Homeless man's pastor told police of assault [rapist used library computers to view porn]

Phila. Inquirer ^ | 2/10/04 | Natalie Pompilio, Thomas J. Gibbons Jr. and Jacqueline Soteropoulos

[Tamzee]

Attacks on children and staff at libraries specifically connected to unfiltered Internet access there have been happening on a regular basis for years...

The ALA ordered members to STOP KEEPING RECORDS because those records were being used to support arguments in favor of filtering taxpayer funded Internet access.

The ALA and ACLU have been fighting ferociously to make communities pay for and provide 100% unrestricted, taxpayer sponsored Internet access to every site possibly available no matter how illegal the material is that is being accessed. The current policies of "tapping" a patron on the shoulder if someone complains about seeing porn on the computer is ineffective and has been leading to other patrons and children viewing porn by accident, forced to by perverts deliberately leaving it on the monitor or by their leaving pictures at the printer, and there have been numerous incidents of pedophiles exposing themselves to kids.


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This is excellent research compiled by a previous librarian who has been fighting this issue since the mid-90's.


http://latimes.findlaw.com/supreme_court/briefs/02-361/02-361.mer.ja3.html

Dangerous Access, 2000 Edition:
Uncovering Internet Pornography in America's Libraries
By David Burt
(c) 2000 by the Family Research Council

[Antoninus]

I think you are substituting another symptom of his being already deranged rather than the cause. Don't you think he would be just as dangerous without internet access?

Of course he would. But he would have had to have gone somewhere else (not the public library for heaven's sake!) to get his jollies. And I think most of you are aware that there aren't many 8-year-old girls at adult theaters and the usual haunts that these ghouls frequent.

[general_re]

Try not to get an eye-cramp misreading what I read.

I don't know what you read, only what you wrote. And porn or not, library or not, the guy was obviously a time-bomb waiting to go off. Ban porn from the library if you like - the next deviant scum will do it in a department store or at the playground or in the locker room at the public pool, because making porn leave the library will not make deviant scum leave the planet. And that's a fact.

[af_vet_1981]

"My heart was just ripped out," said Richard Knox, who ministers to the homeless with Fellowship Tabernacle Community Church in North Philadelphia. "I knew right off the bat it was him." With Knox by his side, McCutcheon, 23, surrendered to Philadelphia police Sunday and was charged with attempted rape and attempted murder in the attack at the Free Library of Philadelphia's Independence Branch. Yesterday, bail commissioner Patrick Stack set McCutcheon's bail at $1 million.

One good thing you can say about this pastor is he did not hear the confession and keep it hidden.

Hello! How about NO PORN IN PUBLIC LIBRARIES!

I concur. Either that or no public libraries.

[Deliberator]

he would have had to have gone somewhere else (not the public library for heaven's sake!) to get his jollies. And I think most of you are aware that there aren't many 8-year-old girls at adult theaters and the usual haunts that these ghouls frequent.

Agreed.

[Antoninus]

because making porn leave the library will not make deviant scum leave the planet.

If it gives them a disincentive to visit a public library, that's good enough for me at this point. As it is, having access to porn at public libraries makes them a magnet for such scum--and therefore makes them unsafe for women or children.

If you want to view porn (repugnant and pathetic as it is), do it at home. If you don't have a home, go to the "red light" district.

[general_re]

As it is, having access to porn at public libraries makes them a magnet for such scum--and therefore makes them unsafe for women or children.

You could just as easily say that having children at public playgrounds makes playgrounds magnets for scum. Perhaps we should eliminate them as well, as long as "safety" is going to trump all else.

[Tamzee]

I think you are substituting another symptom of his being already deranged rather than the cause. Don't you think he would be just as dangerous without that internet access?

I understand your argument, but actually NO, he would NOT be as dangerous without internet access. Pedophiles have admitted (and to a great degree sex offenders in general) that the more porn they can view, the stronger their desires are to act out on deviant sexual urges. The more images of children they see in a sexual context, the greater their obsession is to actually molest a real child.

One famous case that is an example of this is Jeremy Strohmeyer, the man who killed 7 year old Sherrice Iverson in the casino bathroom about 5 years ago. He was involved with child pornography and, just prior to killing Sherrice, he told other members of a child porn site that he couldn't take it anymore and he had to get his hands on a "real girl".

Another case involving library Internet access specifically was Jeffrey Curley. His Charles Jaynes viewed the NAMBLA site at the Boston Public Library the very morning he kidnapped, molested and killed 10 year old Jeffrey, a neighborhood boy. Charles Jaynes wrote in his diary prior to this happening that NAMBLA helped him understand his real desires toward sexual relationships with children.

It is a point that pedophiles can buy their own computers and Internet access, but libraries make it much easier for sexual predators and deviants to access illegal sexual material that do make them more dangerous.

[codyjacksmom]

Hang him by the b***s, until they fall off! I think every person that is convicted of assaults like these should be castrated. Then throw them in prison for life. There, they won't even be able to have fun by themselves. Sounds like good punishment to me. Life without "getting any" sounds like every mans worst nightmare.

[Tamzee]

Taxpayer funds are not used to stock library shelves with Playboy, Hustle or NAMBLA publications, and particularly not materials that promote gangrape and violence.

Taxpayer funds should not be used to provide that same material over library computer equipment.

[KantianBurke]

No, pornography probably did not cause this guy to be a sexual predator. The use of pornography, like the attack itself, was just an expression of an underlying issue.

But pornography probably did get him into a state where "a little relief" sounded like just the thing for him. And, as somebody pointed out yesterday, the fact that the guy is homeless is already a good indication that he does not have good control over his impulses.

bump for common sense. Also Libraries should NOT offer internet access. Just have computers that you can use to show where the books are. Nothing else. Too bad sickos like these ruin it for others but its the only method that won't tick off the ACLU communists.

[Antoninus]

You could just as easily say that having children at public playgrounds makes playgrounds magnets for scum.

Your comparison is not valid as it lacks the catalyst that is access to porn and children in the same location. Your comparison would be valid if some nice old school marm were handing out free copies of Huslter at the playground. Would you send your kids to a playground where someone was handing out copies of Hustler?

Perhaps we should eliminate them as well, as long as "safety" is going to trump all else.

Hey, using that logic, we may as well set up "porn kiosks" in the recess yards at public schools and advertise them at the local adult book stores. Seeing as we're not concerned about the safety of kids....

Look, I agree that the libs use this "think of the children" nonsense to get all kinds of ludicrous things passed but open your eyes, man! An 8-year-old girl was raped by a sick deviant who was only in the library to view online porn!

[general_re]

Taxpayer funds should not be used to provide that same material over library computer equipment.

I agree in principle, but unfortunately it's much easier to choose which publications one will subscribe to than it is to try guessing in advance which millions of the billions of webpages out there will be equally offensive.

[Durus]

I think that the death penalty for child molestation, and violent rape would do far more to prevent future cases than banning porn in libraries (or anywhere else for that matter).

Let's not get too distracted about the details of the case and let's not bother ranting about the cruel and unusual methods of torture some would like to inflict. This person has scarred two children for life, and if allowed to, will likely do it again. He has to go in the most efficient and humanitarian way possible. Don't get me me wrong, I don't care about the pain this piece of human excrement may feel, I'm worried about the type of person who would gleefully inflict it.

Another poster suggested a bullet to the back of the head. It's messy but effective. Personally I would suggest hanging. It's quick, to the point and the rope is reusable. No need to waste perfectly good bullets on scum like this.

[general_re]

Your comparison is not valid as it lacks the catalyst that is access to porn and children in the same location.

"Catalyst"? So without the porn, this person never would have done what he did?

I know what you're saying, but I think you have some very fine hair-splitting ahead of you. Either he is responsible for what he did, or he isn't. Calling porn the "catalyst" is a mere short hop away from giving him a temporary vacation in a state mental hospital, rather than doing what we should do, which is lock him the hell up for the rest of his natural life. I'm not interested in giving the deviant scumbags of the world a ready-made excuse for why it's not their fault that they did some horrible thing, and that's the next step in this process. Blame the actor, not the incidentals, is my thinking here.

Look, I agree that the libs use this "think of the children" nonsense to get all kinds of ludicrous things passed but open your eyes, man! An 8-year-old girl was raped by a sick deviant who was only in the library to view online porn!

I understand that. Truly, I'm not insensitive to that at all - I have a daughter myself. But I don't want hasty half-baked "solutions" imposed, not without a careful look at the issues. And the major problem here is simply technological - the only way to positively eliminate internet porn from libraries is to eliminate the internet itself. Nothing less will suffice. And I'm not sure that the cost is worth it in that case.

[Tamzee]

Filtering programs do a pretty grand job of eliminating most of it... the programs aren't perfect, but the programs are still more generous with resources than the library bookshelves to begin with.

Two types of filtering....

1. White Listing - where someone reviews what is out there as widely as possible and chooses a selection they deem valuable enough to "stock".

2. Black Listing - where someone reviews what is out there as widely as possible and makes all of it available except particular items that fall outside of the standards set


There has been "library filtering" since we first set up public libraries.... the white filtering.... used to stock the book shelves.

[Tamzee]

the only way to positively eliminate internet porn from libraries is to eliminate the internet itself

Incorrect. They can "whitelist" a selection of sites that the library provides access to and simply use the same standards they use to select books they put on the shelves. If a patron wishes to view a site not available, they can submit the request the same way a patron asks a library to purchase a book. It's a simple matter for a librarian to add a new site to be accessed via the filter.

They can handle internet sites EXACTLY the same way they have always handled books, magazines and newspapers.

[Deliberator]

That's a pretty good idea.

[demnomo]

I'm suprised the man was even reprimanded for viewing porn in a public library. Here in Sonoma County, CA, (a Democratic bastion) we have a real problem with this sort of behavior. The library system is run by a bunch of flaming liberals who cry "censorship" and "free-speech" whenever a group of people get together to try and put a stop to public displays of porn on the terminals.

A few years ago, I actually saw a man masturbating once at my local library in front of a computer screen. After that sleazy incident, I stopped bringing my son to the public library. If we have to, my son and I go to a local college library where public viewing of porn on the computers is forbidden because some feminist prof was offended and made a big stink. (Go figure. I guess she never saw the glorious Larry Flynt "biography" film.)

I'm sorry, but I don't count publicly displaying porn (which invaribly leads to a person getting aroused and acting on it) as "free speech." I believe porn is degrading to men and women because it cheapens their worth as husbands, sons, daughters, wives, and mothers.

Amazingly, there are plenty of FReepers who actually defend pornography as healthy. I have no problems with women in bathing suits, etc. But I am disgusted by the "Girls Gone Wild" mentality and the porn industry that exploits human beings as pieces of meat to be viewed, used and discarded by other human beings.

[Deliberator]

publicly displaying porn (which invaribly leads to a person getting aroused and acting on it)

EVERY TIME a person sees porn he acts on it? What is your source for this surprising claim?