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.
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Nazis gonna Nazi
And all the other nazis do not see nazis.
Americans gonna let them
Ohio let’s you check out 100 books at a time?
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).
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.
The library may need to review its policies if a person can borrow 100 books at once, though.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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”.
And hopefully minority authors make more sales because of it, get more publicity because of it and the bigots pay the bill.
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?
I mean it’s not illegal
To destroy someone else’s property?
If he hadn’t rented it they might consider calling it that but that’s a normal “oops the books gone” fine.
pretty sure it’s not legal to destroy something you don’t own. The fact that he’s getting fined is a pretty clear indicator.
He’s getting fined by the library for the same amount he’d get fined for “losing” it since it’s $17 a book. That doesn’t seem like it’s illegal or that it matters.
He’s getting fined by the library. But, it can be illegal to destroy something you don’t own. Take for example vandalism. The key for even that is eluding or attempting to elude cleaning it up/paying to do so. Think about it. Is it illegal to dent someone’s car? Not if you pay for repairs. It’s the fleeing the scene without paying that it becomes a crime.
Same could be said here. Yeah he made a vid glorifying an anti-LGBT stance on YouTube by burningthe books. But its fine if you return a full copy in same or better condition to whom you borrowed the book.
Take away his library card!
“He is now banned from returning to the library.”
It’s in the article.
Meanwhile, the library just buys new copies of all the books out of tax money.
That’s assuming that all of the books are still in print and available.
If my personal collection was burned, there are several books that are not replaceable. Especially when you get to books about marginalized groups - things put out by small presses. Limited releases.
This is some random library, my point is, he’s going to get billed for the books that he might not care about, but they’re not just going to be gone.
Assuming their budget doesn’t get cut
republicans are swine.
This has been happening for a while… but I still remember the not too long ago when many conservatives were talking about how all libs were book burning Nazis. Never saw a lib burn a book, but they are, and doing it far more often and with far greater volume.
Sounds like a hate crime to me.
Same as it ever was.
Something this article doesn’t mention is that the population of Beachwood is predominantly Jewish, so this was very targeted
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1 year for every book seems an appropriate sentence
No! An appropriate sentence would end in a period, question mark, or exclamation point!
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THEY DID IT AGAIN!
Throw the book at them!
I believe it would be appropriate if he were to experience what he put all those books through.
