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.
If you haven’t clicked through, the full statement from Kent Smith is great.
“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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
“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.
What if it’s shitty Catholic bibles that flanderise and flanderise unti it’s all twisted to serve their own corrupt projection?
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.
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.
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.
After this he joined DOGI and went to the Library of Congress.
Dogi
“The fuck did I do?”
Anybody have 100 bibles I can borrow? You’ll thank me later.
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.
1000 dollars? He’ll be a gofund me millionaire by the end of the month.
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]”
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.
Arson, too please.
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…
Book burning is… Not what it used to be.
It’s purely symbolic.
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.
The book burners are always the good guys, right?
Just following the Nazi doctrine to the book…
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.
I bet he’ll get a GoFundMe up and running in no time to get supported by a bunch of other whackjobs.
Maybe the damages should include all the money collected in this or similar ways.
Yes, burning books, always a deed fondly remembered by history.
“The man is already polling at 40% approval among GOP voters.”
He’s on the short list for the head slot at the Library of Congress.
As long as the fines he is now due cover the cost of rebuying brand new copies, I thank him for his donation.
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.
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.
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.
