For most people in the country, the local library is a sanctuary, a place of peace and quiet, as well as prime spot for families of small children to explore and let their imaginations run wild.
As a government funded institution in California, however, the local library has become a sanctuary for drug-addicted homeless people, turning away the very people who appreciated the library the most.
As reported Monday in local news outlet The San Fransisco Standard, the San Fransisco Public Library has become the new hub for San Fransisco’s infamous open-air drug markets since the city began cracking down on drug activity closer to the city’s center.
According to The Standard, at around 10 p.m. the drug dealers and homeless folk begin congregating around the library each night.
One wheelchair-bound man interviewed by the publication, Ted Disbennett, even marked his place in his science fiction novel with the strip of foil he uses to smoke fentanyl.
While the homeless, the drug dealers, and their customers have been forced to move all around the city thanks to a multi-agency drug crackdown, the prevalence of these folk around the library has only exacerbated the safety concerns of local librarians.
CBS News reported, many librarians around the district have taken to picketing for the presence of security officers at their libraries.
One librarian described a harrowing encounter with a mentally disturbed homeless man who began threatening preschoolers with a weapon.
The librarian, Nicole Termini Germain, who has worked in the San Fransisco Public Library system for 30 years, said, “We could fill a whole library with all these incidents.”
Should authorities clear out this library and post guards?
Michelle Jeffers, a spokeswoman for the San Fransisco Public Library, insisted that such measures as the librarians have been requesting were not necessary, considering, “Our branch libraries are much safer today than they were a decade ago.”
But the evidence of San Fransisco’s main library, and the anecdotal evidence of other branch librarians, has indicated otherwise.
Another report from The Standard cited the experience of a part-time librarian named Jessica Choy, who recalled an incident wherein a homeless man kicked in a glass door and swore at patrons, describing the “tension in the air when there is no trained security around to deescalate situations.”
Even if there was a reduction in incidents per the raw data cited by the library, a casual stroll by the library building after dark would tell quite a different story.
San Fransisco, like many cities in leftist California, has not been safe for a long time now.
And now, one of the best places in town for children and families has been taken over by the homeless and drug addicts, essentially squeezing ordinary citizens out of the spaces provided for them.
The drug addiction and homelessness crises have converged on the infrastructure of San Francisco in a dangerous way, and the people of San Francisco have been paying the price for it.
Things will only get worse, not better, if the leaders of California continue denying the problems, or worse, enable them to flourish at the expense of their citizens.
