A man applied for a card from the Beachwood Library and, over two visits, withdrew 100 books. He later posted two videos, one in which he burned all of the books.

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.

  • frezik@midwest.social
    10·
    20 hours ago

    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.