Summary
A man checked out 100 books from Beachwood Library in Beachwood, Ohio, covering Jewish history, African-American history, and LGBTQ topics, and later posted social media videos showing the books with captions referencing “cleansing” libraries before burning them.
Princeton University’s Bridging Divides Initiative alerted the library about the posts.
The books were worth about $1,700. Since they are not overdue, the library will bill the man later.
Police say the matter is civil unless he fails to pay. He is now banned from returning to the library.
“A man”
This person has destroyed public property. Whether or not he pays, his name should be made public. People who know him should know what kind of person he is. His employer should know who they have hired. His employer’s customers should know who they are dealing with.
This is not normal behavior. This person is a sociopath and society needs to know who he is.
Agreed. He didn’t have any problems posting it to social media. There’s no reason not to include his identity in the article. Even if he posted under a pseudonym, that should still be included.
If you do that kind is stuff publicly on social media, you’re pretty much begging for people to make the connection between your name and those actions.
This is not normal behavior. This person is a sociopath and society needs to know who he is.
I wish people would stop throwing clinical terms around like this. Socio/psychopathy is a complicated psychiatric disorder with distinct behavioral and psychological markers, not a synonym for “evil.”
Sadly, you don’t need a psychiatric disorder to engage in despicable behavior. “Normal” people are quite capable of being racist, sexist douchebags, and most racist, sexist douchebags are not mentally ill. Bigotry is a product of culture, not abnormal psychology.
I think the correct clinical diagnosis in his case is “flaming asshole”
from the library’s perspective this couldn’t be simpler. they have an exact list of which books to replace and who to charge for the balance.
Yeah but in the current climate I’m worried he’s going to encourage other bigots to be similarly destructive, and that shithead nazis will come to his defense and try to normalize it.
well of course, I agree. but the library can’t control that; they’re just trying to hold on and survive.
Sadly. More power to the librarians! Those folks are truly knowledgeable and capable. I wish we would empower them to do so much more then just “survive”.
In my state the librarian can have a warrant issued for your arrest if you fail to return or pay for books worth over a certain amount after giving proper notice. It’s either $50 or $100 iirc.
yeah on the one hand it limits the availability while they are rebought but I guess on the plus side their authors make more money.
And hopefully minority authors make more sales because of it, get more publicity because of it and the bigots pay the bill.
Sending a bill is one thing; collecting on it is another. As it stands now, the library is out $1700 and those books aren’t necessarily getting replaced soon (or if they are, something else is not getting done instead).
An example needs to be made so that this tactic doesn’t spread.
The library may need to review its policies if a person can borrow 100 books at once, though.
Also, open a fund that people can donate to. With a damage like $1700, they can probably get back multiple times that in a week.
Good thing it wasn’t a Tesla, then “the man” would be doxxed by mainstream media outlets, he’d be tried as a terrorist, and the cops would have been deep into investigations before the sun came up.
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The books were worth about $1,700. Since they are not overdue, the library will bill the man later.
honestly that’s hilarious as fuck 😂
Librarians are pretty chill, unless you’re a loud talker hehe
Except that librarian in the disc world books. He would probably rip some arms off.
“Banned” and “burned” books go hard as hell
Every library I’ve been to in the last 5 years has had a poster of “banned books” specifically to advertise them because people (especially teenagers) love that shit.
We don’t live in the age of books anymore.
We don’t, but there’s problems with only relying on electronic information that can be swapped out at any time. Don’t have to burn the information when you can make it say whatever you want.
Same as it ever was.
Police say the matter is civil unless he fails to pay. He is now banned from returning to the library.
Pretty sure Destruction of Public Property is a crime in most jurisdictions.
Shows which way the police lean, doesn’t it?
Something this article doesn’t mention is that the population of Beachwood is predominantly Jewish, so this was very targeted
Nazis gonna Nazi
And all the other nazis do not see nazis.
Americans gonna let them
“Dort wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man auch am Ende Menschen.” - Heinrich Heine
Book burners have never once been on the right side of history.
Ohio let’s you check out 100 books at a time?
He doesn’t want us to read those book, by the same logic, would it be OK to cut off that mans genitalia because we don’t want him to reproduce?
Wait…is this for real?..Typically there is a limit to how many books you can check out…
At my library, that limit IS 100 books.
My kid regularly has ~60 books checked out. It’s kind of a problem lol
But what an awesome problem to have!
Have they learned about the wonders of interlibrary loans yet? (And Anna’s Archive, if they don’t mind digital…)
Kinda? We have a couple library groups and they get books held from them and delivered to the local member library. No digital since they’re young and we’re trying to minimize screen time.
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No, screen time is the problem at the moment (also not able to read as of yet). We can see a measurable decrease in good behavior/increase is bad behavior after screen time, even when it’s educational stuff.
I appreciate your concern, but I’m the one who has to deal with 20 minutes of screaming about not wanting to go to the bathroom and trying to defend myself without hurting them on days after they get screentime. My life is hard enough without actively making my kid’s behavior worse than it is already. And I’d love for there to be an easy fix, but every professional we’ve talked to so far tells us we’re already doing most/all they recommend…
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After “fuck this maniac,” this was my second thought.
What a horrible human being. If destroying books or repressing knowledge is part of your dogma you are on the wrong side of history.
It’s almost more shocking that the library allowed to check out all those books. There can’t be a legitimate reason to do so, even if he said he needed to reference them all for a thesis or something like that
Yeah the limit at my library is 14, which is more than generous even if you happen to be researching a topic for a report / thesis etc.
Some of those titles may have been requested from other libraries in the same library system. My library limits me to, say, 20 books. But I can request another 20 from Second Library one town over, and another 15 from Third Library two towns over. The books all get sent to My Library and placed on the hold shelf for me, and checked out at My Library. Each library has their own lending policy.
Yeah, it’s messed up. Grumble grumble rude butthead that would check out 80+ DVDs at a time and yell at you if you didn’t check in his returns fast enough (so he could max out his checkouts again).
Sounds like a hate crime to me.
