4 March 2-8, 2023 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents “We loved to ride with the kids in the pull-behind trailer,” she said. “We even used it to take the older boy to and from school on James’ day off. The most special to me was the effort he put into making it an activity I can safely enjoy. He put a lot of thought and effort into making sure I could ride with him when I wanted to.” Outside of his home, Kincheloe’s zeal and creativity attracted many mountain bikers, both old and new. Local musician Josh Clark said that Kincheloe could tell he was a new customer, unfamiliar with mountain biking. Clark wasn’t quite sure he was ready to spend the time and money he figured it would require to take mountain biking up as a hobby, but Kincheloe’s openness and pa- tience made all the difference. “He had a childlike fascination with all things biking that most people lose as they become boring adults,” Clark said. “It was so infectious.” Clark added: “James is literally the only reason I have a mountain bike or got into it at all.” Local mountain bike racer Cliff Le- Grande got to know Kincheloe over the past couple of years as a customer. Every trip Le- Grande made into the shop, he said, resulted in at least an hour-long conversation about mountain bikes with Kincheloe. Recently the two men had finally welcomed the ar- rival of the new bikes they had ordered some time ago. As they waited for the supply chain to slowly produce their new purchases, they spent hours discussing the customizations and upgrades they would make to their bikes. The new bikes arrived as Kincheloe was waiting to have his hernia surgically re- paired, so testing out the new rides together on a local trail had to wait. LeGrande figured they had plenty of time to make it happen down the road. LeGrand said that he and Kincheloe talked a lot about their kids and getting them into riding bikes. Kincheloe also loved gam- ing. When Kincheloe was putting LeGrand’s new bike together at the shop not too long ago, he would send funny memes and videos he made to LeGrande documenting the progress. A video of a bike being built set to the theme music from the videogame Halo sums up the kind of energy and excitement Kincheloe brought to his family and friends in the biking community. “He was a very passionate guy that loved to share his passions,” LeGrand said. “He wanted you to feel the same excitement and energy for something that he did, and he was good at making it happen.” ▼ POLITICS LIBRARIAN BOUNTY HUNTERS LIBRARIES ARE APPARENTLY NEXT UP ON TEXAS CONSERVATIVES’ CHOPPING BLOCK. BY SIMONE CARTER T he latest target in Texas conserva- tives’ line of fire? Librarians. The le- gal mind behind the state’s abortion ban is now reportedly gunning for a similar crackdown on books. Texas’ anti-abortion legislation lets pri- vate citizens sue those they believe have violated the state’s ban. Axios reported that the Austin attorney who helped design the historic law, Jonathan Mitchell, has drafted city ordinances that could poten- tially allow people to “[sue] librarians and others for their decisions about which books to put on shelves — or for expressing LGBTQ+ support.” The news comes as GOP-led states na- tionwide continue to restrict what can be taught in public schools. Many conserva- tives and right-wing groups claim that edu- cators and librarians are attempting to indoctrinate children into a liberal ideology, citing as evidence books that touch on sub- jects like race, gender and sexuality. As of last September, Mitchell was pur- portedly penning “Safe Library Patron Pro- tection” drafts for 10 Texas communities — with another 10 in the works, according to Axios. It’s unclear which communities were mulling the matter. Similar to the abortion law, the book-re- lated ordinances would apparently mean that violators could be sued for at least $10,000, plus attorney fees and legal ex- penses. The report also states that civil ac- tion could be brought against the library if workers don’t scrub contested titles from shelves. Librarians certainly aren’t happy with the idea. Shirley Robinson, executive director of the Texas Library Association, called the or- dinances “incredibly harmful” to commu- nity members and librarians alike. There are already processes in place for concerned cit- izens to challenge a book they’re worried about, making this proposal unnecessary and “excessive,” she said. Whether or not the draft ordinances get passed, a chilling effect has already started to sweep over the state, Robinson said. Li- brarians are leaving the profession and soft censorship is ballooning, meaning that staff may refrain from filling certain collections or may remove titles before they’re chal- lenged. “They are afraid for their jobs. They are afraid for their staff,” she said. “We know li- brarians are being bullied and harassed on social media, especially in smaller commu- nities that are being targeted by members of these groups.” Some libraries have also installed armed security during advisory board meetings, and protests are erupting on site, she added. “So it is having a horrific effect on the profession. These are librarians that are be- ing targeted,” Robinson said. “I can’t imag- ine that we would have ever even thought to say those words five years ago.” Mitchell didn’t respond to the Observer’s requests for comment by publication time. Regardless of one’s political views, Rob- inson doesn’t think that the proposed ordi- nances are realistic. They include intentional “vague language” to create con- fusion, and now, people untrained in library science could seemingly be tasked with se- lecting books for a narrow community ma- jority based on their own personal biases and beliefs, she said. The ordinances would also likely inflict red tape and further costs on an already strained library budget, she added. The Lone Star State leads the country in the number of banned books, according to a 2022 report by the literary free expression advocacy group PEN America. Nearly two dozen Texas school districts were men- tioned in the report, and Granbury ISD was high up on the list with around 130 bans. Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, decried the draft ordi- nances as “abhorrent.” Librarians already want to work with par- ents to find books that fit their family’s needs and values, she said. But this would effec- tively allow a vocal minority to limit access to information in publicly funded libraries. A report by an ALA initiative called Unite Against Book Bans noted that students were behind only 1% of book challenges in 2021. The coalition also learned that more than two-thirds of voters disapprove of pushes to remove titles from school library shelves, and around 7 in 10 say the same when it comes to public libraries. Caldwell-Stone, who also serves as exec- utive director for the ALA-affiliated Free- dom to Read Foundation, emphasized that libraries offer much more than books, in- cluding internet access and other resources. And the way she sees it, the local ordinances are meant to evade state laws and constitu- tional review in court. People concerned about certain books have the right to ask the library to not allow their child to check it out, she said. That doesn’t mean they should “deny everyone else in the community access to it,” though. “We really need to think about: Is that the definition of democracy and liberty, or is that the definition of an authoritarian state?” she added. Caldwell-Stone fears that taxpayers may ultimately be the ones forced to fork over the $10,000 in such potential suits, at the ex- pense of other community services. The idea that people could potentially reap fi- nancial rewards for exercising a heckler’s veto concerns her. “[It] just boggles the mind that this is the priority for individuals,” she said. “And the idea that you want to punish and attack pub- lic servants for serving the public good is also just amaz— we just don’t have words anymore.” ▼ CRIME 28 CHILDREN RESCUED OPERATION JANUS NABS 59 PEOPLE IN CHILD INTERNET SEX STING IN NORTH TEXAS. BY KELLY DEARMORE T he FBI says 59 arrests have been made as the result of a nearly month- long investigation into online child sexual exploitation in North Texas. “Beginning January 16, 2023, and con- tinuing through last Friday, February 10, 2023, law enforcement agencies across North Texas brought together highly skilled computer crimes investigators to focus re- sources on the identification and rescue of children in our communities who fall prey to the darkness of online predators,” read the statement released Feb. 17 from FBI Dal- las Division’s Child Exploitation Task Force and the North Texas Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Several law enforcement agencies partic- ipated in Operation Janus (not to be con- fused with the Obama-era effort to review fingerprint data of naturalized citizens known by the same name), including police departments from Allen, Carrollton, Dallas, Fort Worth, Garland, Grand Prairie and Plano, among others. “Operation Janus culminated in the res- cue of 28 children from online sexual abuse and over 80 criminal charges were filed against 59 offenders that were apprehended during this enforcement action,” the state- ment said. “In addition to these arrests, in- vestigators seized terabytes of data and electronic devices that were utilized during the commission of these crimes. They are being examined forensically and may lead to the investigation of other offenders.” The aim of the operation was to rescue Unsplash Many conservatives claim that libraries are indoctrinating chlidren to be liberal. Unfair Park from p3
