Letters to the Editor

Shocking incident The controversial taser incident at UCLA By David Puner [2006-11-17]

• As a librarian

  Being a librarian is more dangerous than it appears. Either we're in combat with the federal government over patron records or the local government over censorship, or we're trying not to get molested/raped/robbed late at night.

  Think about it ... most of us are women and we're in a large building late at night in which there are dozens of places where one could be attacked without drawing attention. It's not just dangerous for us, it's also dangerous for our patrons. Students should not be afraid to use the library in the wee hours.

  So what do we do to keep safe? Usually we close off part of the space late at night because we can't police the whole area. Also we require that people prove they have a right to be in the library via ID checks and we have campus police to support us if there is a problem.

  If the patron can't comply with our simple request that he help everyone remain safe by showing his ID, then he must leave. It's not just the safety factor - the students have paid a lot of money to have exclusive access to our expensive library. We must maintain that integrity as well. This person refused to do comply with a simple ID check and was quite roughed up as a result. I don't like to see patrons tazed but in this case I think the campus police handled this correctly.

  -- CJ
  Permalink Flag Saturday, November 18, 2006 03:07 AM
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