Public awareness of crime, sexual harassment in libraries, and inappropriate books and web sites in schools due to American Library Association policy. ⚖️
Libraries harm sex trafficking victims if they allow porn viewing. They flout women's rights since digitalized torture makes up a significant percentage of the porn being displayed. Few speak out about this, until now. Megan Fox has exposed a public library for harming women in this fashion. So now that the library and the local government is aware of the harm, let's see if they continue to allow porn viewing. If they do, it is the War On Women on steroids.
Here is what Megan Fox said on WLS AM 890 with John Kass and Lauren Cohn:
And I also want to say that right now on an unfiltered computer you can access any kind of illegal porn that supports sex traffickers and the rape of women. And there's no way to tell what kind of pornography you're watching. Why should the public have to pay for that? Why should we support these criminals?
She was talking about the Orland Park Public Library [OPPL], Orland Park, IL. It is proud to make pornography available to its patrons. So proud that it went on a local radio broadcast to proclaim its vaunted respect for the First Amendment, called the police to silence Megan Fox, and investigate a three year old YouTube song she wrote about Second Amendment gun rights.
Think about it. Library filtering opponents scream bloody murder if anyone tries to expose libraries for violating the law, but they could care less about the sex crimes they enable against mainly women. They care not about the free speech rights of crime victims not to have their crime displayed in public libraries.
I too have exposed the harms some libraries are doing to rape victims, one victim being thrilled that I spoke out on this:
Jacqueline S. Homan: It is NOT a "1st amendment right" to view the violation of someone else's privacy. Many women in porn are TRAFFICKED, and are FORCED. When I was "broken in" by my traffickers, it was with a brutal gang rape. I was 14 years old. My gang rape was captured on film/pictures to satiate others' sadistic voyeurism AGAINST my will. As a trafficked girl, where was MY right to privacy? What about MY 1st amendment right to have my "free speech" (my language of "NO!") protected? The ALA is full of ca-ca. And I will tell them so! And I dare them, no I DOUBLE DARE them, to defend that bs to me! You may quote me, Dan Kleinman.
When libraries falsely claim the First Amendment right of displaying "constitutionally protected material" meaning porn, do they show one iota of concern for the rights of the victims whose forced involvement in sex crimes is displayed in those libraries? Public libraries?
So, Village of Orland Park, are you going to allow your library to continue to flout the law, further harm rape victims, and continue to enable sex trafficking? Libraries across the nation, will you too continue to accept this? And in case you didn't know:
A 23-year-old Anaheim man with a juvenile history of sex offenses was arrested Friday afternoon after a 13-year-old boy reported being sodomized in the men's bathroom of the Orange County Public Library in Tustin, police said.
The boy fled the library to a police station across the street and reported the attack, said Lt. Pat Welch of the Tustin Police Department. He was taken to a hospital for treatment and was home with his family later in the evening, Welch said.
The boy left the library and told a security guard what happened, Welch said.
Claudio also approached the guard, Welch said.
"The suspect actually approached the civilian officer and identified himself as a registered sex offender and said that something had just occurred in the library and that he may be involved in it," Welch told KCAL9.
The teen told police at the front desk that he had been studying after school in the Orange County Public Library at 345 E. Main St., when he was approached by a man. He said he and the man began talking and the two ended up in the restroom where he was sodomized, Welch said.
The teen said he immediately left the library and came to the police department just a few hundred feet away.
While the teen was telling his story to police, a man left the library and saw a civilian police service officer driving nearby. He stopped the officer at El Camino and Main Street and told him that he was a registered sex offender and had been involved in something at the library, Welch said.
At that point the department's communication center put the two incidents together and immediately dispatched police to the where the man was being detained.
While he was detained, police officers drove the teen by to see if the man was the same one who he accused of assaulting him, Welch said.
He positively identified the man, Welch said. Police have identified the man as Robert Howard Claudio, 24, of Anaheim.
Claudio admitted the sexual assault, Welch said, and was arrested on suspicion of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under the age of 14 and sodomy of a minor. Claudio was booked into Orange County Jail and has a bail of $2 million.
The 17-year-old who said she was sexually assaulted last summer in the men's restroom of the Troup Municipal Library told a Smith County jury on Tuesday that following a Tyler man there at his request "was not a smart thing to do."
Brandon Deonteri Prestidge, 25, who is charged with sexual assault of a child under 16, is accused of fondling and then raping the young girl, who was 16 at the time, after he asked her to follow him into the restroom. The sexual assault allegedly happened inside of a locked stall where the girl said Prestidge, who was then 23, took her after he heard a noise outside of the restroom door.
....
The teenager, who was volunteering at the library on July 31, described the sexual assault in detail to the jury, saying she knew that what was happening to her was "inappropriate" and "wrong" and that she did not want the assault to happen.
After the incident, the girl testified that she went into the women's restroom to clean herself and left the library without telling anyone there what happened.
....
Under cross examination, Haley asked the girl why she did not tell anyone at the library or the police what had happened to her.
"I wasn't thinking about that, I just wanted to get away," she responded.
....
The girl said she knew it was wrong, but she didn't know why she didn't tell Prestidge to stop. "When I left the men's room, I felt like it was my fault," she testified.
In the meantime, the above story caught my attention, and I am aware of potentially significant background information that I simply cannot source at the moment, so I will not publish it now.
I am certain the ALA will do absolutely nothing to assist the teenage library volunteer rape victim or others similarly situated. Neither will it even bother to write about it anywhere. The ALA has not responded to a call to start tracking library crime—tracking parents who try to keep children from inappropriate material is what's important to the ALA. See "Banned Books Week Versus Library Crime; Call for the ALA to Track Library Crime," 17 August 2009.
A West Side teen is accused of raping a 10-year-old boy at the Hilltop Branch Library Tuesday.
....
"It kind of scared me in a way knowing that I have kids and they like to come here," said library patron Tony Tucker. Tucker said he goes to the library as many as three times a week.
....
"You don't expect that kind of thing to happen at a public library," said Jeff Turner who lives on the West Side.
Houston Public Library
Bathroom Stall Where
6 Year Old Boy was
Sexually Assaulted
It has happened again. A criminal viewing child p0rnography on a public library computer followed boys into a library's bathroom and sexually assaulted one. He had somehow bypassed the Internet filters (and that should be investigated).
And the sound of silence? It's from the library. "Library Director Michelle Mears said the library did not have a comment about the incident and referred inquires to Enid Police Department or the city attorney’s office."
Now that silence has come to Enid, OK, but it is not that the library director is unable to communicate, rather she refuses to communicate. Who or what is she protecting? I have a hint:
I was involved in another matter in this community five years ago when there was a problem with "registered sex offenders ... using library computers to contact minors." I spoke with law enforcement there and learned American Library Association [ALA] policy was being applied to block law enforcement efforts to apprehend registered sex offenders! For my involvement in the matter I was incorrectly labeled by the ALA as "antipornography," an obvious attempt to deflect attention from the real issue. The ALA wrote the article to make it appear I opposed allowing patrons to read email, when I actually opposed the library blocking law enforcement efforts, something the ALA regularly encourages. For all I know, the library is still blocking law enforcement to this very day.
Now a child is raped in the library's bathroom. Is it any wonder we hear the sound of silence from Library Director Michelle Mears?
ENID — Enid Police Department detectives arrested a 24-year-old Enid man Thursday on complaints of having sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl in April at Public Library of Enid and Garfield County.
Detective Sgt. Dustin Albright said the girl reported to police Tuesday she had been sexually assaulted by Joseph Hoff on April 19. The girl also told police there was another incident involving Hoff but she did not recall the specific date it occurred.
Albright said the girl had told detectives she had known Hoff for about a year.
Detectives arrested Hoff, 318 E. Ash, Thursday afternoon on complaints of sodomy, lewd molestation and second-degree rape.
During an interview with detectives, Hoff admitted to some of the allegations the girl made but denied others, Albright said.
Library Director Michelle Mears said the library did not have a comment about the incident and referred inquires to Enid Police Department or the city attorney’s office.
Charges had not been filed against Hoff Friday afternoon, online court records show.
Another rape in another public library bathroom. It keeps happening again and again. I'm almost in tears for the victims of these crimes, most if not all occurring after porn viewing on library computers, most in libraries that refuse to use Internet filters because the American Library Association [ALA] directs them not to. Adherence to ALA policy trumps local control, and local children suffer.
Now Solon, OH. In the Solon Public Library. In the bathroom. The "family restroom." A teenage girl. Raped.
"Solon: Police Investigate Teen Sex Incidents," by Jeff Maynor, WKYC-TV Cleveland News, 11 March 2010: "One teenage girl says she was raped in the family restroom at the Solon Public Library. .... The library incident is reported as a rape with threat of force. .... At the library, they now keep the family restrooms locked."
This looks like another case where the significance of library policy goes right over the heads of the media. I cannot tell from the article if a lack of filters contributed in any way since there is no reporting on that topic one way or another. I urge local police and media to investigate whether Internet usage was in any way involved in this matter. The last time I recall making this suggestion I was proven correct.
Shockingly, or perhaps not, the American Library Association [ALA] has whitewashed a rape in a public library, then blamed the child victim calling him "intimidated." (This matter involves the rape in the New Bedford, MA, public library. There are other library rapes.)
In "Man Gets Life for Molesting Child in a Library," by the ALA, American Libraries, 3 April 2009, [INSERTION DATED 12 APRIL 2009: source is Google cache dated 4 April 2009,][INSERTION DATED 15 APRIL 2009: Google's cache is now dated 9 April and shows the updated article including rape, so I'm again finding a way to display the original article.] the ALA refuses to say what actually happened, namely, the little boy was raped. [INSERTION DATED 12 APRIL 2009: The article was edited by the ALA on 8 April 2009 and is now entitled, "Man Gets Life for Raping Child in a Library," by the ALA, American Libraries, 8 April 2009 as amended to remove molestation and add rape from original publication on 3 April 2009.] Instead, the much softer term, "molestation," was used. It's not only softer, it can be less serious. A molestation could be something as simple as an unwanted touching.
Compare the ALA's coverage of the "molestation" with other media reports:
That last link is by a library director who said, "Frankly, I'm almost surprised that [the ALA] mentioned it at all!" So am I. The ALA routinely ignores what it does not want people to hear.
And look how the ALA partially blamed the six year old victim:
"During the time of the attack, the boy’s mother was sitting at a computer terminal some 20 feet away from her child, who was apparently intimidated into keeping silent."
Gee, if only the boy didn't keep silent while he was being raped. Oh, I'm sorry, molested.
None of those media sources said anything about the boy being "intimidated." That was made up out of thin air by the ALA in an apparent effort to help excuse what happened and perhaps try to deflect people from thinking the ALA might somehow have been responsible.
The library itself and its adherence to ALA policies may have been partially responsible for the rape. I raised this possibility in an ALA forum over a year ago, but that forum has just recently been removed, deleted! All that appears now is this:
I'm the person from SafeLibraries.org mentioned in the article. I give credit to American Libraries for being the first media report raising the filtering issue, at least that I've noticed.
Regarding Fulchino's statement regarding the existing filtering software being bypassed by the criminal, there are several problems. First, his library's web site states that it does not filter: "The Library cannot control and is not able to monitor any information on the Internet for either content or accuracy." The word "filter" does not even appear on that page ( http://www.ci.new-bedford.ma.us/Library/internetpolicy.html ). If filtering is being used, it is not mentioned on the library's web site.
Second, the criminal has been described as having a low IQ. One article said he, "has been diagnosed as developmentally disabled and suffering from Attention Deficit Disorder." If a "developmentally disabled" person with a low IQ can "bypass the settings," then it is obvious the filtering software being used, if indeed it is, is not the latest or is not being administered in an effective manner.
Whichever way you look at it, Fulchino's statements indicate a potential serious problem at the library, as if the rape and the "anything goes" Internet policy have not already made that obvious.
Thank you to American Libraries for bring his statements to the public's attention. Existing security measures including video cameras were a failure, as Fulchino admits. Should his advice to taken seriously again? If I were a citizen of New Bedford, I would demand a full and public investigation by a disinterested party based on the facts including Fulchino's admissions. The seriousness of the allegations and potential for future harm outweigh the perceived gains of possible coverups.
Now for anyone's interest, here is the letter I sent to the community:
Dear City Council President Jane L. Gonsalves,
The library rape of a six year old children is criminal. At this time, all efforts are concentrated on the victim and the criminal. But you are the city's leader. You have a responsibility to see the bigger picture. In this case, the bigger picture is this type of incident might happen again and again as a direct result of the library's "anything goes" Internet use policy.
Was the criminal using the Internet before the rape to view child p*rnography? The media did not address this. If he did, did the library attempt to stop him? The media did not address this. If not, why not? The media did not address this, but the answer is on the library's own web site, "The New Bedford Free Public Library only provides access to the Internet. The Library cannot control and is not able to monitor any information on the Internet for either content or accuracy." http://www.ci.new-bedford.ma.us/Library/internetpolicy.html
Did you know that is false? Did you know communities may filter all computers and the US Supreme Court has already found that constitutional? Did you know the ACLU and the courts have found filters so effective that they no longer block out health related web sites?
Worse, it is possible your library's policy has exposed it, its employees, and New Bedford to liability for failure to take action that might have prevented the child rape in the first place. A simple reading of the library policy tells me the child's rape was likely partially the responsibility of the library for having an anything goes policy and the community for failure to control its own library in the legal manner in which it may control its library. Indeed, I urge any legal action brought by the parents to include counts against the library and especially against the city for, among other things, a likely failure to enforce the library's enabling statute that I am sure does not say anything goes. Indeed I will actively attempt to contact the family's attorneys and advise them to consider the theory of liability I have outlined generally.
I thought you should consider this. You have the power to prevent future such instances by using every means possible to get your local library to apply filters to all Internet computers. Warning, the American Library Association is responsible for these anything goes policies, is specifically named by your library as its source for library policy, and will be sure to bring the full weight of its misinformation campaign to you if you do decide to protect your community's children instead of the ALA's policies.
Articles I am reading show the city is obviously thinking of ways to prevent this in the future, but all I see are methods of moving the deck chairs on the Titanic. For example, "privacy screens" do not function as claimed. Internet filters are the most effective means to resolve the situation, and that is precisely why the ALA attempts to convince people not to use them.
I will be happy to explain and source every statement I have made here. You have the legal means to remove the negative influence of the ALA from your library. It's a PUBLIC library, not an ALA library. Please let me know if I may assist.
_________________ http://SafeLibraries.org/ - Are Children Safe in Public Libraries
SafeLibraries Blog - http://SafeLibraries.blogspot.com/
Lastly, notice what I predicted in my letter to the Mayor of New Bedford has come true. I said, "Articles I am reading show the city is obviously thinking of ways to prevent this in the future, but all I see are methods of moving the deck chairs on the Titanic." The ALA article says, without criticism of any kind:
As a result of the attack, library trustees have modified NBPL’s patron behavior policy to prohibit adults from speaking to a minor inside the library “unless the adult is a parent, other close relative, or caregiver of the minor.” Officials also reconfigured the room in which the assault took place to maximize unobstructed sight lines.
Is that moving deck chairs on the Titanic or is that moving deck chairs? Did the ALA critically comment on the likely uselessness of those solutions at all or perhaps suggest Internet filters? Of course not. Besides, it's only a molestation that some intimidated kid invited on himself. No biggie.
Once again, the ALA has proven it is no longer authoritative and it cannot be trusted for truthful information.
Please help me uncover cases of child rape or child molestation in public library bathrooms. I would like to write a scholarly work on this issue, and I would like it to be as informative and accurate as possible. Please comment below with any information you may know. Please include specific URLs or specific citations. If any written works already exist on the subject, I would like to know about them too (example).
Note, I am a member of the American Library Association [ALA]. This work will not be a vehicle for any undue criticism of the ALA. I seek assistance from anyone and everyone, including ALA members, including those ALA leaders about whom I have been critical. It is my intention that this work be as factual and therefore as useful as possible. People may disagree with my conclusions, but my facts should be spot on.
A 16 year old girl was raped in the parking lot outside the Lone Tree Public Library, CO, by a criminal who spent the day in the library, picked his victim, then followed her out. The library likely bypassed local law that created the library and limited its uses, though I do not know that for certain yet. But I do know the library follows American Library Association [ALA] guidance that causes many libraries nationwide to exceed the bounds of local library laws. For example, the library flat out misleads the public by falsely claiming, "Douglas County Libraries has no control over information accessed through the Internet."
Police: Obtain all library computer records regarding the Internet web sites viewed on the day of the rape. Gather any security camera evidence, if any, or any other evidence that is relevant to showing whether or not the rapist was viewing pornographic web sites that day. See if it is possible to directly tie in the rapist to computer porn, or generally, if the records are not complete enough to establish a direct link. I called the police and left a similar message.
Media: Obtain all legal instruments used to create the library to determine what scope it has regarding library content. Compare that law with the library's policy in force to see if the policy is in compliance with the law or if it is acting outside the law (ultra vires). If the library is acting outside the law, determine what efforts, if any, have been made by the government to ensure the library is acting within the bounds of the library's legal creation instrument. If none, find out why. I called the Denver Post and left a similar message.
If the police can tie in the rapist to the use of unfiltered computers for viewing pornography, and if the media can establish the likelihood that the library has and is acting outside the law, then the library may be partly responsible for the rape, and such incidents will likely continue. If the library is acting outside the law, and if it is doing so as a result of adherence to ALA policies or the like, then how is the ALA not also partly responsible for the rape of the girl? If it is true as I contend that the ALA is aware its policies result in increased criminal activity in public libraries, how are punitive damages not appropriate?
I urge the victim's family to consider contacting me for further information in this regard.
Scott J. Sylvia was arrested Monday after a DNA test linked him to the rape of a 16-year-old girl in a library parking lot.
Investigators say Sylvia, 25, followed the girl to her car, forced her in at knife-point and assaulted her July 7.
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation expedited a DNA investigation.
Sylvia has a criminal record for violent assaults, robbery and drug-related crimes, said Lone Tree Police Chief Stephen Hasler.
Sylvia has never been charged with sexual assault, but Hasler said investigators across the metro region are checking whether he might be connected to any unsolved rapes.
Sylvia rode the light rail from Denver to the south metro community and spent the day in the library before picking a victim and following her out, Hasler said.
Sylvia took the girl's driver's license so she would know that he knew where she lived, Hasler said.
"He picked the wrong girl," the chief said. "She's a very strong young woman who has a great recall. She's going to be a fantastic witness."
Librarians in the Hartford Public Library, Hartford, CT, are subjected to daily harassment and a hostile work environment. An 11 year old girl is raped by three guys. Public drunkenness is condoned by library management. Patrons behave criminally and library managements shrugs shoulders. The situation is so bad librarians and even the librarian's union have been forced to go public to get attention. And there is so much more.
The facts as reported in "Hartford Public Library: A Study in Bad Behavior," by Tina A. Brown and Steven Goode, The Hartford Courant, May 18, 2008, are so egregious, you have to read this for yourselves to believe it.
A similar situation occurred in the Minneapolis Public Library and that resulted in the EEOC finding the library guilty of sexual harassment, and the settlement of the resulting civil claim amounted to $435,000. See Adamson v. Minneapolis Public Library.
I urge the Hartford librarians and AFSCME Local 1716 to sue the library management and Hartford itself to, at a minimum, force the removal of the American Library Association [ALA] policies as reshaped and reapplied by local ALA acolytes. Use Adamson as your model. The ALA promotes the "anything goes" policies your library management is apparently following; identify them and stamp them out. I will help if you ask. Sue Hartford itself as well for not stopping the library from exceeding its legal authority, which it appears to me from this article that it may have. Send the message that this is a public library, not the ALA's personal policy playground. Protect the citizens and the library employees from harm. It's easy to do if you can get the media and the public to filter out the usual ALA propaganda--that's the hard part.
Here is the full text of this unbelievable story, because you should not miss a single word and would not believe this otherwise:
Hartford Public Library: A Study In Bad Behavior
By TINA A. BROWN And STEVEN GOODE
Courant Staff Writers
May 18, 2008
A $42 million makeover has transformed Hartford Public Library into a gleaming expanse of glass and well-lit, open space that warmly welcomes visitors.
Measured by a dramatic increase in library visits, the invitation has been widely accepted. The changes inside the library's three floors went beyond adding space, reconfiguring the layout and increasing the number of books, DVDs and computers. It's become a busier place, noisier and more vibrant, something in which chief Librarian Louise Blalock — named National Librarian of the Year in 2001 — takes pride.
But it's also a place where the behavioral norms traditionally associated with libraries are often breached, according to interviews with staff members and internal library reports obtained by The Courant.
The reports document drinking and drug use, with staff members reporting that empty liquor bottles and drug paraphernalia are often left in the restrooms. Sexual activity has been reported on several occasions. The problems reached the point where the restrooms on the library's second and third floors have been locked, according to library staff.
Acts of violence inside the library, while infrequent, do occur: In January, a patron complained of being robbed at gunpoint inside a first-floor restroom; internal reports say a subsequent investigation by security staff was unable to determine what happened.
The library also has a theft problem. Without a security system in place, CDs and DVDs disappear with regularity.
Blalock says such incidents happen from time to time and she is reluctant to institute a more restrictive environment because the library is — and needs to be — a place that welcomes all, a view shared by several past and present members of the library board.
Stephen B. Goddard, a longtime board member and past board president, said the incident reports are "nothing new" and are minute compared to the half-million-plus visitors who use the library each year.
"In 24 years, from time to time there have been a handful of incidents," Goddard said. "I have chalked that up to what any public institution in a hyperactive environment is going to face in cities today."
"To Louise, things like the rights of patrons are paramount," Goddard said, adding that the board feels fortunate to have had Blalock at the helm for the past 14 years.
Blalock, who spearheaded the library's transformation, said she decided not to set rules of behavior or install security cameras or theft detection devices and instead emphasizes a free and open environment. She said she has directed her staff not to call the police if they can safely escort a patron out of the building.
As a draft statement of principle for the library puts it: "All customers have a right to use the library according to their life and learning style as long as it does not interfere with the right of others to use the library."
But some employees say Blalock has taken that philosophy too far and has failed to deal with the realities of running a library in an urban setting — something library officials in cities across the country are confronting as they grapple with homelessness, drug use, gang activity and other ills.
In the name of openness, they complain, patrons are forced to endure the misbehavior of others. The result, they say, is a chaotic workplace. Some staffers say conditions have gotten so bad they decided to go public with their complaints that the administration has failed to provide adequate security.
The inadequate level of security "has pushed us to a point that people feel that they have to go public with it," said David Ionno, vice president of AFSCME Local 1716, the union that represents library workers. "There's going to be an incident where a librarian is going to get hurt."
Drinking, Sex
The breaking point, for some, came with back-to-back incidents earlier this year. The first was an altercation outside the library that continued inside, then back outside to Arch Street, where a young man was stabbed. That was followed the next day by an incident in which an 11-year-old girl was picked up by three young men inside the library, taken to a city motel and raped.
Those incidents may have gone beyond the norm, but those who work at the library say it is the norm that is troubling. Staff incident reports reviewed by The Courant document 60 incidents — most occurring since January 2007 — of alleged acts of criminal or disturbing conduct. Library officials such as Blalock and Goddard say the number of incidents pales beside the visitation at the main branch, which is expected to reach 415,000 this fiscal year, ending June 30.
Drinking and drug use are particularly worrisome to library staff members, who say they are often forced to deal with intoxicated and belligerent patrons — a job for which they say they're not trained or qualified. Internal reports filed by staff members this year include several episodes, including one in which a patron was caught drinking in the bathroom and harassing a visitor.
For more than a year, library maintenance worker Leo Laffitte collected empty liquor bottles from the restrooms and took them to the third floor so managers could see that patrons were drinking alcoholic beverages inside the building. His efforts were met, he said, with shrugged shoulders and no attempts to stop it.
Finally, in April, Laffitte said he pulled empty 40-ounce beer bottles and liquor bottles from a trash bag and put them on public display while visitors were attending a manager's retirement party. He said he thought that if the administrators were embarrassed by the display, they might start addressing the issue. He never got a response.
At least eight acts of lewd or sexual behavior in the library have been documented by library staff since February 2007; only once, according to records released by the library, was an individual banned from the building for a substantial length of time.
Staffers said they've interrupted individuals masturbating and couples engaging in sexual acts in "the old fiction" section, in the media room and in the restrooms.
One worker overheard a young couple on the third floor last October talking about how they "needed to get a room," according to a report. Rather than go to a motel, the couple went into a third-floor bathroom. When they were caught there, they moved to a second-floor bathroom where they were found inside a women's stall, an incident report said.
Staff members also are concerned about who is using the Internet at the library. Ionno said that on occasion, staffers have reported seeing patrons viewing inappropriate material. The staffers have then checked the state's sex offender registry and found the person's photograph posted, he said.
After one incident in May 2007, the staff called police after seeing a man viewing child pornography on a library computer. The man told the officers "he just got of jail on Monday and was aware of the crime of watching child porn," according to the library report. The report does not indicate whether the man was arrested.
Later that month, a patron was caught viewing pornography in a public area when children were present. The security staff booted the man out of the library for three weeks, the incident report said. In October 2006, in an incident that generated widespread attention, Scott Murtagh, a homeless, convicted sex offender, was caught in the midst of a lewd act while viewing child pornography at the library.
Security Measures
What it all adds up to, library staffers say, is an atmosphere that is more chaotic than it needs to be were more stringent rules and security measures in place.
The library has one full-time security supervisor who is based at the main library and oversees a staff of 18 part-time security guards who are spread out among the main library and its nine branches. Library managers say there should be four guards on duty at the main branch during a regular shift; the security supervisor was instructed in late February to notify management when there are fewer guards available.
The library also has invested in Vocera, a voice-activated mobile communications system that staff members use by speaking into microphones they wear around their necks. "If they need backup, they can ask staff to assist them," Blalock said
Library staffers say they are concerned about dealing with situations they're not equipped to handle. One of the episodes that brought the issue to a head took place on Feb. 9, when a group of youths tried to attack a younger male inside the library. A staff member's incident report stated that three youths, aged 14 or 15, ran through the library yelling and swearing after the attempted assault.
"They continued to swear as I escorted them out the door," a female employee reported. "They were ranting against the 'witch' [me] as my husband was walking in. ... While I was dealing with this, there was another customer, a woman who was loudly complaining to our security guard that she witnessed two men viewing pornography on the machines next to her. She herself was causing a disturbance," the incident report said.
The employee, who has 15 years of experience, pleaded for help in figuring out how to handle such volatile incidents. "I feel that I am placing myself in an insecure and hostile environment. The training that would be best is if I could shadow a female manager. That way I would learn how to best handle aggressive, threatening behavior from people who are twice my size and thirty-plus years younger and stronger," the employee wrote in the incident report.
Another security deficiency, staffers say, is a lack of scanners that would alert staff when someone tries to leave with unchecked books, videos or music. Such devices are staples at most public libraries, but not at the Hartford main branch.
"In the old building if you went through the towers and if something hadn't been scanned, it would beep," Ionno said, adding that the smaller branches in Hartford continue to use them.
A $75,000 scanner system was ordered as part of the main library's renovation. When it arrived, Blalock had it installed, but then had it removed and sent back, partly because the system didn't fit with the library's new style and partly because it was ineffective, she said.
"There is nothing that is fail-safe," Blalock said. "At some point, we'll have something that works. ... We are investigating having cameras. There is no one thing that we can guarantee. ... The larger issue is things are taken out and not returned."
In West Hartford, where the main branch of the library recently reopened after a $9 million makeover, the usefulness and aesthetics of the monitoring system were not in dispute. There, to augment two existing sets of gates at exits, a third set, costing about $7,000, was installed.
"It goes off often enough that people know it works," said Glenn Grube, the library's director of technical services. "It deters the impulse."
In Hartford, the theft of media materials amounts to about 5 percent of the collection annually, Blalock said, but the library loses far more material from patrons who fail to return checked-out items.
"There is some theft," Blalock said. "We're trying to control it to the best of our ability. In the current climate it's the cost of doing business."
Blalock's Library
On the first floor of the New Haven Free Public Library, signs that say "Quiet" and "No Cellular Phones" are posted on almost every table.
In the Silas Bronson Library in downtown Waterbury, signs warn patrons of video surveillance cameras. Patrons are offered the choice of reading books and magazines or using the Internet, but one thing is clear from the signs taped to every workstation: eating, drinking and talking on the telephone are prohibited.
Such postings are what Blalock calls an old-fashioned strategy to create an artificial, controlled environment.
"The library isn't quiet anymore," Blalock said, pointing proudly to her library's participation in The Big Read, a reading promotion program funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. Librarians read aloud to homeless men and women twice a week on the main floor, and participants are offered candy bars and juice to attract them.
Asked what happens when her customers misbehave or violate library rules, Blalock said she advises her staff to walk a customer — they don't call them patrons — outside.
"Do we always call the police? No," Blalock said.
Blalock said, though, that she calls the police when she needs to. "We believe on one occasion we had people in here which belonged to gangs and were using MySpace to encourage other young people to join," she said. Blalock called the police.
She also said that security has been instructed to monitor the restrooms and that the second-floor bathroom was locked because of a ventilation problem. Unless patrons are caught in the act of using alcohol or drugs, there is nothing that the staff can do, she said.
"It's hearsay," she said.
"Ninety-nine point nine percent of customers who use the public library make appropriate use of library services and collections," she said in e-mail. "The Library is open to all and everyone is treated with respect and courtesy. Library customers have the freedom to use the library, but they do not have the freedom to interfere with others rights or to behave in an unacceptable manner. That is our policy and my philosophy.
"As staff we care for one another and take responsibility. When there is inappropriate customer behavior, staff must intervene.
"I know there are some employees who are fearful; the library has always had some who do not feel safe in an urban environment.
"But most of us thrive and want the challenge because we believe the work is important and we can make a difference.
"The Library is a great success story for the city of Hartford and it is recognized in the state and nationally for a comprehensive and inclusive program of service."
Tensions Elsewhere
The tension underlying the debate between Blalock and the staff — between openness vs. security — is something urban libraries across the nation are facing. The American Library Association held workshops during its annual meeting this spring in Minneapolis to discuss issues associated with crime and the homeless.
"The library is a wonderful place, and we think of it as a gateway to ideas. But when you walk in the door, human nature isn't suddenly changed," said Chip Ward, a former library deputy director in Salt Lake City, whose essay on what is happening in urban libraries, "What They Didn't Teach Us in Library School," is being made into a movie.
"When you face new situations, you have to do more problem-solving," he said. "I had a drug problem and I brought in an undercover cop. ... The best thing to do is to have good communications about what staff is experiencing and how the administration is handling it."
The library hired a security force and developed programs geared toward providing services to the homeless and teenagers who threatened the safety of patrons, Ward said. Librarians elsewhere have confronted similar problems and have used police and professional security.
"We have police officers in the branches all the time," said Maggie Killackey, spokeswoman for the Chicago Public Library.
Aside from issues of library philosophy, any additional security at the main branch would cost money. That is at a time when the city council is considering cutting the budget for Hartford Public Library by $500,000. The library has spent $8.4 million this year, exceeding its original adopted budget of $7.9 million. The city wants to see the budget restored to $7.9 million next year.
If the cut is adopted by the city council, board President Geraldine P. Sullivan said 23 of 120 staff positions will be eliminated in July. She said it would be Blalock's decision whether any of the security positions would be cut.
Sullivan said she wasn't aware of the full scope of the staff's concerns until The Courant started asking questions in March. She said, however, that the board has pushed since October for the library to create its own procedures and guidelines for handling behavioral problems. Those procedures and guidelines are still being finalized.
"It's a very delicate balance providing a welcoming environment, so everyone uses the library, and enforcing problematic behavior. ... People have different standards about what offends them. That's why there should be some guidelines," Sullivan said. "Two months ago, I might not have said that until I heard about staff concerns."
Ionno said the union would like to see the security staff professionalized and given the power to detain customers who break the law. He said the staff also wants young people to be kept away from the adult computer area so they aren't exposed to explicit content being viewed by some customers and they want pornography filters to be installed on computers in the children's area.
And lastly, Ionno said, the staff expects the administration to back them up when incidents do occur.
"Stop moving us to another branch when something happens," he said, referring to incidents when staff members have been transferred after reporting problems with customers. "It doesn't solve the problem and it makes us feel like we did something wrong."
Sullivan said Blalock has left an indelible mark on the library and continues to have the board's support. "Louise has improved the library by light years," Sullivan said.Sullivan said when she grew up in Hartford in the 1950s, she used the Camp Field branch, where librarians strictly enforced the rules.
"Maybe today's library isn't Mrs. Small saying 'be quiet, be quiet.' I don't want this story to make anyone feel threatened by using this public space."
A retarded teen is raped in a public library bathroom and the library didn't even know! Here is the article "RAPE! Teen Sexually Assaulted at Library," followed by my letter to the editor:
RAPE! Teen sexually assaulted at Library By Gersh Kuntzman The Brooklyn Paper May 10, 2008
Two men raped a mentally retarded teenager in the bathroom at the Brooklyn Public Library’s Central branch on Grand Army Plaza on April 14, cops said.
According to police, the victim, who suffers from Down Syndrome and cannot communicate verbally, did not indicate to her family that something had happened to her, but her relatives figured out that she was in pain and took her to the hospital.
Once there, doctors discovered trauma and other evidence that she had been sexually assaulted, cops said.
A spokeswoman for the library said it was unaware of the incident. She said the library had not been contacted by the police.
Now here is my letter to the editor for publication in The Brooklyn Paper:
A retarded child is raped in a public library bathroom and the library was not aware of this? What else is unknown to the library? Were the "two men" using the Internet computers to view p0rnographic material immediately before the rape, like happens in library after library nationwide? Maybe the librarians do know something. Maybe they know they are misleading the public by suggesting anything goes after the filters are disabled upon request?
Maybe. I don't know. But the librarians didn't know about a rape in their own library. That is unbelievable. And if it is ever determined that library policy is based on American Library Association [ALA] policy instead of on the law, and if that contributed to the rape in any way, then the resulting lawsuit damages may be unbelievable as well.
I urge the police to make a thorough examination, including all computer logs and possible security tapes. Oh, that's right, the library destroys such records to skirt another law, the USA PATRIOT Act, again following the ALA's lead. Recall Rudolph W. Giuliani decried the actions of the ALA regarding this law in 2005. So with the records destroyed, I guess Brooklyn need not worry about legal liability after all.
And while I'm writing about how the ALA drives local policy in New York City, here's an inspiring example that when the people find out, they rid themselves of the ALA's influence. You see, the ALA listed a certain s3xually inappropriate book in a top ten list (ALA | Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers), and as a likely result, a librarian ordered that book for hundreds of New York City schools. Then the parents found out. See "City's Ed. Boobs," by Carl Campanile, New York Post, Oct. 13, 2003. You won't be disappointed.
She was talking about the Orland Park Public Library [OPPL], Orland Park, IL. It is proud to make pornography available to its patrons. So proud that it went on a local radio broadcast to proclaim its vaunted respect for the First Amendment, called the police to silence Megan Fox, and investigate a three year old YouTube song she wrote about Second Amendment gun rights.
