Fire started in Chicago library's gay books section
June 15, 2006
BY ANNIE SWEENEY Crime Reporter
Chicago Police are investigating a suspicious fire that burned about 100 books from the gay and lesbian selection at a North Side Chicago Public Library branch.
The small fire at the John Merlo branch, 644 W. Belmont, ignited about noon Tuesday and the cause remained under investigation, officials said.
Detectives were not investigating the fire as a hate crime, Chicago Police Department spokeswoman Monique Bond said. But gay rights activist Rick Garcia was concerned that it might be, given the subject matter. "It wasn't the history section," he said.
Bond said the fire was under investigation as an arson.
The fire was set on the second floor of the library in a remote corner, and the section is not marked by any sign reading "gay and lesbian," sources said.
After the fire was discovered, library staff evacuated patrons to safety on the first floor, said Margaret Killackey, a library spokeswoman.
The gay and lesbian collection includes roughly 1,000 books ranging from history and athletics to travel and culture, and it was almost entirely destroyed, Killackey said.
asweeney@suntimes.com
Copyright 2006 © The Sun-Times Company
Note: Well, that's one way to handle things. If the faggots won't go away on their own, then burn them out. We've seen many churches with an emphasis on serving GLBT people burned down by homophobes, why not the libraries and schools as well? Of course Chicago Police are not going to treat it as a hate crime; they do not believe in 'special rights for gay people' as a police officer once stated to me. PAT
See a follow up report here in July 29, 2006. The woman who started this fire was caught by Chicago Police. It was a homeless woman who had been living in or around the library. PAT
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2 comments:
Of course it was a homophobe. But right now the police have no clue who did it so of course it's premature to say it's a hate crime.
Hopefully the library had video surveillance.
The reason Chicago Police gave does not make sense. Why don't they refer to it as a hate crime while they are investigating it? The reason is police -- at least the Chicago ones -- do not think that gay people should have any 'special rights'; they have said that a few different times. They have already moved this into the 'cold cases' area and moved onto other (what they deem) 'more important cases' . PAT
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