library musings...

Never drink and read....

At around 3:15, a customer at the public PC exhibited trouble handling her belongings. I was unable to have a coherent conversation with her and could smell the odor of alcohol from her, just as another staff member had alerted. She was a customer familiar to me from past visits -- first name Heather -- and I asked if we could call anybody to assist her. She could not give me a straight answer and her attempts at communication trailed off into mumbles, although she periodically began to yell and also tried to get the attention of the customer on PC 14. I told her we needed her to leave the library until she felt better, but she did not comply. I called 911 for assistance and an officer responded after about 15 minutes to assist. The officer tried as I had done and called for backup when her first several attempts did not result in any voluntary movement by Heather. Eventually, Heather was gently escorted out of the library by two officers and she sat on the curb a while. A staff member saw the officers hand cuff her a while later.


Meanwhile, in a bathroom near you...

An occasional customer notable for his missing teeth and his difficulty communicating used the restroom prior to closing and required repeated encouragements to vacate the restroom after 9 pm. We are simply recording this incident in case it becomes a habit, as we suppose he may be homeless and we wish staff to be alert to him. He carries a strong odor of infrequent bathing mixed with heavy tobacco use. He was responsive but unintelligible to staff speaking to him through the closed door, and he did exit before 9:10 pm without further incident.


Another Trump supporter...

Around 12:00 or so this afternoon, a slender black adult male presented himself to the info desk and launched into an aggressive speech, advocating for votes for Donald Trump by everyone 18 years or older in order to rid the country of bleeding heart liberals. He went on a little bit about getting rid of illegals, and we were taken aback by his extremely aggressive speech.

It was unclear what he had come to the library for, but as Kelly and I engaged in a little back and forth conversation, we did not meet his standards in any way. He accused us of looking like bleeding heart liberals whom he continued to spew hate speech about. He ranted offensively about Hispanics not paying their bills and working the system. We also listened to him tell us that we did not know who we were speaking to and he reached into his jacket.

He pulled out an ID, which we were really hoping for, given the obvious alternatives and his obvious disgust with much of humanity. He is a "frickin' Inspector with the State of MD" and he is "in the courts" all the time (watching dishonest illegals abuse the system) and we better "watch what you say" because "you never know who you're speaking to". Also: "You better be careful because you don't know who you're speaking to."

We agreed to his wise advice, and I apologized for any offense, so that we could diffuse the situation and end the connection, withdrawing the audience for his rants.

Holly witnessed most of the exchange and kept ready to call 911 and will attach his picture. She says he has been in before and responded angrily and inappropriately to being advised that we are not part of Baltimore City Library. Her perception is that he was extremely threatening to the staff and we want to alert staff that you might find yourself unable to communicate rationally with him if he visits you.

He went on to seat himself at a PC assigned to another person and left our "stupid library" when Holly advised him of the signup procedures.