4 ms·
My wife works at a library. The homeless are a problem that the city and the county refuse to address because the library is "open to all" but does bad behavio
by turk73 7y ago
My wife works at a library. The homeless are a problem that the city and the county refuse to address because the library is "open to all" but does bad behavior have to be acceptable? Public drunkenness, abuse of other patrons, messes in the restrooms, smelly, nasty people sleeping in the chairs, just constant problems. They basically turn the library into a place nobody wants to visit in order to not offend a particular demographic. That's not fair to the community any more than the opposite is.
I prefer the old days when the cops would show up and roust them out of there and tell them to go be a pain in the ass someplace else. I feel the same way about crime, too--the cops should be busting heads, instead we have muggers at the mall parking lot because "racism."
- minikites 7y ago>I feel the same way about crime, too--the cops should be busting heads They definitely still are: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Eric_Garner https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Eric_Garner https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Philando_Castile https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Philando_Castile https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Freddie_Gray https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Freddie_Gray
- downerending 7y agoThis has happened in my small city as well. The main library is no longer a safe place to visit, and has become a homeless shelter of sorts (with the accompanying smells and infestations). The good news, I guess, is that kids now have the Internet to learn from, and libraries are no longer a foundation of civic life.
- Pfhreak 7y ago> The main library is no longer a safe place to visit, Is this born out by an increase in crime at the library? Or are you just not feeling safe?
- downerending 7y agoIt's my feeling and a widely felt sentiment among the locals. Certainly the surrounding 300m area is a higher-crime area. A few weeks ago, I had to walk through and witnessed a woman pull down her pants and defecate on the sidewalk, about 50m from the library entrance. This wasn't in an alley or something--it was the main sidewalk, easily visible from the library entrance. I would not bring kids there.
- michaelmrose 7y agoWouldn't giving these people a place indoors with a shower and a bathroom resolve that particular issue? Hell public restrooms with showers like at a truck stop would actually resolve most of these issues. Most of them are there for the free bathroom facilities and the ones that came to use the chairs and internet wouldn't stink.
- jakelazaroff 7y agoCops should be enforcing the law, not "busting heads".