students at universities resent interruptions. Interruptions are inevitable, the ones that get violent about are interruptions to partying and sex. Snugglers aside and as Hervy would say "Mooky" makers the student who studies a lot is the other one we have to run out of the stacks at night. We guards call these students the study-alls and no I have no idea who came up with the term but it is sacredly passed down from one guard to the next for years and years. I suspect it probably meant something like the student who studies all the time and glares at you when you find them squirreled away in the stacks and then have to herd them out in front of you otherwise they will double back and try to hide and believe me they do. How many times have we had to go back into the stacks at 1 am to find a student who has double backed on us.
Too many times, about 4 times a week on average. Then they get downright hateful (probably cause they are embarrassed at getting caught) and all but stomp their way out of the library since they get a personal escort to the door. When I went to the University you couldn't get me to stay in the library more than a hour so this is a new experience for me.
The last obstacle we sweep for are not even students. its the one thing that eternally plagues all cops and security guards everywhere there is shelter- homeless people. The "Library Hobos" as Sergei calls them or "Book hobos" as Hervy calls them are homeless guys who come in to use the computers (with free internet) in the public areas and get ideas of staying while they are here. They find places to hide/sleep and stash that even the architects of the labyrinthine library never conceived.
We keep an eye on all our homeless and older than average patron and track their movements as best as we can, but every once in a while we have to go root these guys out of broom closets, book elevators or the 40 plus offices scattered throughout the building. Some of the guards have quit over the anxiety this causes since these guys are often filthy and often violent. The procedure is to locate, observe and radio backup (from the University cops) who may or may not show up- largely depends on who is the watch lieutenant that night on how high a priority they consider it to be. So inevitably one of us guards (who if you recall are unarmed) has to sit and watch the homeless person until a cop- usually the screw up cop on the force is sent to handle it. All in all a mess most of the time.
So Hervy and Sergei and the beefier guards will handle the extraction if they believe they can get away with it. And what really gets me about this is that it isn't the Lieutenant they are worried about, it is the Library Admins that do not need to catch wind of it. When they do we get these memos for weeks about the incident plus they call the chief who then has to call us and bitch up a storm for the benefit of the University so that the University Admins thinks he gives a fuck about his job.
Too many times, about 4 times a week on average. Then they get downright hateful (probably cause they are embarrassed at getting caught) and all but stomp their way out of the library since they get a personal escort to the door. When I went to the University you couldn't get me to stay in the library more than a hour so this is a new experience for me.
The last obstacle we sweep for are not even students. its the one thing that eternally plagues all cops and security guards everywhere there is shelter- homeless people. The "Library Hobos" as Sergei calls them or "Book hobos" as Hervy calls them are homeless guys who come in to use the computers (with free internet) in the public areas and get ideas of staying while they are here. They find places to hide/sleep and stash that even the architects of the labyrinthine library never conceived.
We keep an eye on all our homeless and older than average patron and track their movements as best as we can, but every once in a while we have to go root these guys out of broom closets, book elevators or the 40 plus offices scattered throughout the building. Some of the guards have quit over the anxiety this causes since these guys are often filthy and often violent. The procedure is to locate, observe and radio backup (from the University cops) who may or may not show up- largely depends on who is the watch lieutenant that night on how high a priority they consider it to be. So inevitably one of us guards (who if you recall are unarmed) has to sit and watch the homeless person until a cop- usually the screw up cop on the force is sent to handle it. All in all a mess most of the time.
So Hervy and Sergei and the beefier guards will handle the extraction if they believe they can get away with it. And what really gets me about this is that it isn't the Lieutenant they are worried about, it is the Library Admins that do not need to catch wind of it. When they do we get these memos for weeks about the incident plus they call the chief who then has to call us and bitch up a storm for the benefit of the University so that the University Admins thinks he gives a fuck about his job.
No comments:
Post a Comment