Uproar in Somerville as public library closes doors in the middle of the day; are ruffians from Somerville High to blame?
Late yesterday, Somerville announced new hours at the city's central library: It will be closed between 2 and 4 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and between 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Wednesdays.
We are temporarily modifying the Central Library hours to better understand the needs of our community, and to work towards enhancing the City’s resources and programming to create spaces that provide local teens a place where they feel safe, welcome, and have the opportunity to engage in programming that feels meaningful and exciting for them.
Um, what?
The City of Somerville and Somerville Public Schools are actively working to implement alternative after school programming for teens. Additionally, the East Branch (115 Broadway) and West Branch (40 College Ave) of the Library will remain open for visitors with normal operating hours.
Again, um, what?
Here's one possible explanation, via the local Reddit:
During the past school year, when the high school got let out, there was a group of about 30-50 teens that consistently caused major disruptions in the library, they threw things at librarians and other people, got into fights in the entrance, been menacing to people walking in. Last spring about 15 kids beat up a random guy so bad that he had to be taken to the hospital and they had to close the library to clean up his blood. The police response? Nothing, no arrests, they didn’t even take any names down. The school’s response? Nothing, since it wasn’t “on school grounds” it wasn’t their problem.
A protest is planned in front of the library at 1 p.m. today.
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Comments
Look, guys, Somerville Police is really busy
They're very busy, though. They're currently on the lookout for someone on a bicycle who is suspected of touching a car.
If you want to drop a line to Somerville PD to see where their priorities are:
(Adam, not sure if you caught that tweet, but might be worth a post.)
Punching is a bit more serious than "touching"
Just like driving your unregistered/uninsured car into a house is more than a minor traffic incident.
But... if the group of students behaving badly at the library were demographically uniform or nearly so and also not white, the City/School Department might have wanted to avoid the optics of mass discipline of juveniles of color. Or maybe several are the children/relatives of City/Police/School Department officials.
Punch My Car With Your Holier Than Thou Bike Rage...
I will mess you up.
A crime was committed, but I guess the Bike Mafia thinks some crimes are ok.
Whataboutism is the refuge of the guilty.
Maybe the motorist committed a crime too
We only have one side of the story John, you shouldn't jump to conclusions until we have all the facts.
As always with you, your accusations are projections:
https://www.universalhub.com/comment/981864#comment-981864
Spin Boy
I was just stating that if you punch my car, I will mess you up. That's all.
Apparently (and again), one too many times over the handlebars without a helmet with you and your statements.
it seems that you are assuming that the car was damaged.
It is actually illegal to drive closer than 4ft to a cyclist. It may have been a fear reaction.
I actually did this once as a pedestrian. I was in the crosswalk and the car came so close I banged my fist on the hood and yelled stop. Not planned at all, I was just freaked. He froze and then followed me and the brave man yelled "b*tch" as I walked into the subway.
Don't Be An Attorney
You are speculating.
Not all drivers are bad.
Some cyclists are complete a-holes.
I am speculating that cyclist's arms are shorter than 4 feet.
I think you are assuming facts not in evidence.
Sounds like everyone is speculating
Let's just assume all involved are assholes
your car got punched
because you almost messed the cyclist up with your shitty driving.
Go Back To Brooklyn
Thanks.
You displacer in two cities.
I will mess you up.
Translation: "The solution to vandalism is assault and battery."
But yeah, it's obviously the cyclists who have a problem with rage.
Vandalism? Nah- That's Assault Brotha
Ah, deflating assault because you can't punch through the window.
You really are a sorry little
You really are a sorry little man.
Really.
You Are An Old Bag
Really, you are.
You are one of the most pessimistic wetfarts to populate the Greater Boston area.
Many, many, many times in the past you have threatened to hit cars with bike locks, and in your dumb redneck raised mind, that is ok but if someone threatens back, they are in the wrong.
Go collect your social security grandma.
John's Anxiety Closet
Anxious Masculinity manifesting as misogyny
Vicitmization complex
Fear of a changing society manifesting as violent behavior while driving
Fear of being poor
Fear of being seen as poor
Fear of aging manifesting as exaggerated hating on older people
You need to speak to a therapist about your angry maladaptive behavior that seems to be limiting your options in life. Raging in your car about how you aren't revered as a wealthy god will make you old and dead very quickly.
https://www.masshelpline.com/
lol
No matter how high Boston area rents get, all cyclists will continue to live rent free in John Costello's head.
Aim your deadly weapon at me ...
You will get alerted to the hazard you are causing.
Note the Mass state law about how close your deadly weapon can come to cyclist, and that I don't have 4' long arms, either. If I can touch your precious mobility aid, you got way too close.
Staying out of bike lanes and paying attention when you drive is a very good start on not having your prosthetic manhood injured in a warning about encroachment.
Explain the crime
If someone touches your car, what is the crime?
Please elaborate.
Somerville cops stretched to the limit
With every street in town under construction, and since they need one or two cops overseeing every construction site shooting the shit with (if two) each other or (if one) the people trying to do the actual work, where would they find the time to police the city??
The parents must be busy too huh?
where are they? This is their fault.
Too busy to pick up their
Too busy to pick up their high-school-age kids from school? Maybe they have jobs?
Are you one of *those* people?
The ones from a generation with the highest ever crime rate who wax nostalgic about what angels they were as kids?
All the while decrying how "coddled" and "dependent" today's teens are?
Or did you have a helicopter parents with trust funds?
Car 54 where are you?
The Somerville police have two choices tell the truth and back the librarians or lie and protect the local politicians who are covering up these problems.
You should always presume the cops are lying.
Because they usually are.
Chat GPT!
Could be...
'We are temporarily modifying the Central Library hours to better understand the needs of our community, and to work towards enhancing the City’s resources and programming to create spaces that provide local teens a place where they feel safe, welcome, and have the opportunity to engage in programming that feels meaningful and exciting for them.'
The poor little darlings are
The poor little darlings are just misunderstood and we need to do better for them. Pamper stations? Get rid of all those intimidating books. We are triggering them with all those books they can’t and will never read.
You'll show those hooligans!
You're gonna tie an onion to your belt!
Calling Officer Krupke?
Calling Officer Krupke? A bridge and a chorus too far.
I find this rich
I find this response rich because if this was say... a party or something else that did not happen on school grounds, you know the school would intervene. Why not this?
but not surprised by the library's actions.. teens are just getting unruly
Now get off my lawn.
Would they intervene?
Schools have rightfully been sued for overreaching their authority over students who are engaged in things that don't involve school.
Don't give more petty tyrant administrators any ideas. These are people who love to issue fatwahs about what parents are/aren't doing and then tell you what you can and can't do at home - even when these things contradict. The school administrator population was already reduced to self-important bloviates and power tripping megalomaniacs ten years ago. They love nothing more than to blame the bullying problems that they overlook on individuals and parents rather than the Kafkaesque school culture they create and foster.
Like the administrator that was activating school issued cameras in children's bedrooms. Or the kids suspended for posting pics with their extended families with glasses of wine on the table in countries where that is legal. There are limits to their authority for good reason.
Also, Cybah, you know the drill: "Teens are getting unruly"? Please link to something that supports that because I have two who were teens a decade ago and I came of age in the early 80s and most kids today are vastly better behaved than they were when I was one of them.
Let's blame the police...
But say nothing of the parents who should be supervising these urchins, or of the city politicians who apparently have not answered the library's call for assistance? Yes, that makes sense.
Also, outside of a post on Reddit, where are the journalists on this alleged violence?
This happens in Boston
It is challenging to find a solution that avoids conflict. Calling the police implies that arresting the kids is the solution.
It needs to worked out because the library can be a important resources for young people.
Absolutely!
Make whoever is supposed to be caring for these kids pick them up at the station and escalate from there.
That might work if ...
What they were doing was something other than being loud kids, which we don't know and isn't criminal.
You realize that arrest records follow you the rest of your life now? Even if you aren't charged? Maybe if our carceral state ratcheted down this ridiculousness and only recorded actual convictions ...
Being loud and rowdy in a library shouldn't result in a life sentence of joblessness.
They apparently beat a man.
They apparently beat a man. What exactly are these meek librarians supposed to do when objects are hurled at them?
Also, let’s take the venom down a few notches.
I can’t even imagine behaving this way with people now or when I was a yoof. It’s unthinkable.
Maybe ...
The reality when I was a yoof was that cops would put a "teens fight" bubble around this and then pretend that their city was some small town where this sort of thing doesn't happen - and yet happened all the time.
Just because you had a nice upbringing in a nice place doesn't mean the reality of society wide youth violence in the 70s through 90s never happened.
Please tell the class
How much supervision did you have when you were a teen?
Be honest, now.
And did both of your parents have to work to make exorbitant rent?