A local church is urging its members to permanently remove books from the Shelby County Public Library by checking them out and never returning them. The books portray gay characters and historical figures or explore LGBTQ+ themes.
Pamela Wilson Federspiel, who has been director of the library in downtown Shelbyville for 34 years, says the action is tantamount to “stealing.”
But three leaders of the Reformation Church of Shelbyville defend what they call an “act of civil disobedience.”
Yeah, so when you take something that isn’t yours and don’t give it back. That’s theft.
Of course religious freaks are going to create their own reality in which theft isn’t theft. They’re pros at creating alternate realities when it benefits them.
These are criminals not only committing theft, but also a hate crime.
Not a hate crime, but they could easily stack on criminal conspiracy and solicitation charges.
I get both sides of this not or is a hate crime but they make a good point that it is a crime motivated by hate of a specific people/group. So while the law doesn’t have hate theft listed, it does make sense people would argue it is a hate crime
I’m sorry, but stealing a book from a library is not a hate crime, although I get the context and your sentiment. I would say that I’m low-key impressed by their sort of shenanigans as I admire civil disobedience.
It makes me feel like the alternative is to crowdsource some funding, buy all these books back, and… hold the thieves accountable by not allowing them to be lent books until paid or returned. Plus the stupid church people amp up library card holder numbers for funding from local taxes!
Stealing books alone isn’t a hate crime.
Targeting specific books because you hate a specific group of people, well maybe there’s no hate crime enhancer for theft. But it’s motivated by hate, it’s a hate crime.
I upvoted this vs. the other comment (yikes). I’m not disagreeing that this is hate motivated and it’s a crime… so yah… technically a “hate crime” but it doesn’t fit the legal definition and yah there should be consequences, but it’s not shooting up a gay bar. My intent wasn’t to minimize the hate, but to discuss how to push back against it for what it is…
“Hate crime” is a specific legal term. While unfortunate, the parent commenter is right; stealing books even when motivated by hate is not legally considered a hate crime.
Under federal law, only actions leading to bodily injury or attempts thereof can qualify as hate crimes.
Under Kentucky law (KRS 532.031), criminal mischief is only considered a hate crime if the amount of damage exceeds $500. While the total cost might exceed that, this is counted on a per-offender basis.
Don’t get me wrong, it definitely should be considered a hate crime and the legislature should change the law to define this action as a hate crime (even if it is a relatively minor one), but under the current law, it isn’t. It’s merely criminal mischief in the second degree.
If I were a prosecutor I would be trying to throw the book at these morons though.
There it is. Thanks for the sanity check. I swear people go off half cocked if you aren’t 100% hive minding. The book theft is absolutely motivated by hatred, intolerance and probably repression against LGBTQ in some misguided attempt to Save the Children TM. I 100% agree they are looking to cause ignorance and indirectly that could lead to a person not getting information that could help them, but it’s not permanent damage and certainly caused no direct harm.
I hear you but there’s not a court in the land that would uphold book theft as a hate crime. And there are some heinous hate crimes that it would minimize by association (think eye rolling). In my town a guy got nearly destroyed by some drunk bar bros. His face was permanently broken up, he quit work at a friend’s place and as far as I know, left the country. That’s real hate with real impact And I could get behind considerjng targeted shit like this as hate-motivated crime, but then we need some sort of impact level and I have a feeling the fundies would turn it around to say they are being “hate crimed” when there’s a pride parade or some other nonsense…
It’s a targeted hate crime against LGBTQ. If you can’t see that, you’re part of the problem.
tl;dr “hate crime” has a legal definition and these actions don’t meet that definition. The definition should probably be updated to include this kind of antisocial behaviour.
Pasting an excerpt from my earlier comment:
Absolute trash response. STEALING A BOOK is NOT A HATE CRIME and you diminish real hate crimes against my LGBTQ friends and family by acting like it is. I am absolutely NOT part of whatever problem you think I am. Did you even read the comment? Nevermind… I dont’ care.
What is their motivation for stealing the library books?
Deyr turning the kids geyyyy!