Library Board Commits Felonies and Misdemeanors

A felony is not a game.

Did a library commit a Class D Felony by calling the police needlessly during a library board meeting and by other means?  A complaint was made via a 911 call about a "disruption" by library patrons who have investigated the library and found it repeatedly defies the law, covers up the crime of child pornography, and thwarts police efforts to stop registered sex offenders from violating the law.  Even the state's Attorney General has found the library repeatedly violates the law and commits Class C misdemeanors.

Remarkably, this is all captured in YouTube videos.  Watch the videos, then make your own conclusions.  A felony is not a game, especially when committed by elected officials seeking to silence whistleblowers.

As a background, a public library board quorum meets illegally and in secret before the official library board meeting.  The quorum apparently firmed up plans already in place for how to entrap patrons who complain about the library board repeatedly breaking the law:

• "Orland Park Public Library Holds Illegal Criminal Meeting Before Meeting," by Jim Kraft, Illinois Leaks, Edgar County Watchdogs, 22 May 2014.  See also here.

Then the meeting begins.  Here is the library board meeting in progress.  It contains a "disruption," the resultant 911 call to the police, and the arrival of the police:

• "Orland Park Public Library Calls in the Hot Cops - May 19 2014 - Part 2," by Megan Fox, YouTube, 21 May 2014:

Here is the recording of the 911 call to police that occurred at the meeting shown above:

• "OPPL Calls 911 May 19, 2014 on Library Critics," by Megan Fox, YouTube, 30 May 2014:

Here is the library personnel, the library lawyer, and the police colluding to entrap the patrons (though the police have been provided with false information by the library designed to mislead them, such as the false claim on the 911 call that the call was intentionally disrupted by one of the patrons):

• "THROW THEM IN THE TANK! OPPL Plotting with Police Against Citizens," by Megan Fox, YouTube, 30 May 2014:

If "disruption" is a crime, look at all the actual disruption by the library board itself and the library attorney himself:

• "OPPL Board Disrupts All Their Own Meetings! (Then Blames the Public)," by Megan Fox, YouTube, 31 May 2014:

Here is a very good overview of the crimes, including the fake 911 call felony, from another source:

• "James Fessler, Bridget Bitmann, & Police Chief Scheme to Arrest Innocent Citizens at Public Library," by Jim Kraft, Illinois Leaks, Edgar County Watchdogs, 30 May 2014.

Now here is the state law on disorderly conduct, emphasis mine:

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    (720 ILCS 5/26-1) (from Ch. 38, par. 26-1)

    Sec. 26-1. Disorderly conduct.

    (a) A person commits disorderly conduct when he or she knowingly:
        (1) Does any act in such unreasonable manner as to alarm or disturb another and to provoke a breach of the peace;
        (2) Transmits or causes to be transmitted in any manner to the fire department of any city, town, village or fire protection district a false alarm of fire, knowing at the time of the transmission that there is no reasonable ground for believing that the fire exists;
        (3) Transmits or causes to be transmitted in any manner to another a false alarm to the effect that a bomb or other explosive of any nature or a container holding poison gas, a deadly biological or chemical contaminant, or radioactive substance is concealed in a place where its explosion or release would endanger human life, knowing at the time of the transmission that there is no reasonable ground for believing that the bomb, explosive or a container holding poison gas, a deadly biological or chemical contaminant, or radioactive substance is concealed in the place;
        (3.5) Transmits or causes to be transmitted a threat of destruction of a school building or school property, or a threat of violence, death, or bodily harm directed against persons at a school, school function, or school event, whether or not school is in session;
        (4) Transmits or causes to be transmitted in any manner to any peace officer, public officer or public employee a report to the effect that an offense will be committed, is being committed, or has been committed, knowing at the time of the transmission that there is no reasonable ground for believing that the offense will be committed, is being committed, or has been committed;
        (5) Transmits or causes to be transmitted a false report to any public safety agency without the reasonable grounds necessary to believe that transmitting the report is necessary for the safety and welfare of the public; or
        (6) Calls the number "911" for the purpose of making or transmitting a false alarm or complaint and reporting information when, at the time the call or transmission is made, the person knows there is no reasonable ground for making the call or transmission and further knows that the call or transmission could result in the emergency response of any public safety agency;
        (7) Transmits or causes to be transmitted a false report to the Department of Children and Family Services under Section 4 of the "Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act";
        (8) Transmits or causes to be transmitted a false report to the Department of Public Health under the Nursing Home Care Act, the Specialized Mental Health Rehabilitation Act of 2013, or the ID/DD Community Care Act;
        (9) Transmits or causes to be transmitted in any manner to the police department or fire department of any municipality or fire protection district, or any privately owned and operated ambulance service, a false request for an ambulance, emergency medical technician-ambulance or emergency medical technician-paramedic knowing at the time there is no reasonable ground for believing that the assistance is required;
        (10) Transmits or causes to be transmitted a false report under Article II of "An Act in relation to victims of violence and abuse", approved September 16, 1984, as amended;
        (11) Enters upon the property of another and for a lewd or unlawful purpose deliberately looks into a dwelling on the property through any window or other opening in it; or
        (12) While acting as a collection agency as defined in the Collection Agency Act or as an employee of the collection agency, and while attempting to collect an alleged debt, makes a telephone call to the alleged debtor which is designed to harass, annoy or intimidate the alleged debtor.

    (b) Sentence. A violation of subsection (a)(1) of this Section is a Class C misdemeanor. A violation of subsection (a)(5) or (a)(11) of this Section is a Class A misdemeanor. A violation of subsection (a)(8) or (a)(10) of this Section is a Class B misdemeanor. A violation of subsection (a)(2), (a)(3.5), (a)(4), (a)(6), (a)(7), or (a)(9) of this Section is a Class 4 felony. A violation of subsection (a)(3) of this Section is a Class 3 felony, for which a fine of not less than $3,000 and no more than $10,000 shall be assessed in addition to any other penalty imposed.
    A violation of subsection (a)(12) of this Section is a Business Offense and shall be punished by a fine not to exceed $3,000. A second or subsequent violation of subsection (a)(7) or (a)(5) of this Section is a Class 4 felony. A third or subsequent violation of subsection (a)(11) of this Section is a Class 4 felony.

    (c) In addition to any other sentence that may be imposed, a court shall order any person convicted of disorderly conduct to perform community service for not less than 30 and not more than 120 hours, if community service is available in the jurisdiction and is funded and approved by the county board of the county where the offense was committed. In addition, whenever any person is placed on supervision for an alleged offense under this Section, the supervision shall be conditioned upon the performance of the community service.
    This subsection does not apply when the court imposes a sentence of incarceration.

    (d) In addition to any other sentence that may be imposed, the court shall order any person convicted of disorderly conduct under paragraph (3) of subsection (a) involving a false alarm of a threat that a bomb or explosive device has been placed in a school to reimburse the unit of government that employs the emergency response officer or officers that were dispatched to the school for the cost of the search for a bomb or explosive device. For the purposes of this Section, "emergency response" means any incident requiring a response by a police officer, a firefighter, a State Fire Marshal employee, or an ambulance.

(Source: P.A. 97-38, eff. 6-28-11; 97-227, eff. 1-1-12; 97-813, eff. 7-13-12; 97-1108, eff. 1-1-13; 98-104, eff. 7-22-13.)

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You saw the evidence.  You saw the law.  You saw the whistleblowers speaking up to stop the criminality in the public library.  Now you make up your own minds.  Has the library or has it not committed at least one felony requiring a minimum prison term of one year? 

Orland Park Public Library's many false police reports to stifle whistleblowers.

 URL of this page:  safelibraries.blogspot.com/2014/05/LibraryFelony.html

On Twitter:  @ECWDogs @HillBuzz @IntolerantFox @OrlandPkLibrary @VillageOrlandPk

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The Ghost of Judith Krug Continues to Haunt America's Libraries Today

ORLAND PARK, IL. (ECWd) - The Orland Park Public Library has been fighting for seven months now to maintain its status quo, where child porn is accessible over the Library’s unsecured internet for pedophiles and predators who know where to find it.  This horror was discovered back in October of last year, when internal incident reports completed by Library staffers and obtained through FOIA requests showed that child porn was accessed in the Library, but employees never called the police, never reported the act to the FBI, and the Board of Trustees never lifted a finger to make sure that this access point to child porn in the southwestern suburbs of Chicago was permanently closed.

In addition to the child porn being accessed in this library, the internal incident reports produced under FOIA pressure also showed instances of men openly masturbating in the Library, men accosting women and children sexually, and many other times when people using computers in this Library committed acts of disorderly conduct that warranted police involvement (yet, Library staff deliberately chose not to call the police!).  An official investigation by the Orland Park Police Department that was conducted in November of 2013 determined that there were at least 22 instances of crimes committed in the Orland Park Public Library that Library staff did not handle properly, with most of these involving women and children accosted by men who had aroused themselves sexually in the Library using its anonymous, unfiltered Internet.

For point of reference, businesses like Starbucks or Kinko’s filter their Internet to block access to sites providing child porn (and instantly call the police if anyone is observed masturbating or accosting women or children in those businesses) but the Orland Park Public Library (OPPL) refuses to do this, citing the policy of the American Library Association (ALA) in keeping child porn accessible and “respecting patron privacy” (even when the “patron” in question is seen breaking the law by viewing, downloading, or distributing child porn!) .

The irony here is that though Village of Orland Park ordinance 8-6-1-1 requires Library staffers to call the police and report a crime when lewd and disturbing acts like open public masturbation occur in the Library, the Library staff chooses to look the other way and enable this criminal activity because the OPPL is run by a Director and Board who are true believers in the preachings of the American Library Association (which just happens to be a radical group funded largely by people like George Soros that sees its main purpose as “transforming communities by transforming libraries”).

The ALA says that child porn is “information” and all such “information” must be available to any person, of any age, with no filters on library computers.  The Supreme Court of the United States, however, ruled in 2003 in the landmark case US vs. ALA that public libraries are allowed to use filtering software to prevent horrors like child porn from being accessed in public libraries.  The Orland Park Public Library is, unfortunately, one of a minority of libraries in this country that listens to the ALA instead of the residents of its surrounding community: most libraries block child porn from being accessed, but the Orland Park Public Library’s Board of Trustees refuses to do this very simple thing to protect children from harm in this library and to shutdown an access point to child porn that attracts sex offenders.  Because of the unsecured, anonymous internet available no-questions-asked in public libraries, criminals know these buildings are places they can evade law enforcement and do whatever they like with little chance of being caught.

The Orland Park Police Department has reported that known sex offenders in the area have been regularly spotted in the OPPL, using the Library’s computers as well as tablets and other mobile devices to anonymously log onto the Internet.  These men are banned from using the internet or computers and the terms of most of their paroles state that they must not be within 500 feet of a school or other place where children congregate.  Yet, they are allowed into the Orland Park Public Library by its Director, Mary Weimar, where these men can evade their parole officers and log onto the Library’s computers and internet any time they want.  This particular Library chooses to use a program called Drive Shield every night to wipe every computer in the building clean (so that authorities can never go back and check what was accessed or downloaded in this public library). Criminals know this and use the Orland Park Public Library as a safe haven for their crimes.

Think of a public library as being a kind of extradition-free zone where cyber criminals of all stripes have automatic sanctuary: library staff will look the other way in places like the OPPL

Judith Krug

The ALA has known for years that this has been happening and they encourage this sort of thing in libraries across the country. You should know that a woman named Judith Krug, the former head of the ALA’s Orwellian-sounding “Office of Intellectual Freedom” said after 9/11 that she hated that some libraries cooperated with the FBI after the terrorist attacks, when the feds were investigating if these libraries were used as access points for terrorist activity over the anonymous, unsecured internet there.

Judith Krug is the woman who encouraged libraries like the OPPL to invest in Drive Shield (to wipe computer records clean nightly so that terrorists and pedophiles can never be caught) but fight the installation of child porn filters (which would end the days of public libraries being used as access points for illegal material).  Though deceased, the ghost of Judith Krug continues to haunt America’s libraries today.  The OPPL certainly seems to need an exorcism to get rid of her influence.

In their prolonged battle to keep child porn accessible in the OPPL, the Board of Trustees has repeatedly violated both the Open Meetings Act and the Freedom of Information Act.  The OMA violations have involved the Board: silencing critics by refusing public comment on topics critical of the Library (January 20th); violating its own rules and shoving public comment to the back of a meeting so most people will leave before Public Comment is allowed (January 20th); holding a surprise special meeting on a legal holiday to ram through a vote on keeping the child porn available when the public wasn’t looking (February 12th); refusing Public Comment altogether at an open meeting (February 12th); improperly voting to “ratify and affirm” agenda items for final action that were void ab initio (“from the beginning“) because they were originally voted on at an illegal meeting (March 17th); allowing a woman who was never legally appointed to the Board to vote at Board meetings (February 12th, February 17th, March 17th, April 21st, and May 19th); inventing new arbitrary and extemporaneous speaking rules meant to discourage public comment (April 21st); and holding a secret “strategy session” before their Open Meeting for the purpose of plotting ways to stage a disruption of their own meeting so that they could invent an excuse to call the police on their critics as revenge for all the recent complaints against them with the Public Access Counselor (May 19th).

Since October of 2013 (when it was first uncovered that child porn was accessed in the OPPL and the staff chose not to call the police and handle the situation properly), around 30 requests for review were filed by various members of the public against the OPPL with the PAC office for OMA and FOIA violations.  The January and February Board meetings were determined to have been conducted improperly and the OPPL is facing several important determinations regarding the March, April, and May meetings in the weeks ahead.  Some of the matters that the PAC is currently investigating (with decisions coming down soon) are:

* the illegal vote taken on February 12th to continue allowing child porn to be accessed in the OPPL = this vote is void ab initio because the February 12th meeting was held improperly on a legal holiday and, thus, everything done on that day is void; the OPPL created a huge mess for itself by ramming through a vote on seven controversial items and installing a new Board member on a day they were not allowed by law to hold a meeting.

* in a related matter, on March 17th the OPPL voted to “ratify and affirm” everything void ab initio that was done at the illegal February 12th meeting, but the OMA requires that recital and deliberation be performed at an Open Meeting before a vote can be taken on an agenda item; since everything the Board did on February 12th was done improperly and no proper recital and deliberation was performed for anything the Board voted to “ratify and affirm” on March 17th, that means that none of the controversial matters (including voting to keep child porn available) were properly handled.

* the PAC is expected to determine that a new vote must be taken on the policies that continue to allow child porn to be accessed at the OPPL, since the February 12th vote (at an illegal meeting) and the March 17th “vote to ratify and affirm” (without proper recital and deliberation) were both bungled

* part of the chaos the Board caused by holding that illegal special meeting on February 12th is the fact that one OPPL Board Member, Beth Gierach, has never been legally appointed or properly sworn-in…and yet the Board continues to seat her and allows her to vote month after month; this means all votes she took in February, March, April, and May should be voided since she was not a properly appointed Board member at the time of those votes.

Judith Krug mocking United States
Attorney General John Ashcroft

The February 12th illegal meeting that the OPPL held was clearly a gambit this Board played to force a vote to continue allowing access to child porn and other evils in this Library on a day that was inconvenient to the public.  Also, this Board was advised by the lawyers of Klein Thorpe Jenkins that if it held a vote on the child porn issue in a special meeting (not a regular board meeting) that the Board would not have to allow public comment at that meeting.  The OPPL was advised in particular by Dennis G. Walsh of the KTJ firm that it could vote on February 12th and prohibit public comment, thereby giving Board members cover to vote to keep child porn accessible without the public being able to shame these cowards for voting the way that the ALA directed them to vote.

The OMA does not allow a Board to prevent public comment at any Open Meeting and all votes for final action must be made in Open Meetings.  This means that no vote on any matter for final action can be taken at a meeting where public comment is not permitted.

The OMA also does not allow a vote for final action on an item to be taken if proper recital and deliberation is not performed for that agenda item…and, once again, recital and deliberation must be performed at a meeting that is open to the public (where public comment is allowed).  This clearly means that a Board cannot on March 17th “ratify and affirm actions it took on February 12th when that February 12th meeting was not a properly held Open Meeting. Proper recital and deliberation needed to have been conducted at the March 17th meeting for any agenda items to have been voted on for final action…as everything done on February 12th was void ab initio,

What a head-spinning mess this Board has made in its increasingly more desperate attempt to keep child porn accessible in a gorgeous, spare-no-expense architectural gem of a library in an upscale Chicago suburb.

Behind the scenes, the real power play at issue here is that the American Library Association cannot afford to allow a plum like the OPPL to shut off the child porn access, since the ALA is based in Chicago and fears losing control of another public facility.  Currently, the ALA in effect controls the OPPL, via the OPPL’s Director Mary Weimar (who is a committed acolyte of the ALA). If the OPPL Board of Trustees voted against the ALA and stopped allowing itself to be an access point to child pornography this would be a clear repudiation of the ALA’s “guidelines” for libraries…and would diminish the ALA’s clout.

The fear in the ALA’s offices is that if the OPPL votes to block the child porn then other libraries in Chicago could follow…and if that happens then the ALA’s entire house of cards could tumble.

This is why every effort imaginable is now being undertaken by the OPPL’s Board of Trustees to violate the OMA and FOIA in our State to thwart the public’s demand that child porn be permanently blocked in this Library.

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Source of the above excellent work and the title of this blog post:

• "What’s Next with the Orland Park Public Library Child Porn Scandal?," by Jim Kraft, Illinois Leaks, Edgar County Watchdogs, 23 May 2014, emphasis in original, graphics after the first added by me.  © 2010 - 2014 Edgar County Watchdogs.  "Feel free to copy and link to us - please give us credit...All rights reserved."

Also, see Kevin DuJan's latest filing with the Illinois Attorney General, linked below.  It happens to feature me as Kevin DuJan was threatened with arrest for speaking up for my right to speak, but it is also a detailed description of planning for and committing white collar crime by the Orland Park Public Library board and its attorneys.  It's really an eye opener, all to defend child pornography, and the police are eventually called by the library to further harass those trying to stop the child porn:

• "Request for Review, Violations of the Open Meetings Act; The Orland Park Public Library Board of Trustees (Again!); May 19th, 2014 Meeting of the Destructive OPPL-BoT; Repeated and Ongoing Violations of OMA," by Kevin DuJan, Illinois Attorney General, Public Access Counselor, 21 May 2014.

The ghost of Illinois ACLU board member and ALA de facto leader Judith Krug continues to haunt America's libraries today.  In Orland Park, both of her successors (Deborah Caldwell-Stone and Barbara Jones) are actively involved in the deception and the criminality.  As I pointed out in the past, Tom Lehrer's "Smut!" is ALA's anthem.  As Jim Kraft points out, "The OPPL certainly seems to need an exorcism to get rid of her influence."


NOTE ADDED 9 JUNE 2014:

Here is a graphic of one library removing the ghost of Judith Krug and her ACLU/porn legacy:

Library removing the ghost of Judith Krug and her ACLU/porn legacy.
Photo Credit:  Kevin DuJan; Used with permission.

URL of this page:  tinyurl.com/GhostOfJudithKrug

On Twitter:  @ECWDogs @HillBuzz @ILAttyGeneral @IntolerantFox @OIF @OpenSociety @OrlandPkLibrary @VillageOrlandPk

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Parading as Homeless Shelters is Killing the Urban Library System in America

According to some, the homeless are making some libraries unsafe at any speed, crime is rampant, and patrons simply refuse to attend:

Development Arrested says:
March 18, 2013 at 4:43 pm 

In a public (and an academic!) library, librarians will work with patrons who are homeless, mentally ill, or on the spectrum.  Sometimes our own staff will have these same conditions.  They are not always the most pleasant people to work with, but that's (part) of our job. 

me too says:
March 21, 2013 at 7:45 pm 

We are not trained in the mental illness field and I am sick and tired of having a library full of people who need help that library staff are not able to provide.  When you talk about us becoming irrelevant, it will be because "regular" people stop coming to our libraries because they are afraid of the kind of people who are more and more becoming fixtures in our libraries.  Some are mentally ill, some are thieves, some are drug users, some are perverts, some are pedophiles and some are just plain evil.  That is what is going to put us out of business.  I've worked in libraries for the past 30 years and even in small town, libraries are becoming jungles.  Moms aren't going to bring kids to storytime or vote for a bond when our libraries are full of people masturbating, talking to themselves, fighting, hitting and spitting, smell like death and are obvious disease carriers. 

me too says:
March 22, 2013 at 8:45 pm 

You don’t get it.  I may have used a bit too much hyperbole for you.  The people who keep us relevant are more and more AFRAID to come to our libraries because we have become the home for all the fringe people in our culture.  It's a public library, sure, but it has become the dumping ground for social services and every other government agency that has given up or can't fund adequate care for many of these people.  I repeat, I have not the training nor do I have the desire to spend the rest of my career dealing with social issues that our state and federal governments have abandoned to us.  I don’t believe God intends the public library to be the home, hospital, bathroom, shower and bedroom for all these folks.  I'm just telling it like it is.  Do you actually think our job is to get trained in the mental health field so we can better help these folks?  I'm a friggin librarian not a miracle worker.  I don't want to be a miracle worker.  I don't want to deal with people every fucking day of my life who don't have a clue what planet they live on.  Sorry if that upsets you and God.  Perhaps you could create some kind of nirvanna for these folks at your library.  I can't. 

Charlemagne says:
March 23, 2013 at 12:33 am 

I agree.  My urban library is essentially the daily hangout for the homeless.  I have nothing against homeless as people and I think more needs to be done to prevent it, but these are the people who destroy the library for everyone else.  They are lined up at the door before we open and go back to the shelter at closing time.  It is killing us because we are not equipped or capable to be social workers or a homeless shelter.  There are, in fact, social workers and homeless shelters in existence for a reason.  We have (seemingly weekly) heroin overdoses, an upstairs bathroom that is apparently the local gay-sex hangout, people who walk around talking to themselves, people masturbating at the computers, people fist fighting over computers, exposing themselves to staff, prostitution, bathing in the bathrooms, drug dealers; and that's just the normal stuff. 

Though it isn't an official policy, the staff warns parents who bring in children because pedophiles are known to target the library.  Also, it kinda sucks when you have to check for seminal or menstrual fluid and vomit before you sit down at a desk.  I know we aren't unique in our experience as an urban library. 

The overwhelming majority of the research requests we get are over the phone.  People who are not part of the homeless population do not visit the library.  They do not feel safe here and they have stated as such.  People would rather not get the information than come in to the facility.  Last week we had someone (who had never visited before) ask immediately upon entering our area if the library in the suburbs could answer her research question because she was not comfortable in this environment.  I wonder how she will vote once a levy comes up on the ballot?  

Look, I know we are all good liberals and feel we are supporting the reactionary conservatives who disdain education if we say anything other than the homeless are a blessing and joy.  I've found that is what the underlying issue is.  But let's be honest: Libraries are not shelters.  They are not designed to be.  Librarians are not medical professionals or social workers.  We are not trained to be.  These resources exist.  We have a different mission and skills.  Are we supposed to be nurses literally handing out their psychiatric medication to tame schizophrenia?  Those who come in with the habits listed above (and throughout this thread) are hindering us from doing our job and making it less likely we will continue to receive community support. 

Look, the homeless patrons are by and large not "decent folks just down on their luck" who would easily create the next million-dollar internet start-up if only a noble librarian would show them the resume builder software.  They have these resources at the homeless shelter.  The social workers know exactly how to get these people back on their feet and they give them the opportunities.  The homeless here don't need the help from us because anything we could offer is already being offered by professionals. Sorry to say, but they generally want to remain drug addicted and use the public library as their home base, all the while treating the staff like we are their personal butlers there solely to serve them. 

Parading as a homeless shelter is killing the urban library system in America.

Source:  Comments to

• "Banned from All Libraries," by Annoyed Librarian, Library Journal, 18 March 2013.  

The title of my post is nearly a direct quote from one of the commenters.

Note:  I have written about the homeless in libraries before:

• "Hidden Library Crime: Security Guard Reveals Libraries Want Door Greeters, Not Security Guards; Case Evidences Harm of American Library Association Control Over Libraries," by Dan Kleinman, SafeLibraries, 8 March 2012
• "LA Times Supports Filtering Porn from Public Libraries," by Dan Kleinman, SafeLibraries, 29 December 2011
• "Laguna Beach Pubic Library," by Dan Kleinman, SafeLibraries, 6 December 2011
• "Porn and Sex Abuse In Our Public Libraries: Public Library Porn Harms Children, Patrons, Librarians, and Porn Industry Actors," by Dan Kleinman, SafeLibraries, 24 July 2011
• "Bums are Ground Zero in Libraries - Librarianship is a Hazardous Occupation," by Dan Kleinman, SafeLibraries, 21 February 2011
• "Tacoma Library Crime Rampant; Library Director Once Chased Pedophile Out of the Library and Across a Parking Lot While Wearing Her High Heels; Library Itself Partly to Blame and May Be Committing Fraud," by Dan Kleinman, SafeLibraries, 19 February 2011
• "Kansas City Library Riddled with Crime: No Internet Filters is Why, and Acceptable Use Policies Do Not Work," by Dan Kleinman, SafeLibraries, 20 May 2010
• "Twin Students of Different Mothers Want Internet Filters," 20 February 2010
• "Sex in Public Library Bathrooms Results in Nation's First Full-Time Psychiatric Social Worker Stationed in a Public Library," by Dan Kleinman, SafeLibraries, 11 January 2010
• "432 Patrons Ejected from Seattle Libraries in First Four Months of 2009; Librarians 'Assaulted, Threatened and Spit Upon,'" by Dan Kleinman, SafeLibraries, 28 May 2009
• "Homeless Children and Banned Books," by Dan Kleinman, SafeLibraries, 10 March 2009
• "Hartford Librarians Should Sue to Rid ALA Influence," by Dan Kleinman, SafeLibraries, 18 May 2008

Will the American Library Association do anything about this?  Feel free to comment below.

NOTE ADDED 31 MARCH 2013:

See also, and the comments:

• "Shush!; Today's Public Library Could Be Mistaken For a Halfway House, Homeless Shelter, or Federal Penetentiary'," by Daniel J. Flynn, American Spectator, 29 March 2013. 

URL of this page:  safelibraries.blogspot.com/2013/03/HomelessInLibraries.html

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School Library Child Porn Arrest Story by Associated Press Features Police Expert Dr. Frank Kardasz, Thanks to SafeLibraries

The American Library Association [ALA] is tracking a story regarding an arrest in a collegiate library (Metropolitan Community College, Kansas City, MO).  Here are a couple of links to the stories:

• "Man Accused of Downloading Child Pornography in College Library Says He Has Shared Images for Years," by Bill Draper/Associated Press, The Republic (Columbus, Indiana), 9 March 2013.
• "Mo. Child Porn Suspect Admits Decade of Violations," by Bill Draper/Associated Press, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 9 March 2013.

In the stories one police source figures prominently:

Frank Kardasz, retired commander of the Arizona Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, said his task force worked dozens of cases involving people viewing or trafficking child pornography while using public and college library computers. 

The problem is tough to police because of the imperfect nature of Internet filtering devices and pushback from free-speech advocates who believe adults should have the right to view adult pornography in libraries, he said, adding that any place offering wireless Internet connections "is an opportunity for child pornography offenders to traffic contraband images." 

"My experience is that some, not all, libraries underreport the offenses because they do not wish to bring attention nor police involvement to their facility," said Kardasz, founder and director of the Phoenix-based Cyberspace Child Protection Campaign. "Also, because many offenders are nefarious enough to avoid apprehension, there are probably more offenses occurring than we are aware of."

That Cyberspace Child Protection Campaign is an open Facebook group having 360 members of which I am one of the earliest members.  And I have written about Dr. Frank Kardasz previously:

• "Child Porn Trafficking in Public Libraries; Libraries Actively Thwart Child Porn Investigations," by Dan Kleinman, SafeLibraries, 24 June 2009.
• "Library Director Admits Keeping Police in the Dark in Gilbert, Arizona; American Library Association Guidance Not To Inform Police May Be the Reason," by Dan Kleinman, SafeLibraries, 12 June 2011.
• "Banned Books Week Versus Library Crime; Call for the ALA to Track Library Crime," by Dan Kleinman, SafeLibraries, 17 August 2009.  (ALA still refuses to track library crime, by the way, while it fakes instances of supposedly banned books.)

I am so happy the police caught up with and stopped the criminal.  And I am also happy to expose yet again that acceptable use policies are failures, as this case evidences, and that libraries hold them up like they are so precious—here it's the school's first defense:

Kathy Walter-Mack, chief of staff for MCC Chancellor Mark James, declined to discuss Lawrence's case because he is a student at the college and is the focus of an ongoing investigation.  She said the college's policies prohibit the unlawful use of its computer networks.

That said, it should be known that the Associated Press author contacted Dr. Frank Kardasz as a direct result of his having learned of the good doctor right here on the SafeLibraries blog.  I love linking numerous reliable sources in my posts, and when main stream media is using them to find experts, I know I am being successful in exposing the harmful activities of the ALA.  So thanks, ALA, for tracking the story to which I directly contributed.  As a direct result of my work, you are learning:

But the First Amendment, Kardasz said, was crafted long before the invention of computers. 

"While I support free speech, I cannot imagine that the framers of the Constitution foresaw pornography in the library as acceptable when children are also present," he said.

And indeed, the US Supreme Court said, directly to ALA/ACLU, "public libraries' use of Internet filtering software does not violate their patrons' First Amendment rights...."  Are there, as Dr. Kardasz put it, "free-speech advocates who believe adults should have the right to view adult pornography in libraries"?  Yes, but they do not have that right.  If your library is saying they do, here's a road map for removing porn from libraries.

URL of this page:  safelibraries.blogspot.com/2013/03/AP.html

Follow @SafeLibraries

Chatting Up Child Victims in Montpelier, VT, Courtesy of ALA Policy Controlling Yet Another Community's Public Library; Parole Board Should Consider Library Complicity

Oh look.  A child predator who went to jail for a few months of his 3-4 year sentence for "attempting to lure a minor and possessing child pornography" used Yahoo Messenger on a public library computer to lure his next child victim.   This was at the Kellogg-Hubbard Library in lovely Montpelier, VT.  The library's reaction?  He hogged the computers:  "The librarian stated that [the man] had been in the library frequently and that he has been monopolizing the computer several times a day in violation of the library’s own policies."  See "Man Denied Bail for Violating Conditions of Probation," by Jaime Cone, Brattleboro Reformer, 26 November 2009.

Why might this have happened?  "In 1997 the Board adopted an Internet Policy recommended by the American Library Association."  Uh oh.  The library adopted the ALA-recommended policy.  Clue one something is wrong.  Oh, that's right, the ALA does not control local community libraries, we're supposed to believe.  Nevermind.

Clue two something is wrong:

Internet Access
The Internet, a world-wide network of computer networks is an essential medium for obtaining and transmitting information of all types.  Therefore, public access to the Internet is germane to the Library's mission.

However, the Internet is an unregulated medium.  It also provides access to information that is inaccurate, illegal or that some may find offensive or disturbing.  The Library will identify on its web site specific Internet sites that have potential interest for Library users.  But the Library cannot control a user's access to other Internet resources.

That is flat out false.  The library can and may control a user's access to the Internet, it just refuses to do so because the ALA has directed how the library will act, according to the library's own admission.  It's right there in black and white.

The perp said he was "incredibly dishonest and manipulative about this stuff."  Perhaps it's the library itself that has been incredibly dishonest and manipulative.  

I think a better title for the media report would have been "ALA Policy Controlling Public Library Endangers More Children; Kellogg-Hubbard Library Falsely Claims It Cannot Control Internet Usage," by Jaime Cone, Brattleboro Reformer, 26 November 2009.

The perp has a violation of parole meeting coming up.  I suggest he argue that the library is partially at fault for refusing to take action that may have prevented his behavior in the first place.  I suggest the parole board consider the library to be under the control of a foreign entity, the ALA, and that control made it an "attractive nuisance" that the perp could not resist and that endangers children.
Will the local community allow this to remain another sad statistic, or will it do what it must to protect its children by kicking out the anything-goes policy of the ALA in the public library?   Is it the public's library or the ALA's library?   Ask the ex-con with the duct tape, camera, and the variety of alcohol found in his car in lovely Montpelier, VT.

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Iowa Nixes Sex Offenders From Libraries Unless Prior Approval Granted

It appears Iowa libraries may have become more safe thanks to a new state law regarding sex offenders. (Unlike NJ.)

Here are excerpts from the media:

Bond Package Concludes 2009 Session
by Russ Mitchell
The Daily Reporter (Spencer, IA)
2 May 2009

....

[Gov. Chet] Culver and the local lawmakers agreed on improvements to Iowa's sex offender monitoring laws. The governor called it a tougher, smarter way of dealing with the issue. [Assistant Republican Leader David] Johnson called it "probably the best piece of bipartisan legislation that came out of the session."

"There are significant changes in the sex offender law and they were changes that needed to be done," Johnson said.

The measure establishes a 1-2-3 tier system and overhauls a state law banning sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of places children gather. It would instead prohibit offenders from being in those facilities without prior approval.

Under the new law, only the worst offenders, in tier 3, would still be subject to the 2,000-foot living restrictions. They also would also be subject to the Iowa Sex Offender Registry requirements for life. The registry status for lesser offenders would be allowed to expire in 10 or 20 years, depending on the nature of their offense.

"It was something strongly supported by (Clay County) Sheriff (Randy) Krukow and it was unanimously approved in the Senate and overwhelmingly approved in the House," Johnson said.

....

NJ Okays Sex Offenders Near Libraries

The following is from the New Jersey Family Policy Council [NJFPC], and it appears NJ libraries may have become less safe, at least for a while. At a minimum, we know NJ communities now have less local control over their own communities.

The ACLU arguments in this case, however, may have merit, unlike the guidance from the American Library Association that leads a library to destroy a computer hard drive to protect a child porn viewer then force out the reporting librarian.

Here are excerpts from the NJFPC story:

NJ High Court Favors Sex Offenders
by New Jersey Family Policy Council
15 May 2009

Last week, the New Jersey State Supreme Court ruled 6-0 against the safety of our children and in favor of convicted sex offenders by denying towns the right to restrict where sex offenders may live.

As the Star Ledger reports, the Court said towns cannot bar sex offenders from "living within a designated distance of any school park, playground, public library, or daycare center."

....

So, let's get this straight. The Parole Board willingly admits that factors "more significant" than proximity to our children hold greater sway in determining where convicted sex offenders may live and also says it openly welcomes input from towns, and yet our State Supreme Court denies towns the right to prevent sex offenders from living close to places children congregate!

The rate of recidivism among sex offenders is astronomical, and yet the Court is more concerned with the supposed "rights" of convicted sex offenders than with the health and safety of the very children they target!

We echo the words of Harry Wyant, Mayor of Phillipsburg – one of the towns that passed an ordinance restricting where sex offenders may live: "[I]t's ridiculous that we can't restrict these individuals from areas of concern.... It flies in the face of home rule."

....

Indeed, the Court was wrong, and its misjudgment has placed all children across the state at risk.

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