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Uproar in Somerville as public library closes doors in the middle of the day; are ruffians from Somerville High to blame?

By adamg on Wed, 08/28/2024 - 12:21pm

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.

Neighborhoods: 
Somerville


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Comments

By Ari O on Wed, 08/28/2024 - 12:33pm.

The police response? Nothing, no arrests, they didn’t even take any names down.

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:

Anyone with information, please contact Det. Chris Collette ([email protected]).

(Adam, not sure if you caught that tweet, but might be worth a post.)

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By ScottB on Wed, 08/28/2024 - 1:11pm.

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.

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By John Costello on Wed, 08/28/2024 - 1:44pm.

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.

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By spin_o_rama on Wed, 08/28/2024 - 2:18pm.

We only have one side of the story John, you shouldn't jump to conclusions until we have all the facts.

Whataboutism is the refuge of the guilty.

As always with you, your accusations are projections:
https://www.universalhub.com/comment/981864#comment-981864

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By John Costello on Wed, 08/28/2024 - 2:53pm.

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.

By cinnamngrl on Wed, 08/28/2024 - 3:59pm.

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.

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By John Costello on Wed, 08/28/2024 - 4:05pm.

You are speculating.

Not all drivers are bad.

Some cyclists are complete a-holes.

By cinnamngrl on Wed, 08/28/2024 - 4:12pm.

I think you are assuming facts not in evidence.

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By Plen-T-Pak on Wed, 08/28/2024 - 6:02pm.

Let's just assume all involved are assholes

By greenlinetobrooklyn on Wed, 08/28/2024 - 2:20pm.

because you almost messed the cyclist up with your shitty driving.

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By John Costello on Wed, 08/28/2024 - 4:06pm.

Thanks.

You displacer in two cities.

By Scratchie on Wed, 08/28/2024 - 4:34pm.

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.

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By John Costello on Wed, 08/28/2024 - 5:23pm.

Ah, deflating assault because you can't punch through the window.

By SwirlyGrrl on Wed, 08/28/2024 - 7:50pm.

You really are a sorry little man.

Really.

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By John Costello on Wed, 08/28/2024 - 8:32pm.

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.

By SwirlyGrrl on Wed, 08/28/2024 - 9:07pm.

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/

By Angry Dan on Wed, 08/28/2024 - 5:38pm.

No matter how high Boston area rents get, all cyclists will continue to live rent free in John Costello's head.

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By SwirlyGrrl on Wed, 08/28/2024 - 7:45pm.

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.

By Ari O on Wed, 08/28/2024 - 9:45pm.

If someone touches your car, what is the crime?

Please elaborate.

By Michael on Wed, 08/28/2024 - 2:18pm.

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??

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By eddie on Wed, 08/28/2024 - 4:05pm.

where are they? This is their fault.

By Scratchie on Wed, 08/28/2024 - 4:32pm.

Too busy to pick up their high-school-age kids from school? Maybe they have jobs?

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By SwirlyGrrl on Wed, 08/28/2024 - 8:13pm.

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?

By anon on Wed, 08/28/2024 - 12:54pm.

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.

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By Homer Bedloe on Wed, 08/28/2024 - 1:59pm.

Because they usually are.

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By W.C. Plains on Wed, 08/28/2024 - 12:58pm.

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.'

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By Whit on Wed, 08/28/2024 - 1:13pm.

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.

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By SwirlyGrrl on Wed, 08/28/2024 - 9:44pm.

You're gonna tie an onion to your belt!

By Frelmont on Wed, 08/28/2024 - 10:30pm.

Calling Officer Krupke? A bridge and a chorus too far.

By cybah on Wed, 08/28/2024 - 1:55pm.

The school’s response? Nothing, since it wasn’t “on school grounds” it wasn’t their problem

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.

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By SwirlyGrrl on Wed, 08/28/2024 - 7:59pm.

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.

By eddie on Wed, 08/28/2024 - 3:33pm.

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?

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By cinnamngrl on Wed, 08/28/2024 - 4:19pm.

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.

By Whit on Wed, 08/28/2024 - 4:41pm.

Make whoever is supposed to be caring for these kids pick them up at the station and escalate from there.

By SwirlyGrrl on Wed, 08/28/2024 - 9:17pm.

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.

By Whit on Wed, 08/28/2024 - 10:02pm.

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.

By SwirlyGrrl on Wed, 08/28/2024 - 10:41pm.

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.

By SwirlyGrrl on Wed, 08/28/2024 - 8:00pm.

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?