[WEB4LIB] Behavior not ethnicity

[Julie Bauer]

You're talking about someone making a direct threat. 
Whether or not he is homeless, nice, or whatever, you
have an action -- or at any rate a statement -- and
not "instinct" to go on.

And I think that is what we should be alert for,
actions and behaviors that are threatening, not types
of people who we think might be threatening.  If I'm
to report on young men of Middle Eastern origin (not
that I'm confident in my ability to sort out anyone's
ethnicity at a glance) asking for maps of the local
reservoir, that I'm going to report on EVERYONE asking
for maps of the local reservoir.

By the way, you did report that nice man to the
police, didn't you?

Julie Bauer
Weston Public Library
Weston, MA
--- Donna Winter <dwinter at tln.lib.mi.us> wrote:
> I think it comes down to trusting your instincts.
> Many years ago, we had a
> homeless person who spent most of the day every day
> at the library. He was
> non-disturbing for the most part, seemed lucid and
> friendly. One day, he
> started talking to one of our pages about going to
> an elementary school
> with a gun and shooting away. Should we have NOT
> reported this to the
> police because he "seemed like a nice guy who was
> just blowing off some
> steam"? 
> 
> 
>			----------------------------
> Donna Winter					Livonia Civic Center Library
> Reference Librarian, Adult Services		32777 Five Mile
> Road
> email:  dwinter at tln.lib.mi.us			Livonia, Michigan
> phone: (734) 466-2494				ref. desk: (734) 466-2490
> http://tln.lib.mi.us/~dwinter		
> http://livonia.lib.mi.us
> 
> 
> 
> 


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