The downside of dealing with the public

Here in Chicago, front-page news today has been the story of the 250-lb. bar patron (who also happens to be a Chicago cop) beating up a 115-lb. bartender because she refused to serve him a drink. (If you don’t mind looking at the grisly video, you can watch it on YouTube…it’s pretty disturbing…you may want to just read the news story to get the gist.) (What I found as disturbing as the beating is seeing the other bar patrons doing nothing).

Anyway, it reminded me of what a tough job it must be facing the unknown, which is of course what anyone who deals with the public every day faces. Bartenders know it. And, so do librarians. I asked our author Mark Willis, who wrote Dealing with Difficult People in the Library if he had seen the video. He actually knew about the story, but had purposefully avoided watching it. “Seeing that kind on cruelty makes me ill.”

But, because I brought it up, he decided he would watch it and see if there may be some lessons in it for librarians who may not have to deal daily with “overserved” patrons as bartenders do, but who may find themselves in threatening situations. I felt badly bringing it up because I certainly didn’t want him to feel compelled to watch something he didn’t want to watch (and I gave him that out!). But, he did see some how the situation could remind librarians how to react when a situation with an angry or unstable patron turns ugly:

“I watched [the video] to think about how the situation is similar to what we may encounter in libraries and to think about any lessons this may have for us. I am not going to second guess the bar tender, she was doing her best under really difficult circumstances so I don’t want anything to be viewed as a criticism of her. No one knows what they will do until they are in the situation. That said, there are a few reminders we can take away from this horrible case:

“- Any time a patron exhibits signs of violent, aggressive behavior, we need to call the police. Don’t wait for something bad to happen. I think library staff sometimes hesitates, knowing that it often blows over. But things happen so quickly, waiting can have tragic consequences. If you call, the worst that will happen is that the police will show up and the people that started the problem have left or calmed down. What can happen when you don’t call is potentially much worse.

“Teamwork is so important, too. As soon as library staff hears raised voices, they need to drop everything and see what’s going on. That puts more people on the scene to calm things down, to look for solutions, to discourage violence and to call the police, if necessary. I don’t know if this bar tender had co-workers or not but you would hope that when someone is shouting and aggressive like this person was, that situation becomes everyone’s priority. Our library has panic buttons under the public service desks so staff can summon help without being noticed.

“Dealing with someone under the influence of drugs or alcohol is one of the hardest things to do. They can be so unpredictable. A goal with someone upset and under the influence is to do what you can to get them out of the building, even if it means breaking policy. Don’t expect much success in explaining policy to someone under the influence and upset. Let them take a book even if they have $30 in fines on their card, give change for a fifty, do what you can to help them move on. Then the director may follow up with a letter or phone call the next day but avoiding violence at the time is the immediate goal.

“We have to know as much as possible about causes of violence. A fairly new diagnosis for behavior such as road rage is intermittent explosive disorder (IED) “characterized by repeated episodes of aggressive, violent behavior that are grossly out of proportion to the situation. And, according to a June 2006 study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, intermittent explosive disorder is more common than once thought. Intermittent explosive disorder occurs most often in young men and may affect as many as 7.3 percent of adults in the United States. “ (from www.mayoclinic.com). With IED, the episode may be set off by what seems like minor tension or confrontation, the kind of thing that makes most of us grit our teeth. In a few people, that goes way beyond, to actual violence or destruction of property. Again, when someone starts showing signs of aggressiveness and the potential for violence, the goal has to be to prevent violence. Do what you can to facilitate the person leaving the library and call the police if needed. Don’t let following policy cause someone to get hurt.”

Again, while it’s not likely that a librarian will be placed in the situation the bartender was, it can never hurt to be prepared and to learn how to defuse a potentially dangerous situation.