Beloit police Capt. Bill Tyler said he knows this case could sound like an overreaction. But he said a municipal fine is a municipal fine, and failure to pay for any reason can result in an arrest warrant being issued.

Jail time for an overdue library book? Oh you can BET someone should lose their farking JOB over that one!

More likely, she got a summons, ignored it, had a bench warrant issued for failure to appear, and here we are.

When the court sends you something, your stupid ass had better pay attention to it.

The problem arises when you have all kinds of fat slob women coming in with their 5 crothfruit, not to check out books, but movies. The books at my high school workplace were 10 cents a day overdue. Movies? A dollar. So, a woman comes in, checks out 10 VHS tapes and 5 DVDs per person (the max per card). That's 15 x 6 or 90 videos (mind you, the rental period was for a week - I don't know how any family could pull that off unless they never left the tube, but judging by the flab, it may have been the case). Anyways, that's $90 a day in late fees. Well, fat slobs are pretty lazy, so they just don't bother to bring them back for an extra week because it was hot out or something. Well now you've got $90 times 7 days or $630 in fines. They're not going to pay; they get pissed, yell about it being unfair, and then storm off. Well, after 3 months of sending letters asking for payment (including offers to cut the cost down to something light like $50), the library has no choice but to go to a credit agency. The cost there? Additional $400. Now you're looking at $1000 in fees owed to the city and a black mark on your credit report. Any other time you owe $1000 to the city, you'd damn right better pay. But nooooo, the library doesn't count, right? Jail time is too good for these people.

/bitter ex-librarian

That sucks. I can see them entering a judgment against her, but jail time is ridiculous.

I got stuck paying a $140 fine for a lost library book (also in WI) a few years ago after my purse was stolen. I got a letter from the City Attorney saying they were going to file a lawsuit against me. I offered to replace the book with a $5.99 copy from Amazon, but that wasn't good enough.

kronicfeld: More likely, she got a summons, ignored it, had a bench warrant issued for failure to appear, and here we are.


For those of you who didn't RTFA:

Givhan said she was in the process of moving so she never got the notices.

AntiNorm: kronicfeld: More likely, she got a summons, ignored it, had a bench warrant issued for failure to appear, and here we are.

For those of you who didn't RTFA:

Givhan said she was in the process of moving so she never got the notices.

her claim that she didn't get the notices is irrelevant

Idiot owes money, doesn't pay, gets thrown in the pokey.

Looks like the system works.

Shaggy_C: The problem arises when you have all kinds of fat slob women [...] Jail time is too good for these people.

I enjoyed reading this.

Digeratus
"Shaggy_C: The problem arises when you have all kinds of fat slob women [...] Jail time is too good for these people."

I enjoyed reading this

The number of times I ended up with a PBJ-smeared, scratched-to-the-point-of-unplayable library DVD... People should have to leave a damned deposit.

AntiNorm: For those of you who didn't RTFA:

I did RTFA, and I didn't give a good goddamn about the part you cited. People make a lot of bullshiat excuses in legal proceedings. How does "being in the process of moving" stop you from (1) checking your mail or (2) seeing legal process that has been posted at your residence? It doesn't.

Subby.... please learn the difference between prison and jail. It's similar to the difference between misdemeanors and felonies.

Yeah, '71. That was my first year on the job. Bad year for libraries. Bad year for America. Hippies burning library cards, Abby Hoffman telling everybody to steal books.

I don't judge a man by the length of his hair or the kind of music he listens to. Rock was never my bag. But you put on a pair of shoes when you walk into the New York Public Library, fella.

Scienceman123: Hot Librarian Thread!



/Trust me, she's a librarian ... just look at the glasses

Wow, they really threw the book at her!

Denial_of_Death: Wow, they really threw the book at her!

Win.

Thread over.

brb, got some books to return :/

As someone who works in a library (not a librarian, I do not have an MLS), all I can say is:

HA HA!

crothfruit???

Really subby today's librarian is not quiet. Quirky, yes. Shushy, no. The old ones are socialist hippies, the younger ones are techno indie hipster geeks. As a profession, librarians are at the forefront of defending freedom of speech, fighting censorship and trying to pry information out of the government.

\librarians hate the Patriot Act

"the library cop's name is bookman? That's like an ice cream man named cone!"

Sliceablekitty
That sucks. I can see them entering a judgment against her, but jail time is ridiculous.

I got stuck paying a $140 fine for a lost library book (also in WI) a few years ago after my purse was stolen. I got a letter from the City Attorney saying they were going to file a lawsuit against me. I offered to replace the book with a $5.99 copy from Amazon, but that wasn't good enough

ok that's just asinine. In most cases a library would happily take the replacement copy, maybe charge you a $10-15 replacement fee but it would be over and done with.

Probably the city government got involved and at that point they were getting your money, not the library. Hence the desire to collect a steep fine on an easily rectifiable matter.

I'm here I'm here!

Well let me tell you something, funny boy. You know that little stamp that says New York Public Library? Well that may not mean anything to you but that means a lot to me, one whole hell of a lot. Sure, go ahead, laugh if you want to. I've seen your type before, flashy, makin' the scene, flaunting convention. Yeah, I know what you're thinking: "What's this guy making such a big stink about old library books?" Well let me give you a hint, junior. Maybe we can live without libraries, people like you and me. Maybe. Sure, we're too old to change the world. But what about that kid, sitting down opening a book, right now, in a branch of the local library, and finding drawings of pee-pees and wee-wees in The Cat in the Hat and The Five Chinese Brothers. Doesn't he deserve better? Look, if you think this is about overdue fines and missing books, you better think again. This is about that kid's right to read a book without getting his mind warped. Or, maybe that turns you on, Seinfeld. Maybe that's how you get your kicks, you and your good-time buddies. Well I got a flash for you, joy-boy: Party time is over. You got seven days, Seinfeld. That is one week.

Good to see our tax money at work. By "good" I mean, "how farking stupid" and by "at work" I mean "being wasted."

For someone to get a warrant issued, the summons really should have been sent registered mail or delivered by a sheriff's deputy. Thus there would be legal proof that she got the summons. I dunno what the law in WI is... in some states the notice can just be left on your door. but it still counts as service.

I'm getting a kick out of these replies as my mother works in a library in a prison...

This is absolutely shameful.

We have more citizens locked up than any other country in the world -- including North Korea and the VASTLY more populated China.

That's both in per capita AND raw numbers.


I wish we really could be "the land of the free."

Instead we are -- literally -- the world's greatest prison state.


<sub>/What about the books? Send her a bill for the replacement cost.

//If she doesn't pay the bill? Sell the debt to a collection agency and farking get on with life.</sub>

People in Beloit can read?

Yeah, I have a hard time being too sympathetic for this woman. Where else can you go where they will allow you to loan out--free of charge--items that may be very expensive, and often very difficult to replace?

Libraries are one of the best services communities provide. People who abuse the privilege should have to pay.

Riche: Instead we are -- literally -- the world's greatest prison state.

That looks curiously like Alcatraz. Although I suppose a lot of prisons can look the same from the inside.

Shaggy_C: The problem arises when you have all kinds of fat slob women coming in with their 5 crothfruit, not to check out books, but movies. The books at my high school workplace were 10 cents a day overdue. Movies? A dollar. So, a woman comes in, checks out 10 VHS tapes and 5 DVDs per person (the max per card). That's 15 x 6 or 90 videos (mind you, the rental period was for a week - I don't know how any family could pull that off unless they never left the tube, but judging by the flab, it may have been the case). Anyways, that's $90 a day in late fees. Well, fat slobs are pretty lazy, so they just don't bother to bring them back for an extra week because it was hot out or something. Well now you've got $90 times 7 days or $630 in fines. They're not going to pay; they get pissed, yell about it being unfair, and then storm off. Well, after 3 months of sending letters asking for payment (including offers to cut the cost down to something light like $50), the library has no choice but to go to a credit agency. The cost there? Additional $400. Now you're looking at $1000 in fees owed to the city and a black mark on your credit report. Any other time you owe $1000 to the city, you'd damn right better pay. But nooooo, the library doesn't count, right? Jail time is too good for these people.

/bitter ex-librarian

I feed on your pain.... the bitterness, the anger... two great tastes that go together. yes....

/emotional vampire

I'm terrible about remembering to return my library books, I must admit... Once I got a rather nasty letter from the head librarian that claimed that the police would be notified if I didn't turn in my book within a certain amount of time, and I believe that they would have really done it, too.

/I've been banned from the public library in my area, but that's a different story.

Shaggy_C
bitter ex-librarian

I feel your pain. Rock on.

xlbrooklyn: I feed on your pain

i laffed.

knucklebreather: For someone to get a warrant issued, the summons really should have been sent registered mail or delivered by a sheriff's deputy.

"delivered by the sheriff" = stuck in the door. No knock, no "here ya go".

If she was actually 'moving', it probably went to her old residence.

stoicnimwit: /I've been banned from the public library in my area, but that's a different story.

You're not one of those "looks at pr0n in the public library computer section" guys, are you?

I was buddies with one of those guys back in the Navy. Frickin' ENs.

I just cherish the thought of other hardcore criminals asking her what she is in the joint for.

Shaggy_C: The problem arises when you have all kinds of fat slob women coming in with their 5 crothfruit, not to check out books, but movies. The books at my high school workplace were 10 cents a day overdue. Movies? A dollar. So, a woman comes in, checks out 10 VHS tapes and 5 DVDs per person (the max per card). That's 15 x 6 or 90 videos (mind you, the rental period was for a week - I don't know how any family could pull that off unless they never left the tube, but judging by the flab, it may have been the case). Anyways, that's $90 a day in late fees. Well, fat slobs are pretty lazy, so they just don't bother to bring them back for an extra week because it was hot out or something. Well now you've got $90 times 7 days or $630 in fines. They're not going to pay; they get pissed, yell about it being unfair, and then storm off. Well, after 3 months of sending letters asking for payment (including offers to cut the cost down to something light like $50), the library has no choice but to go to a credit agency. The cost there? Additional $400. Now you're looking at $1000 in fees owed to the city and a black mark on your credit report. Any other time you owe $1000 to the city, you'd damn right better pay. But nooooo, the library doesn't count, right? Jail time is too good for these people.

/bitter ex-librarian

So, in other words, the library was totally inefficient and didn't think through their own stupid policies?

monty666: I just cherish the thought of other hardcore criminals asking her what she is in the joint for.

Um, there are no hardcore criminals in jail. They let them out to make room for the marijuana users and library fine non-payers.

Shaggy_C: The problem arises when you have all kinds of fat slob women coming in with their 5 crothfruit, not to check out books, but movies. The books at my high school workplace were 10 cents a day overdue. Movies? A dollar. So, a woman comes in, checks out 10 VHS tapes and 5 DVDs per person (the max per card). That's 15 x 6 or 90 videos (mind you, the rental period was for a week - I don't know how any family could pull that off unless they never left the tube, but judging by the flab, it may have been the case). Anyways, that's $90 a day in late fees. Well, fat slobs are pretty lazy, so they just don't bother to bring them back for an extra week because it was hot out or something. Well now you've got $90 times 7 days or $630 in fines. They're not going to pay; they get pissed, yell about it being unfair, and then storm off. Well, after 3 months of sending letters asking for payment (including offers to cut the cost down to something light like $50), the library has no choice but to go to a credit agency. The cost there? Additional $400. Now you're looking at $1000 in fees owed to the city and a black mark on your credit report. Any other time you owe $1000 to the city, you'd damn right better pay. But nooooo, the library doesn't count, right? Jail time is too good for these people.

/bitter ex-librarian

So, you are saying that libraries don't have to follow the same law that video rental places must by capping the late fees to the sale price of the rented movie? I would have to call bullshat on that until I see otherwise.

Riche: This is absolutely shameful.

We have more citizens locked up than any other country in the world -- including North Korea and the VASTLY more populated China.

That's both in per capita AND raw numbers.


I wish we really could be "the land of the free."

Instead we are -- literally -- the world's greatest prison state.


/What about the books? Send her a bill for the replacement cost.

//If she doesn't pay the bill? Sell the debt to a collection agency and farking get on with life.

China has less prisoners? Yea..because they kill people...for everything. Possesion of drugs is a death sentence in china. So it makes sense they have less people in jail.

Benjimin_Dover: So, you are saying that libraries don't have to follow the same law that video rental places must by capping the late fees to the sale price of the rented movie?

Every library I've worked at/patronized has pretty much had a policy in place where you are capped by the cost of a book, with some having an additional administrative fee. It costs the library money to replace materials, re-catalog them, etc. YMMV.

stoicnimwit:

I've been banned from the public library in my area, but that's a different story.

Do tell.

Riche: This is absolutely shameful.

We have more citizens locked up than any other country in the world -- including North Korea and the VASTLY more populated China.

That's both in per capita AND raw numbers.


I wish we really could be "the land of the free."

Instead we are -- literally -- the world's greatest prison state.


/What about the books? Send her a bill for the replacement cost.

//If she doesn't pay the bill? Sell the debt to a collection agency and farking get on with life.


Look, snowflake. There are things called strict liability crimes in this country. No mens rea. You break the law, you do the time. SCOTUS says they're constitutional. City fines are the same as traffic tickets. You don't pay, the city is going to park your ass in the pokey for a few days.

You know why Texas is such a nice state, people are generally pretty friendly and easy going? Because if you come down here and fark up, you're going to jail.

Library Policeman

/shudder

Warchild, CravenMorehead, The_Gallant_Gallstone

Excellent work all of you! Bookman is one of my favourite supporting characters in the whole Seinfeld series. That scene where he comes into Jerry's apartment is priceless; one of the few scenes were Jerry is having trouble not laughing due to the hilarity. And Bookman is so deadpan; amazing.