Cleveland investigative reporter tackles porn in libraries

AllenM says:

Re:Investigate Spellcheck, Mr. Reporter
I know most librarians are civil liberties fanatics, but this is one issue where we’ve definitely gone too far in protecting the “rights” of problem patrons. If someone is caught masturbating in the library, the police should be called and the person charged with a crime and banned from the library. Period!

Those of us in Philadelphia know from personal experience what happens when you laugh things like these off and say it’s only Geraldo Rivera types and religious fundamentalists who care. For years, the Free Library of Philadelphia let people get away with looking at all the porn they wanted to and refused to take action when some of these people masturbated or exposed themselves. It came back to bite them in the ass because one of these people they refused to get tough on ended up raping and almost killing a young girl in one of the branches. Even after that happened, they refused to take the perverts seriously until the union and the media embarassed them in public about it.

Dismissing this problem as simple “melodrama” is incredibly offensive and ignorant in the view of those of us who work in Philadelphia.

AllenM says:

Re:Investigate Spellcheck, Mr. Reporter
I’m sorry. I thought your were making light of the issues in addition to mocking the report. I have a short fuse on this because I’ve heard the administrators of the Free Library (and speakers at ALA conferences) make light of these serious problems all too often.

And I think I should say that I was enraged reading about that one particular man who has been allowed to view porn and masturbate on several occasions without serious consequences. If that’s true, Cleveland Public DESERVES to be pounded by the media. If the stories are sensationalistic, too bad. They brought the bad press on themselves.

When my union and I conducted a media campaign to embarrass the Free Library into improving security, we talked to pretty much anyone who was willing to interview us because it was so important to get our message out. And we didn’t feel guilty when some people engaged in demagoguery as long as we were calmly sticking to the facts ourselves.

Anyway, sorry for the misunderstanding.