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Homeless Man Charged with Raping Girl at Philadelphia LibraryA homeless man was arrested February 8 for the rape and attempted murder of an 8-year-old girl in the bathroom of the Free Library of Philadelphia’s Independence branch. The girl, who was visiting the library the previous day with her grandmother and two other children, was sexually assaulted, choked, and left unconscious, the Associated Press reported February 9. The victim was hospitalized in critical but stable condition. Brian McCutchen, 23, was arrested after mentioning the attack to a friend, who reported it to the police. The February 11 Philadelphia Daily News said McCutchen, who is being held on $1 million bail, had served seven months in prison for a similar attack on a 9-year-old in 2000. Library Director Elliot Shelkrot told the Daily News McCutchen was a frequent library visitor who had been banned from the Central Branch for viewing pornography. City and library officials are forming a task force on library safety issues that Shelkrot said would “review all of our procedures to see what we can do and still be a free public library.” Shelkrot defended the provision of services to homeless people, declaring that the library “is there for people who want to use the resources of the library. . . . We have policies for behavior that are posted in every library. Just because someone has a home or doesn’t have a home, has a job or doesn’t have a job, we don’t tolerate bad behavior.” The incident has provided ammunition for proponents of Internet filters in libraries. Concerned Women for America urged First Lady Laura Bush to advocate “filtering for library computers and strict adherence to the Child Internet Protection Act” in the wake of the attack. CWA attorney Jan LaRue held library officials responsible for failing to report McCutchen to the police after he exposed himself to a 16-year-old library volunteer a few weeks earlier and for allowing him to return to the library afterward, as well as for “allowing library users to use Internet access for porn surfing” and “having a worthless ‘acceptable use policy.’” Posted February 13, 2004; revised February 23, 2005. |
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