LF: Police State Madness: Couple Facing 3 Months In Jail For Overdue Library Books

Title: Police State Madness: Couple Facing 3 Months In Jail For Overdue Library Books
Source: Activist Post
URL Source: http://www.activistpost.com/2016/04 ... for-overdue-library-books.html
Published: Apr 19, 2016
Author: Claire Bernish
Post Date: 2016-04-19 08:16:08 by Deckard
Keywords: None
Views: 771
Comments: 5

Like a dystopic nightmare, a couple from Michigan faces not only large fines, but jail time over failing to return two library books — one of which is a classic by Dr. Seuss — despite their attempts to resolve the matter.

Catherine Duren allowed her son to use her library card to check out the Hatful of Seuss collection for his daughter in 2014.

Catherine’s husband, Melvin, also faces charges after keeping the thriller, The Rome Prophecy, for eight months — though he returned it in January after receiving a letter about the missing book.

Now, the couple faces up to 93 days in jail and a $500 fine for late library books.

Catherine was originally alerted to the late books when fees showed up on her credit report in 2014, as library notices about the slip-up were being sent to her son’s email address. She didn’t realize she would be required to pay for the lost item because, Catherine says, she had been told by the library that late fees and notices would come in the mail.

“They told me they would send charges with late fees through the mail,” Catherine explained to ABC News. “We had no intent of not paying the fees.”

Their awful predicament shows a number of crossed messages and miscommunications — and even threats from police. Though the couple found Melvin’s book in December, each thought the other person had returned it — but they eventually realized the mistake and turned in the copy.

They’ve already shelled out hundreds in fines, and had to appear in court for an arraignment hearing on April 14, where each of them were charged with larceny of rental equipment. The reason why will likely infuriate you. According to ABC, after they returned the book Melvin had checked out:

[T]he newly established Economic Crimes Unit of the Lenawee County Prosecutor’s Office, led by Detective Robert Kellogg, sent a notice that the couple would be prosecuted for larceny of rental equipment if they did not pay the fees. The Economic Crimes Unit investigates crimes concerning the intent to steal, such as using bad checks or retail fraud.

And that crimes unit charged an additional $105 diversion fee — which is used to fund its existence — for each book. Catherine attempted to pay Kellogg directly, but the detective scoffed, telling her she would be required to pay those diversion fees first — even though she approached him with the total original fee amount and the replacement cost for the lost Dr. Seuss book.

“He refused to take my money because I had to pay the diversion fee first,” she said. Catherine had previously tried to pay the library directly. In fact, she even attempted to send a money order through the mail to resolve the issue that never should have been an issue — but in return, according to ABC, Catherine was subjected to “threatening messages” from the detective.

“[Kellogg] was so rude to me,” she said. “He treated me like a criminal,” and told her they had “circumvented the law.”

Eventually, they ignored Kellogg’s threats — until a message from the Tecumseh Police Department warned they would have to appear in court over the matter, and “there was a warrant out for a $100 bond on both of us,” Catherine explained.

Astonished at the hullabaloo over misplaced library books, Catherine told them they would have to serve that warrant.

Alarmingly, police came to their residence and took the $200 in bond cash — but never arrested or processed the couple.

Clearly, the police have created the legal issues for this couple, as crossed signals — not intent — are at the heart of the matter. The Durens performed their due diligence in attempting to resolve the issue once they realized their error — but have been oddly met with strong resistance.

But if the Economic Crimes Unit had been formed to investigate crimes of malintent, it missed the mark in this case — by far. As Catherine asserted:

If we intended to steal a book, why would we go in legally to check them out?

She added, “We were appalled, totally appalled. We didn’t commit a crime.”

ABC Breaking News

That was where it started. But at a certain point it was turned over to a different department and the fees went up as penalties, not just to the library, but to that department.

They pretended that they could ignore the fines from the new department and could just work it out with the library, and get around the law enforcement fee.

Now, I think it's all nuts and overblown. But it's just like an unpaid ticket. In our town, if you have unpaid parking tickets, they just show up and put the boot on your car. Then you have to pay everything you owe, including all of the assessed penalties and increased fees, to get your car back.

This is a very good reason to hate government. But until we change it, it remains true that once things go into the justice system hopper, it's no longer just you and the counterparty anymore. The government itself becomes a party to the action, and the government will require you to do what IT says also.

That we have allowed our libraries to establish a relationship with the police to aid collections is where we fall down. If we don't want that, we have to take control of our public institutions, such as libraries, and make it clear that in such cases they will take the losses and write them off, rather than come after us with the cops.

When it's put that way: that the people who steal the books ultimately keep the books and "win", many people will get angry and want to resort to the police. But once you bring in the police, this is what happens.

Another solution would be for libraries to just send the bill in to the tax authorities.

When people realize that, they'll simply stop returning books. Then, at some point, the library will ask for a budget increase to pay for these stolen books.

The city government and the taxpayers will have a shit fit, demanding the library recover these books, even if it means sending the police.