Posted on 01/25/2006 12:05:00 PM PST by danno3150
Newton officials are calling their refusal to allow FBI agents access to library computers without a warrant during a terrorist threat last week “their finest hour.”
Law enforcement officials say it’s a “nightmare.”
Police rushed to the Newton Free Library after tracing a terrorist threat e-mailed to Brandeis University to a computer at the library.
But requests to examine computers Jan. 18 were rebuffed by Newton library Director Kathy Glick-Weil and Mayor David Cohen on the grounds that they did not have a warrant.
Cohen, defending the library’s actions, called the legal standoff one of Newton’s “finest hours.”
“We showed you can enforce the law — without jeopardizing the privacy of innocent citizens,” the mayor said.
It took U.S. attorneys several hours to finally secure a warrant, Glick-Weil said, and they took the computer from the library at about 11:30 that night, after the library had closed.
Brandeis received the alleged e-mail threat at about 11 a.m., according to Waltham Lt. Brian Navin. While police reportedly didn’t find anything threatening after evacuating 12 buildings at Brandeis and a nearby elementary school, by about 2 p.m., the e-mail was traced to a computer at the Newton Free Library.
Newton police, followed shortly by FBI and state police officers, rushed to the library to lock the building down, Glick-Weil said.
“There was a lot of excitement going on,” she said.
An FBI spokesman, as well as Lt. Bruce Apotheker of the Newton police, both said their offices would not comment on the investigation.
But a law enforcement official close to the investigation said in an e-mail the confrontation was a “nightmare.”
Nancy Murray, director of education for the Boston branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, said she was surprised the FBI asked for information without a warrant.
“They couldn’t possibly expect to get (the computer) without a warrant,” she said. “Good for the library for knowing more about warrants than the police.”
It would have been justice if the Newton Library blew up.
I see no reason that the government can't get a warrant when it needs information. It's right there in the fourth Amendment. Change the Amendment if you feel warrants are no longer necessary.
This is a publicly-funded library, yes? Is a warrant neccessary to search a public institution?
It would have been justice if the Newton Library blew up.
Exactly. Of course then they would have been squalling tht someone should have done more to protect them. What idiots.
Liberals. A criminals best defense.
I heard about that from Article 8. I guess the commie senators have never heard of the First Amendment.
If they were Christian conservatives the FBI would have burned them all alive.
Great to be communists in Romneyland.
If the threat involved their sorry asses or their kids, they would be singing a different tune. "The police didn't do anything! They just stood around waiting for the stupid warrant. My child could have died!" Typical library liberals.
Okay, where do we email these pinheads?
And the next time the Mayor requests some urgent federal action for Newton the requestee should be rearranging their sock draw.
And then the case goes to the Federal courts where the law will be overturned.
Libraries only have computers and video games to increase traffic to justify their budgets.
Time for some budget trimming, libraries are luxuries.
That would have put them in fine shape.
What about probable cause? Doesn't that override the need for a warrant?
Al-Queda will be making a note of this.
I'm 'outta MA with the next job-offer.
Don't bother.I lived in Newton for the first 33 years of my life and within 10 miles of Newton for the rest of my life.
Newton is a lost cause.Kim Jong Il could easily carry Newton in a presidential election...Bob Dole couldn't. Per capita,there are more rich guys with gray ponytails there than anywhere else in the world.
Got the picture?
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