🚀 go-pugleaf

The Masked Librarian wrote:
> 
> Morgan Landry <morganlandry@linuxmail.org> wrote in message news:<c40hu8$2c6fgp$1@ID-176018.news.uni-berlin.de>...
> > az-willie wrote:
> >
> > > YOU DO IT.
> > >
> > > Take your turn. Organize your own protests and do your duty to your
> > > country.
> >
> > But what if I don't mind cameras inside the library? Secret cameras are
> > in stores for security reasons. Why not a library? As long as they're
> > not telling me what books to read or putting them inside a bathroom
> > stall, then why should I mind?
> 
> The original poster seems to see this as a liberal versus conservative
> issue whereas it is a safety/security one. Security cameras in public
> places provide a valuable function: they help identify criminals
> and/or terrorists so they may be identified, caught, and brought to
> justice. How many times have we seen on the news a video tape of a
> criminal leading a child away from a public place to be sexually
> assaulted and/or murdered? Without a video camera taping the crime,
> that criminal might get away and continue his crime spree on other
> victims. Video cameras help get these people off the streets.
> 
> Recently an 8-year-old girl was beaten and assaulted in a Philadelphia
> public library: http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/7903987.htm?1c
> If the library had had a video camera, they might have gotten a photo
> of the criminal. How many more little girls will he assault? More and
> more parents are using public libraries as day care centers by leaving
> their kids there for many hours, even late at night. Inner-city public
> libraries are not the safest places for kids to be left alone. Many
> libraries don't even have security guards. And these libraries attract
> a lot of dangerous adults who have nowhere else to go and prey on
> kids.
> 
> I would think more and more parents (regardless of their politics)
> will demand their local public libraries install surveillance cameras,
> and initiate other security measures as well. If I were a public
> library director, I would aggressively advertise their presence to
> deter crime.
> 
> Anyone who thinks surveillance cameras in public places are a bad idea
> doesn't know enough to even discuss the issue.
> 
> Where are the 60s activists? They're running the American Library
> Association. They are also graying tenured professors in the halls of
> academia throughout the country. When they die off and are carried
> out, higher education will experience a robust renaissance as a more
> rational educational philosophy is dispensed to young minds.
> 
> World War II veterans are called "The Greatest Generation." The 60s
> radicals have been labeled "The Worst Generation." I'd say that's
> about right.
> 
> TML

umm...NO public library is a safe place to leave children.  

If there were cameras installed (and assuming the librarians have the
skill to work them), the public librarians would not want to give up the
tapes. After all, the official ALA stance is "non-loco parentis".  

In other words they don't give a rip, and all users, including your
tender young children, pedophiles and rapists hanging out in reading
rooms, living in the rest rooms, and sleeping/wacking it off in the
stacks, are equal. What they do is of no concern to the library staff.

Blame the ALA.

LA