this post was submitted on 13 May 2025
379 points (99.0% liked)

News

29384 readers
5269 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

The Beachwood Police Department reported on May 2 the man checked out the hundred books from the Cuyahoga County Public Library Beachwood Branch, and posted a video of him burning the books on social media.

top 48 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 2 points 16 hours ago

Jewish

All the man has to claim he supports the deportation of Jews to Israel as a solution, and all antisemitic accusations will be nullified.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If you haven't clicked through, the full statement from Kent Smith is great.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 23 hours ago

“I condemn this act, not only because it is a crime against our institutions and community, but also because it is fundamentally un-American. This nation was founded on the right to free speech and open expression, and our libraries are the embodiment of that promise. Libraries are designed to be community-based safe harbors of free thought. Libraries offer ideas. This is their fundamental role in our democracy and why they are so vital. This act of violence is not just a crime against the public catalog of literature that was destroyed, but also is a violation of the marketplace of ideas that is a bedrock principle of American life. 

This action will not be, should not be, and cannot be tolerated inside the 21st Senate District, this state, or this nation. There is no place for such hate, censorship, or intimidation in Beachwood, nor this country.”

The Office of Senator Kent Smith (D-Euclid)

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Libraries allow you to check out 100 books? Last time I used my card to check out books there was a limit to 10., which seemed plenty to me.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 15 hours ago

Depending on what we’re researching on, we sometimes need like various books. Used to have to research all of them while in the library, but now we kinda read everything online. Though we plan on going back to the library again for researching stuff :P

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

I've seen homeschooling moms check out dozens and dozens of kids books at once. Plus you could use multiple cards if you're planning some grand arson demonstration, I guess.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I emailed this library asking them which books they don't expect to be getting back. They told me they couldn’t even release that information but they already are in the process of replacing them. Class act.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

Nice that they took the time to respond. I expect they're getting a lot of offers from people who want to help them replace books.

[–] [email protected] 107 points 2 days ago (3 children)

If your faith and beliefs are so righteous, strong, moral and important ..... you would never need to burn books to make others follow your convictions.

Burning books just goes to show how deranged and unbalanced your beliefs are

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago (2 children)

“Those who want to burn books are either afraid of the ideas contained within the covers or they haven’t the courage to stand up for the views which they themselves profess to hold.”

-Tommy Douglas

Speech, Saskatchewan Legislature, February 17, 1954.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 21 hours ago

Tommy Douglas, truly a great man ... who led the movement that made it possible for public health care in Canada.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 23 hours ago

What if it's shitty Catholic bibles that flanderise and flanderise unti it's all twisted to serve their own corrupt projection?

[–] [email protected] 38 points 2 days ago

God is on their side, but for some reason He can only accomplish His goals by having humans act on His behalf. By coincidence, the same would be true if there were no God at all.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago

I wouldn't burn a copy of Mein Kampf, unless that's the only political point of view in the library. I'm sure that library had plenty of right-wing books and were much more popular.

[–] [email protected] 50 points 2 days ago

The book burners are always the good guys, right?

[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

On Monday, Heights Christian Church, which describes itself as “open to and affirming of all people, celebrating and finding strength in our diversity + affirming the dignity + worth of every person,” hosted an Action and Press Conference “against this hateful act.”

HCC said the event joins forces with Interfaith Group Against Hate to condemn the action.

Besides condemning the action, IGAH will be promoting support for our libraries. We will also be presenting a plan of action that will include partnering with local bookshops to purchase books, as well as community readings and discussion on topics that promote diversity and free speech. Heights Christian Church

Honestly, pretty good response from the community and church.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

Hopefully they charge him the value of each of the 100 books on top of whatever criminal charges he would get for damaging library property. That should be over $1,000 just because of the sheer amount of books.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 days ago

1000 dollars? He'll be a gofund me millionaire by the end of the month.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Hm, I would have said it's not arson if he did it on his own property in a safe manner. But I also don't know if the definition of arson includes any burning of others' property without permission, even if you were allowed to bring the property somewhere where you're allowed to start fires...

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

That, and every replaced book should have a big dedication inside, saying something like "purchased with a generous donation of Mr [this twit's name]"

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

See, here's where I disagree:

Unless there is a clarifying statement about his ass-backward mentality following the dedication, the snark will be lost to time and only the "generous donation" will remain.

I have a similar (if smaller) beef with Carnegie libraries that are just PR washing of an oligarch. His crimes are remembered in spite of his donations only because he was memorable outside of them.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 2 days ago

Yes, burning books, always a deed fondly remembered by history.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Make him pay for new books, add a juicy fine to it so the library can add a new wing, an then put him behind bars for hate crimes.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I bet he'll get a GoFundMe up and running in no time to get supported by a bunch of other whackjobs.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 21 hours ago

The library getting a new wing for free and a bunch of morons parting ways with their money sounds pretty great to me, if it happened.

They can even name the new LGBT/Jewish/black history book wing in his honor from his "generous donation" to the library, lol.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Maybe the damages should include all the money collected in this or similar ways.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 days ago

Just following the Nazi doctrine to the book...

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Anybody have 100 bibles I can borrow? You'll thank me later.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 15 hours ago

Check your local motel, they're filled with them.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 days ago (1 children)

"The man is already polling at 40% approval among GOP voters."

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 days ago

He's on the short list for the head slot at the Library of Congress.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Book burning is... Not what it used to be.

It's purely symbolic.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

ln general book burning is symbolic since books are relatively cheap and plentiful.

However it’s not so symbolic when you’re destroying a library’s property, potentially trying to not only deprive patrons of knowledge but to instill fear and repression upon both the library and its patrons.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

After this he joined DOGI and went to the Library of Congress.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

As long as the fines he is now due cover the cost of rebuying brand new copies, I thank him for his donation.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago (2 children)

What library lets you check out 100 books at one time? Also was there no red flags, when he was checking out these specific books? I hope he banned from all libraries and book stores for life. Mother fucker should get prison time as well.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

The main hope of a library is that people will have access to the materials they need and not get blocked by arbitrary low checkout limits. The limit is mostly just to keep one smart ass from checking out over half the library. If you have a smaller library, it may make sense to have a smaller checkout limit. As one who works at a library with a max checkout of 100 items, very few people ever check out that many items and the ones who do are usually super homeschooler’s who use a ton of children’s books in their curriculums. That or people who are working on a very large music collection. Most libraries also use self check units, so staff may not even know if someone is pushing their limit. As long as the books come back and in one piece, they also don’t usually care as increased circulation can actually help library funding.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

Yeah, I guess they thought he was doing a big research project on diversity lol. Banned from libraries, sure obviously. Banned from book stores? Why? He's good business! If I owned a book store I'd gladly sell him 100 books, and 100 more when he's done.

I disagree with his views, and he definitely should pay for every book he burned, but I'll defend to the death the right to burn things in protest.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Maybe we can deport them to El Salvador?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 days ago

trump will probably try to appoint him to run the library of congress.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago

Stupid teabaggers, they're absolutely deranged

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

And so I assume the library will send the sketchiest bailiffs they can find to collect their fines?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

This nation was founded on the right to free speech and open expression

By literal slavers.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

Anybody got a line on this dude's identity?

[–] [email protected] -1 points 2 days ago

Sucking up to orange Shitler