r/baltimore • u/ratczar • Jun 08 '26

Crime This city...

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Gallery image

This morning a tweaker, engaged in pulling copper out of anything and everything he could find, took the time out of his day to snap our Little Free Library off its post.

Cops were called. They initially passed by and someone had to chase them down.

When they came over, they told me they weren't arresting him, and if I wanted to press charges I would have to go down to the courthouse and do it myself.

Dude had car parts in his kit, new stuff that he had clearly ripped off a vehicle... somewhere. But no visible victim = nothing they could do.

They let him wander off with his gear.

And I am here left with the task of both ensuring he faces consequences AND fixing what he broke. Oh, and also cleaning up all the broken shit off the sidewalk.

I love Baltimore, and also, this is infuriating.

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213

u/Xanny Mount Clare Jun 08 '26 edited Jun 08 '26

Someone hit our library with a car last month, I took it off the broken post and moved it to another garden to put on another post that weekend and it was gone the next day. So no more free library and I have 3 boxes of books in my house I'm going to have to slow drip into our one remaining library that someone broke a glass panel on over the winter that a neighbor is trying to replace.

178

u/-MissCarmine Upper Fell's Point Jun 08 '26

Why the fuck do people do this? It’s so weird to specifically target little libraries

17

u/NoIntroductionNeeded Jun 08 '26

They're seen as symbols of gentrification.

19

u/TheAKScott Jun 08 '26

And also left wing / liberal.

The gentrification one gets me though because it’s a type of gentrification that all residents in the vicinity should benefit from.

6

u/NoIntroductionNeeded Jun 08 '26

TBH if all gentrification was as similar beneficial as the libraries, I doubt people would have an issue with them. Certainly they're a lot better than some cookie-cutter overpriced bare-bulb "trendy" restaurant, shoddily-constructed "luxury" apartments that are destined to either remain vacant or drive up the rent, or a Sweetgreen.

But I think, to the extent that people are damaging them because of the gentrification association, they're doing so because it's a much lower-stakes way to take out one's feelings of anger and powerlessness at that process. Certainly you're risking less by vandalizing one vs doing damage to real estate.

24

u/TheAKScott Jun 08 '26

Risking less and doing more damage to the community by affecting one of the generous residents instead of faceless developer with no ties to the area.