Thought crimes: more serious than real crimes
At Pelham Library, a teen did some research on the laws related to the concealed carry of a handgun. Someone at the library reported the suspicious activity. The teen was then called to the principal’s office and interviewed by police. Seems that reporting someone’s reading habits may also be a violation of the law. The library seems mostly unconcerned about this:
‘It is not our procedure to notify somebody,’ about the books people order, library Director Patricia Perito said Wednesday, the day after the incident. But, she said, she had to look into it. Since then, Perito has declined to provide any explanation of the incident or information on the instructions the library has regarding notifying authorities about questionable book choices.”
Is this weird, or what? Apparently, it didn’t stop there, but went on to the police. “Pelham Manor police Detective Ken Campion said the teen was doing research on gun carry and concealment laws, not on how to conceal a gun…. There was not anything to be worried about with regard to the teen, Campion said after interviewing him Tuesday. He did not break any laws.” He didn’t, but somebody did.
According to one of the comments on this article, the busybody in the library who called the school does this sort of thing all the time. It’s not clear if the person is actually a librarian, but it doesn’t matter that much. The director doesn’t seem too upset about it, and presumably she’s a librarian. She should have trotted out a high-minded speech about the ALA and privacy issues and told everyone she was going to fix this problem immediately!
May 13th, 2009 at 11:10 am
As a Librarian, I deplore and condemn this breach of library ethics. I’m sure Breda (also a librarian) would agree.
May 13th, 2009 at 11:25 am
Didn’t the librarians have a bit of a shit-fit when the patriot act came out about it giving the government the right to look at peoples library reading choices?
May 13th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
Typical busybody behavior ratting out someone becasue she disagrees with that. That behaviore can be by either left ot right person. We need to increase the attitude that it was none of her business.
Keep social presure on MYOB
May 13th, 2009 at 10:59 pm
Well…being IN New York, I can tell you with 90% certainty that the person who was researching the laws was probably black and the librarian white. Pelham is in the Bronx (part of NYC) and is predominantly black. Used to be a place of high crime and was a ghetto.
May 13th, 2009 at 11:16 pm
Book her Dano!
May 14th, 2009 at 7:52 am
I’m sure some nice lawyer might see this as an opportunity to defend the teen in an invasion of privacy lawsuit. It’s about the only legal way to shut down people like this.