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You asked for it

Ever since Councilman Danny Thompson waved a thick stack of Central Library incident reports at the city council meeting last Monday, folks have been wondering just what was on those pages?

Exactly what kind of “indecent” behavior that Thompson wouldn’t “want to mention” were going on at the city’s largest library?

You asked. Scoop delivers.

The reports – almost 200 of them – cover everything from the super mundane to mildly disturbing.

As you might read in our ~~Sunday~~ Monday newspaper (pick up a copy folks), 21 reports dealt with the viewing of inappropriate websites.

Along that same ilk (i.e. icky behavior you don’t want to deal with in a public place) were a few incidents involved a person who was believed to be masturbating and one couple was found in the middle of a sex act.

Other kinds of bad behavior were much more prevalent than those related to sex or pornography.

Less prurient but still antisocial, there were about 30 reports of disorderly conduct, fights or assaults.

Then there were tons of folks caught in the library asleep, drunk or eating food. Some were even banned, according to the reports.

The reports also show that the security guards found drugs, a bullet, gang graffiti and a hypodermic needle in separate instances.

The reports also tell you a little about the life of those Lankford Protective Services security guards who monitor the library.

Time after time, the reports show them finding and evicting banned patrons. On some occasions, they even identified fugitives and turned them over to Greensboro Police.

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Posted by Amanda Lehmert on Friday, August 6, 2010 at 7:04 pm

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retiree

August 7, 2010 - 7:17 am EDT

I guess the political leaders in the past didn't think about this problem when they decided to build the main library downtown . . . they only saw a large, and very nice, building to cut a ribbon and have their names put up in lights.

As with most other larger cities, a library in the central downtown area is a magnet for vagrants, homeless, and others who want to use it as a bathroom (either inside or out), or to stay cool in the sumer and warm in the winter, etc. It's the old saying "be careful of what you asked for?"

Here's another story, get your news people over there and ask why the library hasn't asked for money to spruce up the place. The sidewalks are now almost black from the gum and candy that has left spots and it needs a good steam cleaning.

Sadly, the main library could have been a great place to go if the location was in a better place. Guess that's part of the "rebuild downtown" process, with unintended consequences.