Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Chairboy on February 18, 2006, 01:39:03 AM
-
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/16/AR2006021602066.html?sub=AR
The "Tin badge" syndrome is well established, as the article demonstrates.
-
feed us the relevant copy.. article won't open for me.
-
Policing Porn Is Not Part of Job Description
Montgomery Homeland Security Officers Reassigned After Library Incident
By Cameron W. Barr
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 17, 2006; Page B08
Two uniformed men strolled into the main room of the Little Falls library in Bethesda one day last week and demanded the attention of all patrons using the computers. Then they made their announcement: The viewing of Internet pornography was forbidden.
The men looked stern and wore baseball caps emblazoned with the words "Homeland Security." The bizarre scene unfolded Feb. 9, leaving some residents confused and forcing county officials to explain how employees assigned to protect county buildings against terrorists came to see it as their job to police the viewing of pornography.
After the two men made their announcement, one of them challenged an Internet user's choice of viewing material and asked him to step outside, according to a witness. A librarian intervened, and the two men went into the library's work area to discuss the matter. A police officer arrived. In the end, no one had to step outside except the uniformed men.
They were officers of the security division of Montgomery County's Homeland Security Department, an unarmed force that patrols about 300 county buildings -- but is not responsible for enforcing obscenity laws.
In the post-9/11 era, even suburban counties have homeland security departments. Montgomery County will not specify how many officers are in the department's security division, citing security reasons. Its annual budget, including salaries, is $3.6 million.
Later that afternoon, Montgomery County's chief administrative officer, Bruce Romer, issued a statement calling the incident "unfortunate" and "regrettable" -- two words that bureaucrats often deploy when things have gone awry. He said the officers had been reassigned to other duties.
Romer said the officers believed they were enforcing the county's sexual harassment policy but "overstepped their authority" and had to be reminded that Montgomery "supports the rights of patrons to view the materials of their choice."
The sexual harassment policy forbids the "display of offensive or obscene printed or visual material." But in a library, which is both a public arena and a county workplace, the U.S. Constitution trumps Montgomery's rules.
At most public libraries in the Washington area, an adult can view pornography on a library computer more or less unfettered. Montgomery asks customers to be considerate of others when viewing Web sites. If others are put off, librarians will provide the viewer of the offending material with a "privacy screen."
Fairfax County forbids library use of the Internet to view child pornography or obscene materials or to engage in gambling or fraud. But Fairfax library spokeswoman Lois Kirkpatrick said, "Librarians are not legally empowered to determine obscenity."
D.C. library spokeswoman Monica Lewis said the system is working on guidelines for Internet use, but she added that recessed computer screens generally ensure patrons their privacy.
Although many library systems in the United States use filtering software, the D.C. and Fairfax systems do not, and Montgomery uses such software only on computers available to children. Leslie Burger, president-elect of the American Library Association, said the reality is that "libraries are not the hotbed of looking at porn sites."
Still, Montgomery plans to train its homeland security officers "so they fully understand library policy and its consistency with residents' First Amendment rights under the U.S. Constitution," Romer said in his statement.
-
gestapo.
fear pandering created it; now we have it...
gestapo.
anbody feel any safer now?
-
Should reduce un-employment tho. I'm sure the real police that has been well trained just loves to see some boys in caps "helping" them too.
Im sure the real german police in the mid-late 30's was just as happy when they got help from some fine young boys of the politcal party.
yes yes.. i know that is taking it more than abit far, but Hangitme got me going ;)
-
this is serious doo-doo.
the thought police is curising librarys in podunk, big brother is listening and the administration AND both houses of congress are functionally corrupt.
if iwas europe, i'd be waiting with nervous anticpation for our demand for the sudatenland back.
Homeland! Homland Uber Alles!
-
:D
-
Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Bus.. Führer!
-
Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
... the incident with these two yokels sounds like a supervisory problem to me, or a case of inadequate hiring/retention or poor training. These two prettythangholes should be fired. They shouldn't be in librarys, except for a security matter.
But we still need an agency that is responsible for the security of the country. (and I'm not refering to an org in the United Arab Emirates ):rolleyes:
-
Originally posted by Gunthr
But we still need an agency that is responsible for the security of the country. (and I'm not refering to an org in the United Arab Emirates ):rolleyes:
Is the police, NSA, CIA, FBI and the military not enough to secure the country?
Just asking.
-
Those agencies have different functions, although they sometimes overlap. I don't think it is wise to have one huge fat agency responsible for everything. In fact, I'm sure that it isn't wise.
-
Originally posted by Gunthr
Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
... the incident with these two yokels sounds like a supervisory problem to me, or a case of inadequate hiring/retention or poor training.
Wouldn't matter what this admin did, gunther. If the sh^%tcanned Homeland Security tomorrow, the lefties in this country would be whining that they ain't doing enough.
-
LOL that sounds more like a prank made by someone with too much time on his hands :D
-
Originally posted by Staga
LOL that sounds more like a prank made by someone with too much time on his hands :D
Agree. This is pure Barney Fife, not George Orwell. The idiots were dealt with. It looks like freedom is intact for another day. No need to activate the KISS army or those fat guys in fatigues that hang out at gunshows passing out literature yet.
-
nobody set those guys car on fire while they were in there?
lazs
-
Originally posted by Ripsnort
Wouldn't matter what this admin did, gunther. If they put cameras in every home in America tomorrow, the righties in this country would be whining that they ain't doing enough.
This would work too
shamus
-
Originally posted by lazs2
nobody set those guys car on fire while they were in there?
lazs
Kind of hard to do that with an erection isn't it? ;)
-
Originally posted by Hangtime
gestapo.
fear pandering created it; now we have it...
gestapo.
anbody feel any safer now?
Hang... you're losing sight of what's important.
Think of the children!
-
that's exactly what I'm thinking about.
and yah know what? the 'ahh, just poor training' and 'barney fife' under-reactions to this happening in america has me even more wigged than the actual incident. This kinda crap has to be stopped.
The clowns that did it should be charged with civil rights violations and fired, the supervisor should be fired, the 'homeland security' detachment personell in that town should be assigined to the sanitation dept.
At the least.
Instead, the dept head will try and figure out how to get his yokels armed, and to get himself more power and his department a bigger budget, so he'll focus on somebody or 'something', invented if necessary, to obtain it.
This sickness has to be stopped.. cause if it's playing now in Podunk, it'll be commin to a library near you soon enough.
-
The sky is falling the sky is falling, we are all doomed. Civilization is gone.
Staga and VOR had it right. Much ado about nothing and a couple idiots got their butts handed to them for good reason.
Fishu, you do that well. Been practicing a lot or something?
-
Won't SOMEBODY please think of the children?
(http://www.ibiblio.org/dlucas/images/image_helen.gif)
-
Yup.
doomed. dooooooooooooooooooommmed, i tells yah!
-
Originally posted by Maverick
Fishu, you do that well. Been practicing a lot or something?
I think something caught on me when visiting the USA a year ago.
-
Originally posted by Hangtime
This sickness has to be stopped.. cause if it's playing now in Podunk, it'll be commin to a library near you soon enough.
They were officers of the security division of Montgomery County's Homeland Security Department, an unarmed force that patrols about 300 county buildings -- but is not responsible for enforcing obscenity laws.
Montgomery County Maryland Homeland Security does not have jurisdiction in Oregon, or anywhere outside Montgomery Co Maryland. And it seems they officers were acting outside their jurisdiction even within Montgomery Co Maryland.
Once at Fish Lake a Jackson Co Parks Environmental Protection officer rousted me on my parking style at the boat ramp. Maybe I should chalk that up to over zealous homeland gestapo.
-
Maybe you shouldn't have been staying with skinheads then fishu.
-
Originally posted by Maverick
Maybe you shouldn't have been staying with skinheads then fishu.
No, not skinheads, they did have normal hair... the other was a canuck though.
-
I'm gonna have to see your hall pass, Hangtime.
-
Originally posted by VOR
snip
The idiots were dealt with.
By a librarian.
Yeap, really dangerous :)
culero
-
Originally posted by VOR
I'm gonna have to see your hall pass, Hangtime.
(http://www.johnsonautomatics.com/muzzle.jpg)
this work?
-
http://www.londonpostcard.co.uk/card_pages/south_park/spmp_3058.htm
-
Let the eagle soar! (http://www.cnn.com/video/us/2002/02/25/ashcroft.sings.wbtv.med.html) Like she's never soared before!!!!
-
Originally posted by Hangtime
this work?
No need to start the revolution just yet, my patriotic defender. The librarian did your dirty work for you this time. :D
I'd double check my stock of MREs, batteries and Playboys in the bunker, though. This could be the start of something big. It could ultimately require some serious internet talk of takin it to the man, you never know...
:noid
-
Originally posted by rpm
Let the eagle soar! (http://www.cnn.com/video/us/2002/02/25/ashcroft.sings.wbtv.med.html) Like she's never soared before!!!!
That'll be enough of that. ;)
-
Originally posted by VOR
No need to start the revolution just yet, my patriotic defender. The librarian did your dirty work for you this time. :D
I'd double check my stock of MREs, batteries and Playboys in the bunker, though. This could be the start of something big. It could ultimately require some serious internet talk of takin it to the man, you never know...
:noid
ok. don't forget to turn the wine and rotate the water jugs.
(goes back to polishing ammo)
-
Suppose you had been at that library looking at Al Jazeeras website instead of porn when those bozos walked in.
-
yep... what is scary is the dozens of agencies that have armed enforcement... The EPA fer christsakes?
lazs