A walltercation

There was some excitement at the Hollidaysburg Area Library today. Janet (the Library Director) found out about it when some teen girls came in (they had been doing some service work in the library that day) and said there was a man outside who wanted her to come right away.

She hurried out and found a man down at the corner with six teenage boys on bikes. Actually, five boys on bikes and one on foot. The man had hold of the sixth bike, and the sixth rider was trying to wrestle it away from him. The man was arguing with all of the riders.

Janet could see at once what was going on. The kids use their bikes to grind on the library's low brick wall. She's repeatedly asked and ordered them to stop doing that. They haven't.

The man, a library volunteer and regular patron, had also tried before to order off the kids. This time, he decided to make a point. He grabbed hold of one of the bikes and wouldn't let go. The rider protested, to say the least ("Why do people have to be such !@#$$%^&!"). The man asked why he (the rider) should be able to control his property (the bike) when the library couldn't control its property (the wall).

The other riders had scattered but they all came back and argued that the wall was public property. Fine, the man said, then stop grinding my property. No, they said, it's our property, too.

Janet explained to me later that the library is actually private property that's open to the public. So the kids had no more right to grind the wall than they would a homeowner's wall.

Anyway, the bike-grabbing-guy called 911 on his cell phone, and a borough police officer came. He asked Janet and the man to wait for him on the steps while he talked to the kids. The officer was with them for quite a while. When he came up to the steps, he explained that it had taken some time to get all of their names and addresses. He got the man's side of the story.

The officer advised that Janet can request the riders' names and addresses from him to send letters to the kids stating that they are not welcome on the property. The officer said he knows the kids from earlier encounters.

As for grabbing someone else's bike to make a point—the officer doesn't recommend it. If the rider had slipped during the struggle, or if the tussle had escalated, it's potentially a very bad scene. The man's actions did result in Janet's getting the names to use, but still ...

To the man we say: Ya Goof!

But much louder to the riders we say: Ya Goofs!!