Salisbury Library Bans Loitering

[The Straight Story]

Salisbury Library Bans Loitering
SALISBURY, Md. (AP) ―

Library patrons and others will no longer be allowed to loiter outside the main public library in Salisbury.

The no loitering policy goes into effect Wednesday at the Wicomico Public Library.

Library Director Tom Hehman says the policy is designed to combat an increased number of people who hang out near the library entrance, which has led to complaints of smoking and profanity, among other things.

http://wjz.com/local/Salisbury.library.bans.2.2026822.html

[TheWraith]

1. "Complaints of smoking and profanity"?

Here's an idea: if someone is causing trouble, turn the cops loose on them. Otherwise, don't ban "loitering" at one of the very few places where you WANT people to be loitering.

Idiots.

[FSogol]

2. They are banning loitering outside the library, not inside. Seems sensible.

Why should parents be concerned about dropping their kids at the library? In the 80s, our library had their exterior pay phone removed since drug dealers hung around awaiting calls. Any kid who wanted to call their parents could use the phone at the reference desk.

File under; Everything isn't an outrage.

[TheWraith]

3. Inside or outside doesn't matter; it's an obsessive control freak thing.

Since you can't smoke inside the library, someone steps out for a cigarette, and now they're committing a crime.

Since you can't talk normally inside the library, you step out to make a cell phone call, or talk to a friend who showed up, and now you're committing a crime.

I'm well aware not everything is an outrage. This? Like I said, if someone is actually doing something wrong, you can ask them to leave, or you can sic the cops on them. But this is simply obsessive control freak behavior.

[SoCalDem]

6. There is loitering, and then there is LOITERING.

If someone steps outside for a smoke or to make a call, and then goes back inside, that's not loitering, BUT

If people just congregate "outside" the library and are not even GOING to the library, it's not very different from any other "group" of people who would hang out somewhere....

Places of business and or public service buildings serve a purpose.. You go in, get your business done, or shop or eat or whatever, and then you LEAVE..You do not just
"hang out" in front of the building.

For this to have elevated to such a level, it's probably more than an occasional thing.

And in this day & age, people are concerned about safety, so having a group of people just hanging around, could lead one to think that they have an ulterior motive..

It could also be that in the winter time, people could be looking to the library as a heated place to warm up. If that's the case, social services should probably be called.

[htuttle]

4. But about all the gangs of hooligans hanging around...the library?

[eppur_se_muova]

5. How many are just waiting for rides?

I spent at lot of time at that library over a period of a year and a half, and my impression was that most people were waiting for friends/family/bus to drive up. Now each one has to explain that to the police?