Cutting the Libraries to Fund the Jails

Voters in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana are being asked to choose in an election this Saturday whether to close the deficit in the jail's budget by slashing funding for public libraries. One of the backers of this move is Parish Councilman Lindel Toups. The Tri-Parish Times reports:

Toups served as the chair of the “New Jail Committee,” established in 2011 to help secure funding for a new facility. He said the library’s revenue is a logical choice. “They’ve got too much money,” Toups said. “We’re giving the public the chance to raise the jail money without raising taxes. Any blind man can see that.”

Aside from his point that the system collects too much money, Toups does not philosophically agree with the library’s evolving role in the community.

“They’re teaching Mexicans how to speak English,” the council chairman said in reference to Biblioteca Hispana, a Hispanic-language segment of the Golden Meadow library branch. “Let that son of a bitch go back to Mexico. There’s just so many things they’re doing that I don’t agree with. … Them junkies and hippies and food stamps (recipients) and all, they use the library to look at drugs and food stamps (on the Internet). I see them do it.”

Has there ever been in America a more noble and high-minded public servant?