SafeLibraries.org - Are Children Safe in Public Libraries?
Contact me to get on or off my library crime ping list.
Contact me to get on or off my library crime ping list.
Posted on 03/26/2008 10:20:45 AM PDT by BurbankKarl
Many in the Central Valley farm town of Lindsay were shocked when a man was arrested after allegedly viewing photos of nude boys on a computer in the local library.
But even more shocking was the dismissal two days later of the library branch's lone employee, who said she alerted police over the objections of her supervisor.
The firing of aide Brenda Biesterfeld has prompted a prayer vigil outside the library, a stinging letter from the City Council to Tulare County officials, rumblings about the town of 11,000 breaking off from the county library system and a wave of anger throughout the community
On Tuesday, an organization promoting "family-friendly" libraries honored Biesterfeld, 46, a single mother of two, before the Lindsay City Council. Attorneys connected with a conservative legal group based at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University have taken up her cause, threatening to sue the county. Local firefighters are talking about giving her some of the proceeds from a department fundraiser next month.
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But the next day Biesterfeld, nagged by doubts, used her lunch hour to visit the police station next door. She was told to contact the station if the same thing happened again, said Mathew Staver, one of her attorneys. "She was doing the moral and legal thing that anyone would do," he said. "When you see someone viewing child pornography, you report it to the proper authorities."
On March 4, she called police when she saw Chrisler allegedly viewing the same kind of images. Police arrested him and confiscated the computer as evidence. They then received an angry call from Hill, who told them they had violated Chrisler's "privacy rights," according to a letter Biesterfeld's lawyers sent county officials.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Our tax dollars at work.
When you're in "public".... you don't get "privacy".
“On March 4, she called police when she saw Chrisler allegedly viewing the same kind of images. Police arrested him and confiscated the computer as evidence...”
If he had been surfing an Islamic terrorist site or looking up bomb making, I bet the the librarian would have offered him sanctuary.
Don’t get it: child porn is illegal. There must have been a technicality, i.e. the guy didn’t technically “possess” the porn cuz it wasn’t on his computer? It was on the library’s? What gives?
I’m disgusted, plus the ALA (her professional org) probably won’t even support her.
I have a family member who is working on an Internet crimes squad. When somebody goes into a chat room and mentions that they’re, say, 11 years old, within 10 minutes there will be men sending videos of their private parts.
Librarians have an obligation to keep porn and its users out of this public space, paid for by our tax dollars, and to protect the children who are using the Internet.
He was distributing child porn at the library.
Accessing is a crime as well as possessing.
WOW, people still use libraries?
Sounds like her boss, Judi Hill, is more concerned about pedophiles rights than those of the children they molest.
How crazy is this?!
They need to can the supervisor and promote the lady with common sense.
Or at least, I woudl think so.
Libraries have turned into havens for the homeless & perverts. If I had a kid I wouldn’t take them to a library, especially a big city library.
The American Library Association doesn’t even support internet filters on Children’s computers. Them & their wacko brethren, the ACLU think taxpayers owe all these perverts access to free porn.
I work in a library and it virtually took an act of congress to get the system to install filters. I hope to find new employment soon, I’ve had about all I can stand.
No porn filters on library internet connections?
Libraries are basically museums these days....
Filters would infringe on the rights of pedophiles.
Read the Constitution. Not once will you find the word “privacy” because the Founding Fathers never put an express right to privacy in there.
These guys were all great writers. Had they meant a right to privacy to exist the would have put it in there. No need to imply anything. Madison et. al. seldom wrote with implication.
Instead we have all these legal gymnastics twisting what’s not there so it appears to be....and leading to bad law like “Roe v. Wade”.
The 4th Amendment in the Bill of Rights addresses privacy issues....(not in those exact words) but there again.... this guy was in “public” and none of the things he was in possession of, belonged to him.
I know that our library system is using computer access to gather more visitors to their libraries and then use this data to demand more tax increases.
I’m not disagreeing with you.
But why did the Burger Court use a twisting of the 14th to get “Roe” through...using the big “privacy” argument?
Of course the big word in the Fourth is unreasonable....
Seeing kiddie porn on a library computer and reporting it to the cops ain’t unreasonable.
Besides, the Fourth constrains the cops only, it doesn’t constrain what any other citizen can do.
But why did the Burger Court use a twisting of the 14th to get “Roe” through...using the big “privacy” argument?
The agenda reigned supreme. There have been forces trying to undermine everything we are as a nation, using petty arguments like this... for many years. Even the moral compasses we had in our churches, pastors and priests have succumbed to the pc stuff. Sad.
Thanks for the PING
Georgia state government is our ISP and they don't take kindly to folks abusing the privilege.
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