The Porn Police Strike Again!

Wow. It's nice to see that common sense prevailed in this case, when homeland security officers entered a library in the DC area and announced they were there to put a stop to porn viewing. They of course overstepped their bounds, and kudos to their superiors who realized this, as well the librarians who stood up to these guys. While I find this story mostly funny and bizarre, it's a reminder of the old truisms: some people cannot be trusted with power, and all power needs oversight.

Questions remain as to why the hell these guys thought they had any right to pull this stunt in the first place. As with the FBI porn squad of an earlier post, you have people working to harass citizens who are not breaking the law! I'm sure these guys thought they were doing the right thing on some level, but it was unquestionably a flexing of muscle on their part. Personally, I think it's a glimpse into the fascist streak of many of those who claim to be patriots, who simultaneously demonstrate an ignorance of, or disdain for, the principles our country was founded on. That's the very real, sinister, important undercurrent to this story. But, especially since everything turned out all right in this case (don't mess with librarians!), it's mainly just a good, funny tale.

The article's very short, but it ends thusly:

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.

Yeah. Sounds like a little remedial education is in order. Of course, perhaps if the officers involved spent more time in a library reading, it wouldn't be necessary.