Body Cam Shows Sheriff Obliging A Bigot To Search A Library For ‘Obscene’ Books He’s Too Stupid To Understand

Courtesy of Solar Opposites (imho the funniest show on streaming TV), here's what happens when you teach a cop how to read:

To quote the relevant part for those who can't view the video or would just prefer me to put my cop-hating in plain text, here it is. Yumyulack, an alien, is trying to achieve fulfillment by helping people. His sci-fi ray teaches a baby to read. He zaps the person pushing the stroller, who protests she already knows how to read because she's a famous novelist.

He then zaps her hat and her car, resulting in her calling the cops because the alien is educating her things." He then zaps a cop, who says:

Oh God! I can read! What if I gain empathy? What if I learn things that force me to reevaluate my hardline conservative opinions?

And there you have it. This is all extremely relevant.

First, there's the hardline conservative opinions." Whether or not Sheriff Robert Norris of Kootenai County, Idaho, maintains these opinions is... lol... I was going to say up for debate." But they're not. He's just as shitty as the person who summoned his assistance.

That person, as Jason Koebler reports for independent outlet 404 Media, is Marianna Cochran, the founder of CleanBooks4Kids. She's one of those people. You know the ones I mean. The people advocating for the silencing of voices related to minorities and anyone not explicitly heterosexual. Ignoring the hundreds of explicit romance novels available to any pre-teen with a library card, Cochran has made claims (without facts in evidence) that libraries and librarians are pushing smut to kids and are staffed by groomers.

Because both she and Sheriff Robert Norris agree libraries are just dens of underage sexual iniquity, Sheriff Norris (who is supposed to serve everyone in the county, not just one particularly vocal idiot) decided to flip on his body cam and go hunting for the supposedly immediately recognizable filth that has Cochran so upset she formed a group catering to the most small-minded people in her community.

Here's the full video, which was obtained by Adam Steinbaugh of FIRE:

Cops have never been great at understanding the law. This often works out for them. They're even worse when it comes to understanding the legal boundaries of free speech, even when they fervently believe they'll know obscenity when they see it."

This would be surreal enough if the recording had originated in a foreign country. But this happened here, the nation where free speech protections have been part of this country since its origination.

Here's Koebler, describing some of the hideous/hilarious incidents captured by the sheriff's body cam. It begins with one bigot (Marianna Cochran) telling another bigot (Sheriff Norris) the things she's supposedly observed in this very library.

Cochran tells him that there is a whole series" of books by the same author which feature gay orgies, the whole deal. Prostitution."Identicalis a 2010 novel by Ellen Hopkins about twin sisters, and deals with themes of domestic sexual abuse.

Cochran also claimed a poster in the library recently featured books containing a preponderance of demonology and witchcraft." She does not, however, share any photos of said poster or contribute any other evidence to back this claim.

Walking through the library with Cochran, Sheriff Norris does his best to obtain evidence of obscene material within immediate reach of minors. This does not go well.

They walk into the library, and for the next 45 minutes search for obscene" books in the Young Adult section while Norris's camera is rolling in one of the most bizarre police body camera videos I've ever seen. During the visit, Norris is annoyed to learn thatIdenticalisn't actually at the library. He also learns what a graphic novel" is, and spends most of his time flipping silently through graphic novels.

The frustration over this pair's inability to find a copy of the book that has them so hot and bothered soon bubbles over. Cochran tells Sheriff Norris several things that are true about nearly every library in America, not just the one where two stupid people are misinterpreting obscenity statutes to engage in an act that most people would only assume occurs in countries headed by autocrats: the literal policing of the printed word.

Cochran points out that the library (like thousands of others) operates a bookmobile, allows patrons to check out their own books using self-service stations, and provides inter-library loan services, which allow readers to request books not currently on the shelves at their local library. To Cochran, this is evidence the library is aiding and abetting in the poisoning of children's minds. To anyone else with half a brain (Sheriff Norris not included), this is just how libraries operate to best serve their clientele: the reading public.

Refusing to let this initial failure slow them down, Cochran performs an internet search and presents the search results as evidence of... well, who knows what the fuck... to the sheriff.

After the disappointment overIdentical, Norris and Cochran begin looking for other books they find distasteful. She shows him a series of printouts from BookLooks.org, which catalogues the number of times words like Ass, Cunt, Fag, Fuck, Goddamn, Piss, Prick, and Shit" are written in various books and includes excerpts listed by page number of content that it believes could be of an ADULT nature."

Bringing the sheriff a couple of other graphic novels (a term the sheriff isn't familiar with), Cochran continues to insist the law is being broken, even as she admits the graphic novels she's showing him aren't actually explicit.

She brings him another graphic novel (Fence, Vol. 2, about fencing). There's nothing blatant in here. Nothing blatantly sexual. I think there's just no innuendo at all. These guys on the team, this is an intentionally very androgynous character. All the girls falling for him in the beginning of the book, but it's made clear later in the book that, you know, he prefers boys. Is that necessary? Illegal? No. Unnecessary? Yes," she says.

The sheriff continues to page through a handful of graphic novels. Finding nothing worth seizing and/or arresting anyone over, the sheriff says to his body cam that maybe the library could put PVC pipe, a drape, or something" over an area housing the books even the sheriff can't credibly claim might be inappropriate for minors.

This quasi-raid occurred last year. Sheriff Norris - along with his bigoted compatriot - have already made a bit of hateful hay from this complete failure to discover supposedly illicit material at this library.

Norris's antics with the library went viral last year, when he bragged at that meeting aboutthe body camera stunt. At that meeting, he holds up copies of the booksIdenticalandDeal With It! A Whole New Approach to Your Body, Brain, and Life as a gURL. I took a body cam and went to a library. I went to the teen section of the library and I saw children, kids that were not of teenage years, this is the teen section of the Hayden Library, I wanted to see it for myself," he says. He then holds upIdenticalandDeal With It, and has a community member hand the books to a teenager. Now that," he says, is against the law ... I have read this book and it's disgusting for it to be for children ages 13 through 19" (18 and 19 year olds are adults, obviously).

The real facts are that two of the books referenced had not been checked out from the library he searched. One was checked out from another library (not the one he searched) and the other had been reported as stolen. The other books were seized by the sheriff, who originally refused to return them. When he finally decided to return them, he had removed the library barcodes and UPCs, making it impossible for the library to loan them to anyone until they were re-labeled or replaced.

This is not what we, as Americans, expect law enforcement officers (and especially, law enforcement officials) to be doing with our tax dollars. This recording is the honest portrayal of what happens when two people filled with irrational hate combine forces. Marianna Cochran is an idiot and irritant. But without the willing assistance of Sheriff Norris, she's nothing more than a particularly pesky insect. But now that she has Sheriff Norris in her corner, she's nothing more than a censor who has the luxury of pretending she's speaking for the people while turning their own public servants against them.