Riot-hit Liverpool library is back - and it's better than ever!

December 12, 2024 6:41 AM

"We will NOT let hate win" (SLYouTube). Four months ago, Spellow library was wrecked by a bunch of idiot racist thugs. The community there responded magnificently.
posted by Paul Slade (9 comments total)

"This wasn't just a library."

WILL JOURNALISTS FUCKING STOP THIS SHIT PLEASE.

All the things subsequently mentioned are totally things libraries have offered for YONKS. Where did journalism get its backward dated notion of what a library is and when are they going to fix it?!

Liverpool: you're way better than your journalists, apparently. Spellow Library is lovely.
posted by humbug at 6:46 AM on December 12 [8 favorites]

To be fair to the reporter involved, there's quite a widespread misconception in both the US and the UK that nobody uses libraries any more, so who cares if one gets burnt or rebuilt. If she was going to get the attention of causal, unthinking viewers like these and make them understand why libraries matter, what else was she supposed to say?
posted by Paul Slade at 7:05 AM on December 12 [4 favorites]

And this misconception persists in large part because JOURNALISTS KEEP SPOUTING IT AND WILL THEY KINDLY STOP.

There was no need whatever for the "just a library" line. She could equally well have said "At this library, as at any library, patrons could..."
posted by humbug at 7:07 AM on December 12 [6 favorites]

Humbug: that sounds like exactly the kind of thing that you may want to send in a letter to the editor of a given newspaper or the Ombudsman of a radio or tv channel, so they can actually GET the journalists to stop.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:21 AM on December 12 [7 favorites]

I have done, but I'm a bit out of the sphere of influence for this particular newscast. MeFi's own Jessamyn has had some words on the subject as well.
posted by humbug at 8:19 AM on December 12

The riots followed this incident.
posted by BWA at 9:22 AM on December 12

The riots followed this incident, not the killings.
posted by drossdragon at 9:28 AM on December 12 [3 favorites]

We will NOT let hate win.

[looks around, hears Radio Raheem's voice saying: "Hate was kicking MUCH ASS."]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:58 AM on December 12 [1 favorite]

All the things subsequently mentioned are totally things libraries have offered for YONKS.

They're things public libraries have offered for yonks. They're not necessarily routinely offered by lots of other libraries, like university, members', or private libraries. Because most public libraries are more than just libraries, and have been for yonks now.
posted by Dysk at 11:30 PM on December 12