Reply to Is it illegal for public libraries to ban homeless and drug addicts?

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Reply to "Is it illegal for public libraries to ban homeless and drug addicts?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
I agree completely and marvel at those who insist the rights of mentally ill homeless people to hang out at the library among families and children supersedes the rights of those families and children to peacefully read or work at the library without feeling threatened or harassed.[/quote]

Everyone has the right to be at the library without feeling threatened or harassed. That includes "families and children" who are themselves "mentally ill homeless people."

Libraries can and should be controlling for [b]behavior that threatens or harasses,[/b] not for the housing or mental health status of patrons. Here are examples of how that could be done:

You can and should kicked out of the library for:
-using drugs in the bathroom; this includes shooting up heroin *and* sneaking a smoke or a vape away from your preschooler who doesn't know you smoke or vape
-urinating or defecating in inappropriate places
-behaving towards others in ways that are objectively menacing; this includes following people around leering but it doesn't include the act of being in public while unkempt.
-overstaying your time at the computer and refusing to leave

You cannot and should not get kicked out of the library or refused computer time for:
-being homeless
-being a drug addict
-being mentally ill
-being someone who is "not what [someone else] wants to see when they go to the library"
-looking too much like other people who are also using the computers

There is no obligation, in a free society, to be who or what someone else wants to see as a condition of admission to a public accommodation. Jesus.
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