Librarian fired for reporting a crime

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Author	Topic: Librarian fired for reporting a crime
KGB Moderator	posted 03-21-2008 02:35 PM Link quote: A bizarre battle has erupted over the arrest on child pornography charges of a man at a California public library, with library and county officials siding against the staffer who called police to arrest the alleged criminal. Librarian Brenda Biesterfeld was fired from her job after disregarding her supervisor's orders not to call police. I don't know all the legalities here. From a moral perspective, firing someone for reporting a crime seems a bit outrageous. IP: Logged
SPQR Moderator	posted 03-21-2008 05:08 PM The librarian community has somehow been taken over by complete leftist loons. Witness the silly outrage over the PATRIOT Act provision on subpoenas for business records and the librarian community deciding that it was the beginning of a fascist police state that the law enforcement community might actually be able to obtain records. And also that our community's libraries have become homeless shelters. IP: Logged
setnahkt Member	posted 03-21-2008 05:53 PM At the Boulder Public Library, an art exhibit consisting of ceramic penises clipped to a clothesline was placed on display, while all American flags were removed because "they might offend someone". The librarians of my youth did perform some censorship. At age ten or so I tried to check out a copy of Ulysses, having just read the Odyssey and figuring it was just a variant (which, of course, it is). I was politely refused. IP: Logged
KGB Moderator	posted 03-22-2008 12:53 PM Our local libraries have not become homeless shelters, and the librarians have usually been very helpful. They even acted on my suggestion to purchase Liberal Fascism, though I may not have been the only suggester and, as a NYT #1 best seller, it might have been hard to ignore the suggestion. They did not act on my suggestion to purchase The Forgotten Man, but it was near the end of the budget cycle. Still, there are distinct lefty tones to the way things are run there. There are big Patriot Act warning placards everywhere, for example. If we were really approaching a fascist state (or at least a fascist state not run by their own end of the political spectrum) I doubt we'd see the placards. [This message has been edited by KGB (edited 03-22-2008).] IP: Logged
KGB Moderator	posted 03-22-2008 01:16 PM Whoops. Never mind. [This message has been edited by KGB (edited 03-22-2008).] IP: Logged
WattKid Member	posted 03-22-2008 07:10 PM quote: Originally posted by KGB: . . . There are big Patriot Act warning placards everywhere, for example. If we were really approaching a fascist state (or at least a fascist state not run by their own end of the political spectrum) I doubt we'd see the placards. Personally, I'm much less concerned about the remote possibility that Michael Chertoff might ask to see the database of my library activity than I am by the fact that Marian, the local librarian, maintains that database. Marian is the threat to your privacy not Michael Chertoff. Once the information exists, it's discoverable in a legal proceeding. It's not that I have anything in particular to hide. I object to petty governmental bureaucrats maintaining private information beyond the time that its usefulness for its governmental purpose (making sure that books get returned) has expired. IP: Logged
llamas Member	posted 03-24-2008 09:13 AM My local library suffers from this - a bit. They kicked up a ruckus after a uniformed officer came in on his lunch break to do something-or-other. 'Gun Free Zone!' they cried. Someone pointed out to them that, if they wanted to enforce their Gun Free Zone, the state CCW law required them to post signs in the statutory form - and anyway, the GFZ provisions of the law specifically exempted sworn officers. So then there were great big signs defacing the entries to the library. Then the local authority got involved - who told the library that they could declare themselves a Gun free Zone, and spend taxpayers money on signs announcing same? So for a while, the signs were like they were on Bungee cords - up one day, down the next. I don't know whether it has been sorted out yet. I, of course, ignore all such signs as a matter of principle. New slogan for the ALA - 'No Snitchin'!' Another recent kerfuffle has involved magazine subscriptions. A civic-minded individual dnated subscriptions to 'American Rifleman', 'Guns and Ammo' and several other like-minded publications. The librarians had the vapours - and put them 'under the counter'. There's a sign in the reading room that says (and I paraphrase) 'if you want this male-hegemonistic, violence-paradigm, blood-and-torture hard-core pr*n, you must ask for it at the desk. Visualize World Peace!' Then, of course, some other civic-minded individual complained that some of the other periodicals on open display in the magazine racks weren't quite suitable for all library users either. So now a range of magazines (think 'Cosmopolitan', various photographic and art magazines, and so forth) are on the racks - but in the sort of cover-up sleeves that are used on skin magazines at gas stations - while the gun magazines are hidden under the counter. It's a funny old world at the library. llater, llamas ------------------ . . . a truly bad and evil man. So bad and evil that he's banned by Kim du Toit. "All things are ready, if our minds be so." King Henry V, Act 4, scene 3 "I hope that those responsible have been sacked. And replaced by Llamas." - Glenn Harlan Reynolds IP: Logged
entropy Member	posted 03-24-2008 09:56 PM I have seen uniformed officers in my library but it appeared that they had been called by the staff for legitimate reasons. There have also been several alarm activations mostly after midnight. Probably false alarms but possibly due to the homeless. IP: Logged

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