about roller coasters, then he asks the librarians for help in arranging flights to those cities and making hotel reservations. No credit cards of course. Is in the middle of a vastly changing demographic, close to Little Gaza, Little Saigon, Koreans, Central Americans, Persians, Indians, Pakistanis, etc. You guys that live in a pretty homgeneous area don't know what you're missing. |
Oh yes we do...that's WHY we live in places like these. |
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I'm currently a full-time student in the Indiana University MLS program. dude!!!!!!!!!!! 'you' are going to be a...<gasp>...LIBRARIAN???!!!???!!! i'm speechless, qs. i would have never guessed. one of my friends is a big shot in the stark county library and he shoots with me in smallbore league...an intelligent and straight-shooting man. good luck to you! sorry for the hijack. we now return you to the "perverts in the library" thread now in progress. |