Public awareness of crime, sexual harassment in libraries, and inappropriate books and web sites in schools due to American Library Association policy. ⚖️
Illinois HB 2689 (link) "[c]reates the Internet Screening in Public Libraries Act." Its sponsor is Rep. Peter Breen (link). So Illinois again seeks legislation to filter the Internet to eliminate pornography from all Illinois libraries. Read the expected excuses and subterfuge I predict will be used to keep it from passing here:
Internet Screening in Public Libraries Act: HB 2689 requires internet filters on public library computers to prevent the viewing of hard-core pornography on those computers. Breen emphatically stated that, “I’ve heard from many moms over the years that adult men are regularly viewing hard-core pornography on public library computers, in full view of children and others. This is an abuse of taxpayer resources and creates a hostile environment for public library employees and patrons. No child should have to walk past obscene and abusive material in order to take advantage of the educational opportunities available at their public library.”
Watch this news report, read the transcript. Crimes like public masturbation (visible in the news broadcast) and child pornography are just fine in American libraries and the library directors could care less—watch, you'll see/hear—letting the criminals off with a slap on the wrist, at most.
And the incoming American Library Association [ALA] President Sari Feldman runs Cuyahoga County Public Library that is reportedly loaded with crime, so we can expect another year with ALA doing nothing about crime in libraries:
TRANSCRIPT OF CARL MONDAY'S INVESTIGATIVE REPORT ON LIBRARY CRIME
Child: And there’s mountains way over here.
Adult: Right normally you float over the water…
Reporter: For 6-year-old Colin Beckford, the library is a lifelong learning experience.
Adult: But if you went way down deep, there's mountains way down under the water. Cool, huh?
Reporter: A seemingly safe and secure environment that puts his mom at ease.
Child's Mother: We've never had any problems or any issues.
Reporter: After all, there are security systems in place, and a security guard on duty, and a screening system to foil what the Cleveland library says is its biggest crime, the theft of books.
Library Speaker: That's our biggest thing is people tryin’ to take books out of here, or movies.
Reporter: But book theft may be the least of the library's security problems. We reviewed incident reports from libraries in Cleveland and throughout Cuyahoga County. Just the past six months we found more than 50 cases of violence, pornography and sex. A patron robbed at gunpoint, a man downloading and printing child porn, used condoms found on the computer room floor, teens having sex on a sink in the men's room, teens having oral sex, male fondles self while looking at a thirteen-year-old girl.
Library Security: We have a spectrum of problem behaviors, some of which is criminal, majority of it is not.
Reporter: Former FBI agent John Dunn runs security at the county library's twenty eight branches.
Library Security: We have I think all the typical ingredients that attach to having almost unlimited public access.
Reporter: That includes public access to the computer for patrons like twenty-three-year-old Mike Cooper.
What do you look up on the Internet?
Masturbator: Nothing really. Um, my sports scores, stuff like that.
Reporter: Sports, pornography, stuff like that.
Masturbator: No. Why?
Reporter: I don't know why. You tell me why.
Masturbator: I don't look up pornography, so no.
Reporter: For some pursuing the porn sites is a favorite pastime at local libraries, sometimes with young children just a few feet away. Our undercover cameras and library incident reports back us up. But sometimes it's more than just looking. It's a public library all right but it's not a place where patrons should be acting out their private fantasies. Can you think of any time when a patron sitting at a computer and watching porn and masturbating would be acceptable behavior?
Library Security: Absolutely not.
Reporter: Criminal behavior?
Library Security: It could be. Certainly, absolutely.
Another masturbator simply asked to leave.
Reporter: You ever perform a sexual act at the library?
Masturbator: No, I have not.
Reporter: What if I told you we got video of you performing a sexual act?
Masturbator: Well, it wasn't me.
Reporter: We can't really show you but that's Mike Cooper pleasuring himself while watching porn at the Berea library just across the room from the children's section. Take our word for it, and his. You just reached out and grabbed yourself and started having sex?
Masturbator: Huh. I, I did what I ... I wasn't thinking. I made a mistake.
Reporter: We've seen adults looking up the sites and actually having sex in the library.
Bystander: Oh my God. That's horrible!
Reporter: Based on the fact that there are guys like you out there doing this kind of thing, you think parents ought to be a little more careful about letting their kids at the library alone?
Masturbator: Yeah. Yes.
Reporter: I mean if you were a parent wouldn't you be afraid of a guy like you?
Masturbator: I'm not a psycho predator or anything, um. Yeah, I would be afraid.
Reporter: If Mike Cooper doesn't trust himself, should we? Well, apparently the Berea library does. Was he pleasuring himself when you saw him last time?
Library Director: Uh, yeah.
Reporter: Berea Library manager Cindy Bereznay says they caught Cooper in the act a few years ago.
Library Director: I told him I would have to call the police if it continued.
Reporter: And Cooper ran out of the building.
Library Security: We want people here. We leave people alone. We do not bother people unless and until they create an issue that puts them where they're disrupting our mission or the ability of other people to use the library or they fall afoul of our rules and our policies.
Reporter: Apparently, masturbating inside the library didn't break any rules. Cooper began returning to the library about six months ago. No one stopped him. Why would you let a guy like that back in the library?
Library Director: Well, I mean like I said, I mean you, you’d like to give people other chances, so…
Reporter: But this is a guy who's performing a sexual act at a library. Why would you allow him back in the library?
Library Director: Well, it was several years ago and I wasn't aware, I mean, that he had any criminal record or that it was continuing.
Masturbator: I didn't think I was doing anything wrong at the time and now I understand that I was.
Reporter: You didn't think having sex underneath the table at the library was wrong?
Masturbator: At the time, no. Now, I admit that I was wrong. There's nothing else that I can say.
Reporter: While Cooper's anti-social behavior should be a concern to all parents, the unemployed porn site user has his own folks to deal with now. You live with your parents?
Masturbator: Yes.
Reporter: What do you think they're going to think when they see this?
Masturbator: They're going to kill me.
Masturbator's Father: I don't like you getting in my face either or my son's face.
Masturbator's Mother: Please stop. Please stop.
Reporter: But not before taking their anger out on us. What is your son doing out in the public, in a public place, exposing himself and … [Father attacks Reporter]. [beep beep]
Masturbator's Father: I said get out of here. [crosstalk 05:19]
Masturbator's Mother: Stop. Stop.
Masturbator's Father: Get that fuck now! You want me to take that thing away from you and stick it [crosstalk 05:24]
Reporter: Threatening behavior at the computer inside your neighborhood library and at the Cooper residence.
Masturbator's Father: I'm a combat vet and if you ever bring my God (beep) [inaudible 05:38] you, you son-of-a (beep) I will and you won't (beep) like it.
Reporter: Well by law libraries aren't required to filter out pornography on their computers. [SafeLibraries: Not true.] Generally it's up to each library system to set up its own guidelines. Of course all libraries must take the appropriate action to make sure that children aren't exposed to Internet porn at the library. But as we'll find out tomorrow at 11:00 that's to always the case.
News Anchor 1: Now is this a case where more security might be advantageous?
Reporter: No. We're already spending a lot of money on security so far this year. Actually this entire year we'll spend about $316,000 at the county libraries and 2.3 million at the Cleveland public libraries for security alone so we are spending some cash.
News Anchor 2: The people there don't feel legally empowered to throw somebody out for this!
Reporter: Many don't and that's what we'll talk about tomorrow.
News Anchor 2: All right, Carl. Thank you. We will see you tomorrow night for more.
