Policing porn is not part of job description

Montgomery Homeland Security Officers Reassigned After Library Incident

By Cameron W. Barr
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 17, 2006; Page B08

Two uniformed men strolled into the main room of the Little Falls library in Bethesda one day last week and demanded the attention of all patrons using the computers. Then they made their announcement: The viewing of Internet pornography was forbidden.

The men looked stern and wore baseball caps emblazoned with the words "Homeland Security." The bizarre scene unfolded Feb. 9, leaving some residents confused and forcing county officials to explain how employees assigned to protect county buildings against terrorists came to see it as their job to police the viewing of pornography.

After the two men made their announcement, one of them challenged an Internet user's choice of viewing material and asked him to step outside, according to a witness. A librarian intervened, and the two men went into the library's work area to discuss the matter. A police officer arrived. In the end, no one had to step outside except the uniformed men.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/16/AR2006021602066.html

posted on GD-Politics:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2466012

all you DUers who are at a library right now, better bookmark some innocuous page to turn to if Homeland Security comes into your library.....

after all, they threaten the very fabric of our society--and can cause the collapse of our form of government. Oh wait, I mean the Republicans--not the nudie pics.

THIS is what you get when you consider Bush/Cheney a proper role model

Were these guys REALLY from Homeland Security, or just a couple of asshole wannabes making trouble? :tinfoilhat:
Uniforms ARE easy to obtain, and I have seen caps with all kinds of 'offical' logos for sale in joke catalogues, for crying out loud!
It also strikes me that "Homeland Security" would top the local police force...yet the guys in the caps were the ones who folded, according to this story.

read the story.

Went over it too quickly and missed the salient points. :blush:

until i read that they were in fact legit.

un-fucking-believable.

Another big government nanny state waste of resources.

I will say this, however: if looking at internet porn is so important to somebody they should save up and get a computer and internet connection of their own.

I've seem some of the people who come into my university library just to look at porn on the public computers, and let's just say that, er, they don't look like the pick of the litter.

But I still think using a Homeland Security bureau is a gross overkill.