Seriously People!
Posted by Mad Rocket Scientist | Filed under Guest Authors
Getting arrested and tossed in jail for some overdue LIBRARY BOOKS!
Since when is this a crime worthy of police action? What next, SWAT raids if you are 6 months overdue, or if you’ve got more than 6 books overdue for a given time period (you might be a dangerous book hoarding felon)!?
To me, this is a matter for debt collection, not guns and arrests. At some point the library should have just said, “Lady, if we don’t get those books back by the end of the week, we are sending your name to our collection agency, Blood From a Rock, LLC.” I mean, the lady owed the library $180, I’ve been sent to collections over $30.
My wife, a public librarian, thought this was just ridiculous and seriously overstepping what a library should do to recover an overdue book.
Help Support Simon-Jester.org!
August 25th, 2008
Now, c’mon – she didn’t get jailed for the books.
And if everyone doesn’t understand this little point, well, beware:
If You Receive A Notice To Appear In The Mail, You Should APPEAR!
August 25th, 2008
Except that this is not something that the criminal justice system should have been engaged for. This was not theft, it was breach of contract. Do the payday loan places call the cops if you don’t pay them back, or do they ding your credit, get a default judgement against you, and garnish your wages?
She should not have gotten a notice to appear in the mail, she should have gotten a visit from a process server telling her the library or a collection agency was suing her for the book.