Montgomery County police responded to a report of a strong-arm rape at a Montgomery County public library in Bethesda on Friday afternoon, January 2, 2026. The sexual assault was reported at a library in the 7400 block of Arlington Road at 4:30 PM Friday. The Connie Morella Library is located at 7400 Arlington Road. No further information is available at this time.
102 comments:
And Elrich and the police chief will say nothing. We used to know who the MCPD chief was because he was often speaking in front of local TV cameras. I haven't seen the new chief speak once. Anyone?
If McCarthy doesn't release details about the perp soon, that will speak for itself.
The suspense is killing me. Was it outside or inside the building?
Strong-arm rape refers to a type of rape where no weapons are involved, relying solely on physical force.
Egads this is bad,
I hope that they apprehend the perpetrator soon so that the officials can have
a news conference to announce that it is safe to sleep at night in Bethesda.
What did we expect would eventually happen? Buckle up, as citizens we're pretty much on our own.
Tho sad about this horrific crine, I'm selfishly happy that I, last week, moved out of Bethesda after 37 years. Good luck, amigos!!
WTH!?
I plan on mentioning this situation if I get out of the waiting room and get asked questions during Voir Dire on Wednesday, oh yeah, you betcha' yeah, I'll make a scene AND my point.
3:37 is right. Buckle up for the Purple Line as well
And the mainstream news is silent, as usual. I haven't heard a peep about this anywhere.
You've done the right thing. Moore, Elrich, McCarthy are not looking out for the citizens and abuse of taxpayer dollars is disgusting.
VanHollen just came out on the side of Maduro completely ignoring what he and his fellow liberals said in 2019. I could quote The Monroe Doctrine but democrats read the words but have no idea what they mean.
What happened to Bethesda? This place felt like visiting Mr Roger’s Neighborhood years ago and now it’s filled with creeps and criminals. This is a very scary story.
I go there frequently with my kids (both tween girls). I guess I'll need to be more careful from now on.
Pity MCPD now encrypts all their radio transmissions. Were residents of the community still allowed to monitor police by using scanners, the public could know a description of the suspect and be able to act as extra eyes while out and about. Heckofajob, whoever the police chief is.
The Bethesda library is a hangout for some of the Bethesda homeless.
If you make a scene, you could be arrested from disturbing the peace!
¡Nos vemos luego!
Meanwhile, road diet goes full speed ahead. . .
Who is McCarthy?
https://youtu.be/KXZkot4WpJM
What are the Prosecutor's three Ps?
1. Prosecute criminals.
2. Prevent crime.
3. Protect and support victims of crime.
Thank you for covering this, Robert! Why hasn't this story been reported by WTOP, or (so far as I know) the Washington Post? Will the library be changing any of its policies or procedures (such as, for bathroom access) because of this?
2:56 - To the tune of millions of taxpayer dollars. Thanks for pointing that total nonsense out. Ruined one of the nicer drives in this part of the county on Little Falls Parkway.
This is why votes matter. Every, single elected official in charge, has no remote idea what they're doing. They all have never worked in the private sector and have no idea how real people actually live. There's certainly a lot more that could be said here but how about, enough is enough? Can Elrich be recalled? Many places have that ability but we probably don't. Typical. Larry Hogan's people said privately that MoCo could be the "51st" state if they ever got their act together. Well, they haven't and won't sadly. Wake up rubber stamp voters. A sexual assault occuring inside the Bethesda library? God help us.
No, @8:09, it isn't "filled" with criminals and/or creeps, anymore than it was absent them in any earlier decade. Go to the Washington Post's website and search "Bethesda rape" and you'll find a wealth of stories, including the 1977 case of a 15-year-old girl who alleged a county police officer raped her in the basement of Brookmont Elementary, on Sangamore Road.
The crime has always been present.
Homeless individuals are not the typical profile for sexual assault.
There are no seat belts on the Purple Line for passengers. Countless studies have proven that adding additional mass transit does not increase crime, especially in areas that are already served by transit. In fact, just the opposite is true. Crime decreases in areas well served by multiple forms of transit by improving access to housing, jobs and eduction opportunities. How many times do we have to discuss this?
My response, too. Like so many, we frequently go to our neighborhood library. Also like many others, I haven't seen or heard anything about this in the local news.
For the person who asked whether it was inside the building or on the outdoor premises, that is a very good question to help address how this happened.
If you’re ignoring the uptick of crime in recent years that’s on you. But thanks for condescending reply!
746 can spout off on any BS survey they want but actual data says different. Spending 10-BILLION dollars instead of adding a few more J2 busses is the definition of insanity but keep stepping on the gas driving this state off a fiscal cliff all while NOT enforcing laws that allow repeat offenders to re-offend.
Where will 746 be when the crime rate spikes after the PL opens? Blaming anyone but themselves.
Bye Felica.
104 - Tell us just how many criminals escape via Metro.
The three amigos you are referring to live in their own little universe.
The parents should turn in their kids Montgomery County library cards.
If you buckle up, you'll be a sitting duck!
Have you read Rip Van Winkle?
Buy books online!
They live up to their motto: "We begin with pride, and end with excellence!".
We have a police chief!
I feel really sorry for you. . .
Keep your eyes wide open and trust no one, even at arm's length:
https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/cmte_testimony/2023/jud/1BzGi9zMN1oChwExTzUwxjrDQC2s7PiFK.pdf
@7:01 PM The latter is looking how to get out of doing his sworn duty. . .
Like issuing a 'John' pass?
Don't hold your breath on that!
The stark reality is that they'll unveil an obscure legal technicality.
My god, my daughter’s Scout Troop meets at that library.
6:23 Completely ignores liberals who reclassified crimes so it would appear that things are the same or better than in the past. Like the CNN reporter in front of burning dumpsters/cars decrying a "mostly peaceful" demonstration.
The "acceptance" of crime is what democrats want from citizens. Trump proves that their lying and incompetent.
@12:55 is perhaps finding his goalpost-moving more unwieldy than anticipated, trying to shuffle things from Bethesda having once been "Mr Roger’s Neighborhood years ago and now it’s filled with creeps and criminals" to eliding that comment as simply pointing out there has been an "uptick of crime in recent years." It would be surprising if there were not more "criming" nowadays, inasmuch as the area's population has grown more than 27% since the turn of the century. But let us return to your original, pre-modified claim, a facile implication Bethesda was once villainy-free, in some halcyon days of yore. In fact, there was sufficient local crime in the late 20th-century (and earlier 21st --I don't want to leave anything out-- to prompt no less than the august Washington Post to actually report some such incidents. That 12:55 doesn't recall criminal events of the past does not mean lawbreaking did not take place then; it means only his attention was elsewhere --which is as it should be-- not extrapolating some post-Apocalyptic hellscape of present-day Bethesda, which is twaddle. Live life, don't hide under your couch, afraid battalions of rapists and marauders are zombie-marching to add you to the crime-stat roster and maybe feed on your brains.
When you go out, be alert and aware of your surroundings --don't be absorbed in your phone screen or tuned out with earbuds stuffed in your hearing holes; stride with confidence and purpose, don't amble with your head looking at your feet; don't do gratuitously naive, foolish things, like leave your car running while you pop in the Giant, or peel off a crisp $100 from your baby's head-sized wad of bills and ask a group of teens if they can break it; if you've got a swish, six-figure wristwatch, keep it out of sight unless you're going somewhere you know will be secure from random opportunists, like an embassy party or your private club; if you see or hear a commotion that isn't quickly resolved, move away from, not towards the conflict. When you enter buildings, get in the habit of noticing where the emergency exits are. You don't have to delay your visit to the doctor's or dinner --"Hang on, I need to see where this door leads"-- but take a beat to glance around and to make note of alternate routes out.
A July, 2025 survey by smartasset -dot- com ranked Bethesda as the second safest suburb in the entire country. https://smartasset.com/data-studies/americas-safest-suburbs-2025
Stuff happens. It sucks, it's traumatic for the victim --horrifying in a case like Robert related-- but it is not indicative of the impending fall of western civilization.
They just made it easier to hit a deer!
Because it would devalue the surrounding properties and people
would swarm the SDAT to reassess and lower their property values. . .
Find a new safe meeting place ASAP!
In 2022 the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office reported that homeless individuals were 514 times more likely to be arrested and charged with a felony and were often facing multiple criminal cases. The data shows substantially higher rates of robbery, residential burglary, assault, arson, and vandalism. Los Angeles Police Department crime data from 2018 to 2021 shows that homeless individuals, while only 1 percent of the population, are suspects in 6 to 8 percent of all crimes and 11 to 15 percent of violent crimes.
@3:00, you do remember who's in the White House currently, yes? $Trump crypto, Epstein files, myriad SEC fraud investigations dismissed, Binance co-founder pardon, the Qatari 747 "gift" jet, pardon for [400-tons-of-coke]-smuggling Honduran president, etc, etc, etc. Let him who is without sin among us and all that.
Stats for "strongarm rape" in the Bethesda 2D MCPD district:
2016 - 8 (stats begin 7/31/16)
2017 - 18
2018 - 26
2019 - 34
2020 - 32
2021 - 25
2022 - 25
2023 - 33
2024 - 25
2025 - 31 (through 12/18, when last I downloaded the data)
https://data.montgomerycountymd.gov/browse?category=public+safety&limitTo=datasets&utf8=%E2%9C%93&sortBy=relevance&pageSize=20&page=1
3:33/6:12 This is what extreme TDS looks like. Democrats in control of the FBI stats under a "completely competent" Biden now screaming that we should believe them despite getting caught lying about everything.
Remember who said that POTUS can't close the border without the immigration bill all while saying "the border is secure"? Ask the former DC police chief about how they changed crime classifications. Frankly democrats shouldn't be trusted to be dog catcher but have power because morons pull the D lever which they've been programmed to do so. Pathetic.
Confidence in above raw data=zero.
Can Elrich be recalled?
He'll run as a council member at large, hence a permanent fixture of MoCo.
Are you a salaried 'Madison Avenue' PR contractor for the ruling class?
Le mot juste "Pathetic" perfectly sums up your post, @7:13, although "tragic" would also be accepted. SAD!
PS: FBI has nothing to do with compiling crime figures for the Bethesda police district or for the county police, but good for you for trying. Now run outside and play.
Wow, 333 and 612 can drool out all the doctored stats they want but the current reality of crime in Bethesda is real. Having lived in Bethesda for over 35 years, citing liberal dribble doesn't change the facts on the ground. Democrats keep telling us how much safer we are under their leadership when the truth is something completely different. DC on the other hand is much safer now and citizens can thank Trump for direct action with real results.
Progressive bloviation with BS stats didn't help the person at the Bethesda library any regurgitating democratic talking points won't either.
7:13 - Old man thinks he can make reality disappear by his magical incantation of “TDS”.
You'll find police communications are encrypted in most jurisdications now to prevent criminals from listening as well. You are not the only inquring mind.
8:10 has zero arguments refuting crime only to say that we're all just as safe as we were in the past. To paraphrase a classic movie: I'm shocked shocked shocked as there's no gambling here.
Keep it up as everyone can see except the leftist cheerleaders.
A good mind is a terrible thing to waste so we're not hurting 6:07 at all. I'm not your secretary so check the crimes reclassified by McCarthy and the council.
Due to lack of factual information regarding this incident, it is not known whether the alleged rape occurred inside the library or outside on its premises. For all we know it may have occurred in a vehicle in the parking lot, between individuals known to each other, and suddenly one participant has a change of mind.
Interesting inferences drawn, @6:34. What part of the 3:33 post is "liberal dribble [sic]"? Was it pointing out crime has always existed or was it those several benign suggestions for behaviors that can help reduce one's exposure to certain crimes? I was unaware that being alert to one's surroundings was a biased, inherently liberal position. Does this mean the MAGA/libertarian stance is one should be clueless and tuned out, or do you prefer to characterize it as simply being utterly/thoroughly/totally self-absorbed?
The current reality of crime in Bethesda is offered in the updated-daily crime reports issued by the county police, which can be found at the link posted @6:12. If you have proof to support your allegation those figures are doctored, share such with the group, so we may all benefit from heretofore secret wisdom revealed only to you. If you can't or won't substantiate your claim, appreciate your assertions will be dismissed as utterly meritless. In other words, put up or [blank] up, as the saying goes.
By the way, dribble is why your shirt is soup- and drool-stained. The term you wanted is drivel
6:07 is doing a pretty poor job of defending the realm as the most obvious lies don't survive basic scrutiny. Their hero, Obama, has some advice; "learn to code"
12:41 constantly making excuses by saying to "watch your surroundings" is so typical of liberals screaming all is well, so if you're the victim the blame is on you.
One would think that enforcing laws already on the books would would be a no-brainer but 1+1=5 in liberal world so citing "facts" that use reclassified crime data is never going change what everyone can see with their own eyes especially if they've lived here for more than 10 years. Unbelievable mental gymnastics one needs to use to support the unsupportable but here you are.
1:04 - They won't need the Metro when the carjack someone at gunpoint, now will they? What, pray tell, is your response to that?
Are we ever going to find out the facts?
@12:41 Why do democrats insist that "everything is fine so nothing to see here"? Prove me wrong is your benchmark while reclassified crime stats tell only the story you and your council masters want told. Sexual assault at the public library is a consequence of bad governance as are the robberies, assaults, car thefts/break-ins, group shoplifting etc that rarely happened just 10 years ago. Do you know why the Giant on Westbard locks up merchandise behind plexiglass? Because you and the people you work for suck at simple tasks like enforcement of laws already on the books. Sure organize to protest Trump, Musk or whatever the outrage of the day is all while Rome is burning.
Our future is going to be like that dumpster fire Mandani with these liberals in charge. Already grabbing the popcorn on that one. Trott out all the stats you want but people are leaving from blue states so the bucket of tax revenues has to be made up by a smaller number of people.
@10:33, @12:49 "You speak an infinite deal of nothing."
@ 6:07 PM - What's hilarious is that the Director of "Biden's FBI" was a Trump appointee his entire term.
The usual gang of idiots who "don't trust the data" have provided none of their own.
Idiots are the ones who pull the D handle thinking that "this time it will work"
We all saw this coming, but the County Council and Planning Board didn't care then, and they don't care now, no matter how much residents push back and who runs for office.
From 2107, spot on: "‘I Hate What Bethesda Has Become’ New development is stripping downtown Bethesda of its charm and appeal"
https://bethesdamagazine.com/2017/04/17/opinion-i-hate-what-bethesda-has-become/
1:32 - Very well said. Yes, the very definition of insanity.
@5:46 The Governor, Council and their minions truly do suck and have zero interest in protecting citizens all while coddling criminals/illegals.
Still waiting on McCarthy to disclose the perpetrator...
Corrupted raw data ruins any chance of accountability, this is covered in Alinski's book and a popular Democrat trick to further press their treasonable agenda.
They must be avid readers!
https://www.instagram.com/mccarthymoco/p/CZUkw8DuFE5/?locale=zh_tw&hl=ar&img_index=1
https://www.instagram.com/mccarthymoco/p/CfXgmH0uJmS/?locale=zh_tw&hl=ar
McCarthy has plenty of time to post BS but not a word about the perpetrator. At his point we might speculate that it was a council member MD state politician or one of their relatives who committed the crime as fleecing citizens, (check out the latest 12.2% property tax increase), comes naturally.
Still waiting for a scintilla of proof or evidence to support the entirely unsubstantiated claim that MCPD stats and figures are "corrupted," @2:01. Btw, you got the party wrong re/"treasonable agenda." It was *your* guy who tried to stop certification of a presidential election.
Remove from this Sartre quote "anti-Semite" and replace with libertarian/reactionary/MAGA and the obduracy of responses such as yours is manifest, clearly explained:
Never believe that [anti-Semites] are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The [anti-Semites] have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert.
Thank you for the explanation.
@1:20 "Hop on the bus, Gus, you don't need to discuss much. . ."
It began with Lulu lemon. . .collective apathy.
@4:21 PM San Diego is in a different time zone, etc.
Is it a rhetorical question?
@3:33 PM It WAS the second safest suburb in the entire country!
@3:22 PM You should contact his public affairs officer.
He does not talk to common mortals.
7:47 thinks, (using the word very generously), that we need to post stats when the raw data has been completly corrupted. While their spewing out talking points about how everything is just as swell now as they were in the past, any Bethesda resident would call that complete BS. Real results exist in DC where Trump is busy saving lives democrats couldn't care less about.
The giveaway is the reference to J6 as MSDNC has destroyed any critical thinking although harassing Federal agents is probably not a good idea this weekend.
7:47 is nothing but a paid council intern because no normal person thinks all is well while crimes that were rare or never happened in the past are commonplace. The term is useful Idiots until they're done with them.
https://www.facebook.com/MCSAONews/videos/963454831604849/
Our noted PowerPoint perennial protector
Is a professional awards plaque collector
In public events and photo ops he thrives
And is a prominent performer of high fives.
The former is currently concentrating on the preparation his weekly address.
The latter is overseeing all operations and strategic goals for the department.
Where does McCarthy "teach" again, Harvard on the Pike or UMD College Park, and do they have metal detectors in that building?
https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/professor/1804053
https://info.montgomerycollege.edu/_documents/resources/part-time-faculty/the-advance-april-2016-issue.pdf#page=7
We will never learn what really happened and who did what to whom. . .
@ 4:37 I hope we do learn and find out more about this!
Robert, thank you for reporting on this police report and so many other reports of assault the mainstream media won't cover. Is there any update information on it? I did read this from DC Urban Moms but I just don't know what to believe, "Nothing happened, false report to police. Library is full of cameras. There was no assault." Source: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/15/1308203.page
4:33 - exactly as I predicted and stated here above. Marc Elrich comes out before the cameras to denounce and decry. The graffiti discovered at Walt Whitman High School and yet goes in front of no camera and talks to no press about an alleged violent assault of a young girl at the Bethesda library. Absolutely outrageous. Great job voters!
Post a Comment