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.

  • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    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?

  • Initiateofthevoid@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    12 hours ago

    The books were worth about $1,700. Since they are not overdue, the library will bill the man later.

    Police informed CCPL that, because a contract was entered when the books were borrowed, failure to return or pay for the books would become a civil matter turned over to the city prosecutor.

    Should the man return to the Beachwood Library, he will be banned from the property.

    Shoutout to libraries. Absolute diamonds in the rough. Burn books? Whatever, people don’t return books all the time. When they’re overdue, here’s the bill, next!

    We don’t live in the age of books anymore. Shit like this is ignorant and fascist but also just symbolic. Libraries are cornerstones of a free society, but the physical paper itself isn’t nearly as important anymore. It’s hilariously replaceable.

    I want the list of books. “Banned” and “burned” books go hard as hell. Maybe even files for the m@tes to get 'em all at once. The modern age can undo all this idiot’s work with a single link.

    • Bassman1805@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      “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.

    • TriflingToad@sh.itjust.works
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      10 hours ago

      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 😂

      • sfled@lemm.ee
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        9 hours ago

        Librarians are pretty chill, unless you’re a loud talker hehe

  • leadore@lemmy.world
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    12 hours ago

    How is that not criminal destruction of property? Some of those books may not even be replaceable. 😠 You could also say criminal intimidation of protected minority groups by an obviously targeted political act.

    • GoodLuckToFriends@lemmy.today
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      8 hours ago

      Because the man was legally in possession of them at the time. It’s the same reason that you have to go through a tedious process to have your car reported stolen if you let someone borrow it and don’t bring it back.

    • buddascrayon@lemmy.world
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      12 hours ago

      Project Gutenberg is ensuring that all books are 100% replaceable. Don’t worry, this ignorance cock hasn’t done anything that can actually interfere with people being able to obtain and read any of the material he’s taken.

      • Pnut@lemm.ee
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        8 hours ago

        “this ignorant cock hasn’t done anything that can actually interfere…”

        He absolutely has. Stop being a pushover. In the coming weeks this will be normalised American behavior. Push back.

        • buddascrayon@lemmy.world
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          6 hours ago

          Hear this well, your reaction of outrage is why he’s doing it. Should he be charged for his destruction of public property? Absolutely. But should we really be putting him on a right wing soap box by making tons of posts raging about his bullshit acts of ignorance? Definitely not.

          • buddascrayon@lemmy.world
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            6 hours ago

            Anything digital can be made into a physical copy with almost comical ease. I don’t want this mouth breathing red hat to have the satisfaction of doing more than simply creating a minor inconvenience because everything he has done can be replaced in a few days. At his expense no less.

  • Doctor_Satan@lemm.ee
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    13 hours ago

    “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.

  • Darleys_Brew@lemmy.ml
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    18 hours ago

    He’s aware that the whole book burning thing was something that the German Nazis, the one various nations had a war with, did, yeah?

    • barneypiccolo@lemm.ee
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      14 hours ago

      These people think the only bad thing that the Nazis did was lose. They think the Nazis were too soft, and they intend to me much stronger this time around.

      • Darleys_Brew@lemmy.ml
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        17 hours ago

        The thing that actually genuinely confuses me is the fact that most of these people are proud that we beat the German Nazis.

        • BadlyTimedLuck@lemmy.world
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          11 hours ago

          I don’t how long Hitler’s reign lasted, but for how short the Confederacy was, these losers began looking at other losers to try and become one giant loser. How our most “patriotic” nationalistic MAGA losers went to Nazism still baffles me, since the propaganda I was taught was that Naxi Germans were bad and evil.

          In fact, I was taught alot of propaganda that Russia and China and Nazis are all evil monsters. Now these losers think Russia taking over Ukraine is a win, we’ve shot ourselves in the foot dealing with China and the world, and Nazis are mainstream.

          Sometimes I wanna save our nation, but then I look at MAGA and how loud this “minority” is. Then you dig deeper into history and this isn’t even the first occurance this has happened in the US (concentration camps, slavery, war, citizen manipulation, etc etc)

          Nuance about the police, government, and politics are gone. I used to have hope our system was initially working, and that it could be fixed. But now: I wanna burn it all down and start again like it’s 1774, or leave to someplace more empathetic where people can understand the basic concept of “don’t hurt others, hurting people is bad”

        • Tedesche@lemmy.world
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          17 hours ago

          I don’t think this is a particularly bright segment of the population we’re talking about here.

  • mercano@lemmy.world
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    22 hours ago

    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.

  • Bob Robertson IX @discuss.tchncs.de
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    1 day ago

    “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.

    • Tedesche@lemmy.world
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      15 hours ago

      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.

    • darkdemize@sh.itjust.works
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      1 day ago

      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.