The Library's Board of Trustees refuses to address any of these matters or explain why the police and/or FBI were not called when child porn, in particular, was reported (by three witnesses!) to have been accessed in this library.
OPPL Director Mary Weimar Does Not Call Police on Child Porn
It is well-known that criminals use the anonymous Internet access in public libraries to download and trade child porn. When it was reported to OPPL Director Mary Weimar that her library was being used to access child porn, Weimar chose not to call the police and made that same choice a day later when the man who accessed child porn returned to the OPPL. Weimar told him to leave and not to access such materials on computers again. But she chose not to call the police.
Speculation Is OPPL Did Not Report Child Porn So Media Exposure Is Prevented
Many speculate the reason for this is that Weimar did not want a police report and arrest to be made in the matter—because that would have no doubt made the police blotter in the local paper—and from there it would have made national news. Just as it did recently in Akron, Ohio (link) and in New Hanover, North Carolina (link); in these instances, like at the Orland Park Public Library in Illinois, men came to a public library to do things on computers that they knew they would be arrested for if they were doing them at home. In Ohio and North Carolina, the men trading in child pornography were caught; in Orland Park, Mary Weimar allowed a man doing this to get away by choosing not to call the police.
American Library Association Applauds Stonewalling of Media and Public
All of this (and more! (link)) was uncovered in documents that the OPPL was compelled to produce responsive to FOIA requests in the last two years. During that time, the American Library Association and the Illinois Library Association both heaped praise on the OPPL for stonewalling and refusing to address the roots of its problems. The strategy at the ALA seems to be to reward libraries like the OPPL (and directors like Weimar) for looking the other way when child porn is accessed and other sex crimes are committed in libraries and to encourage libraries to not filter the Internet and allow pornography to be viewed on public computers (even though this violates disorderly conduct and lewd behavior ordinances in places like Orland Park).
Ignoring Problems/Crimes Is Deliberate Strategy, Part of Crisis Management
Another strategy employed by the OPPL is to keep ignoring their problems (and refusing to explain why police aren't called when serious crimes like child porn being accessed happen) while simultaneously spending a lot of energy on marketing and branding efforts. This is called "crisis management" and the ALA teaches seminars on how to run such distractions with the right hand while a library's left hand keeps stonewalling and refusing to address problems.
The Cockamamie Crisis Management at OPPL Led by Bridget Bittman
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| Bridget Bittman of Orland Park Public Library |
The latest cockamamie effort at the OPPL for "crisis management" was run by Bridget Bittman, the OPPL's public information coordinator/spokesman/crisis manager. Bittman starred in a video posted to the OPPL's website recently (link), where she talked about staff encouraging library patrons to fill out "hearts" talking about what they loved about the library and what they felt was most important to them about the OPPL. The video was called, "Our customers tell us why they love OPPL during National Library Week" and was filmed in the OPPL with Bittman as presenter.
A FOIA request to the OPPL produced 101 photos of these "hearts" (link) (though the OPPL refused to produce actual copies of the "hearts" themselves, which is a violation of the Freedom of Information Act that will be addressed further). As has been the pattern with this library, it appears some photographs are missing and it's believed that the OPPL censored "hearts" that contained criticism (therefore trampled the First Amendment rights of expression of the OPPL's critics).
"Hearts" Show Public Does Not Want Porn Nor Child Porn in Libraries
But the "hearts" that were produced by the OPPL tell an interesting story that shows clearly that the public does NOT want pornography to be accessed in the OPPL or for criminals to get away with using this library to trade child porn.
How do we know this?
It's simple: when given the chance to write what they love about the library and what they think is most important to them about the OPPL, not a single person wrote that they love the fact that men masturbate to pornography in this building or that criminals get away with accessing child porn there. No one celebrated these facts. Not a single person wrote on a "heart" that they are thrilled by Mary Weimar's decisions to look the other way when sex acts and hideous crimes happen in her library.
The most common things that people wrote were that they loved the free books at the library and that they liked the library staff who gave them the free books or would order free books for them.
People could have written about how much they loved the free porn that is accessible in the OPPL or about how they are positively delighted that staff purposefully look the other way and ignore a sexually hostile atmosphere in that public building.
No One Gave a "Heart" for Not Calling the Police on Child Porn
They could have handed in "hearts" asserting that they love the OPPL most of all because it is the one place in all of Chicago where they can access child porn and have a guarantee that staff will not call the police on them. This guarantee is not only provided in the form of the incident report that shows definitively that Weimar twice made the decision not to call the police on a man seen accessing child porn…but also the fact that for two years now the OPPL Board of Trustees has declined every opportunity to explain Weimar's behavior and hold her accountable for this disastrous decision.
No One Gave a "Heart" About Freedom to Masturbate in Public Libraries
People had the chance with these "hearts" that Bittman encouraged them to fill out to say they love the OPPL because it is a place where they can whip out their penises and masturbate openly in public at taxpayer provided computers—but no one turned in a "heart" raving about the sex-positive and masturbation-friendly "Adult Computer Area" (that is so aptly named).
Don't you ever wonder why entities like the ALA and the Orland Park Public Library Board of Trustees waste so much effort and energy to keep pornography available on public computers in libraries and to thwart police investigations into things like child pornography—when NO ONE in the public ever seems to be appreciative of these efforts?
Literally, when given the chance to write down anything they loved about the OPPL and to say how much they appreciate the free porn access and the sexual environment in this public library, the public never says it wants these things or appreciates this aspect of what the OPPL's management is doing. No one stands up, grabs a colorful "heart" from Bittman, and writes a thank you to libraries like the OPPL for allowing child porn to be accessed or for men to masturbate openly in a building full of children.
Why is that?
Who are these people who want creeps to come to libraries to pull out their penises and masturbate at computers where children are walking by?
Who are these people who think it's award-worthy that Mary Weimar deliberately and willfully CHOSE not to call the police when she was informed that child pornography was accessed in her building?
Wherever they are (and WHOMEVER they are!), they clearly aren't filling out any "hearts" on the subject.
Libraries Following ALA Diktat = Libraries Acting Against the Public Trust
Is it really in a library's mission statement and best interest to spend so much time and energy following the ALA's diktat—when that diktat puts the library in a position of going completely against what the public it serves wants?
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| Evidence child pornography in OPPL was not reported to police. |
URL of this page: safelibraries.blogspot.com/2015/04/OPPL-hearts.html
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