Tense standoff at a Newton library following threatening email

mdoneil says:

Load of crap
The articles paint an awfully one sided picture little librarians teach big government a lesson about search warrants. Of course it is all nonsense and the librarian and Mayor are lucky they are not behind bars.

Before you go flying off the handle about what a Fascist I am think about it, if it were a threat emailed to your child’s school would you want the library to lock the computers away to preserve evidence, or would you like your library’s IT guy going through them as opposed to trained forensic computer specialist?

Exigent circumatances…that the data that identifies the sender of the threat both electronic and physical evidence, may be lost if the computers are left in use certainly authorizes the authorities to seize them without a warrant. It is not like a bloody hammer left at a crime scene. Computers have dynamic memory and that memory is subject to being overwritten if the computers are used by the public during the pendency of the investigation. Embargoing the computers – making the inaccessible to the public and staff, and removing their connection to the network (albeit after the relevent network addressing information was recorded) is the least intrusive action that could have been taken. In this case the computers must be preserved in a state as close to that as they were in when the threat was sent. No use other than forensic examination should be permitted to preserve evidence.

It is obvious, and should have been obvious to the librarian and Mayor that a crime serious enough to warrant the evacuation of Brandeis University and an elementary school had taken place and that capturing the criminal was of the utmost importance. Their failure to assist the police, in fact the direct opposition of the official actions of law enforcement is in itself a crime. As the investigation was time critical steps should have been taken to assure the integrity of the machines and frankly that is beyond the scope of most librarian’s training.

The remark by the ACLU spokesperson is laughable, the librarians do not know more than law enforcement about warrants. A warrant was not needed to secure the evidence, removal and forensic examination may have required a warrant after the evidence was secured, but to say that the librarians knew more than the police is absurd.

The remark by the Mayor is not simply laughable but reveals the sad state that Newton is in if they feel that was one of their finest moments. They apparently are working against law enforcement rather than with them for the protection of our children.

Protecting evidence of a Felony is of paramount importance, the library director and the Mayor impeded that protection of evidence. Protecting library patron privacy is important, but a civil action can address any violation of patron privacy. Terrorist threats that force University students and school children out into freezing weather, disrupt the normal functioning of the schools, endangered the public and police officers as they responded to the schools with lights flashing and sirens blaring because they must treat each and every terrorist threat as real, cannot be addressed in civil court. Criminal court is where the perpetrators of these crimes belong, and the library director and Mayor may have given the criminal a helping hand by delaying access to the computers.

If the FBI comes into my library and tells me a terrorist threat has come from one of the computers I will close the computer room, disconnect the network connection, and give them the fax and phone numbers so they can give it to a judge to authorize the seizure and examination of the computers. Neither patron privacy nor evidence will be compromised that way.

Do you want a Mayor and library head that obstruct the police and think themselves lawyers, or do you want people who do the right thing? I am delighted I don’t live in Newton.

mdoneil says:

Re:Load of crap
What do you base this on, your personal feelings? Exigent circumstances allow the embargoing of the computers.