Barnes & Noble Kicks Out Right-Wing Troll for Harassing LGBTQ+ Book Lovers

An Arizona Barnes & Noble kicked out a right-wing extremist troll for his anti-LGBTQ+ behavior after he filmed himself harassing people looking at a display of LGBTQ-inclusive books.

Ethan Schmidt-Crockett, 24, filmed himself harassing people browsing the LGBTQ+ books section at an unidentified Barnes & Noble store in Arizona, the Daily Mail reports.

On Monday, Schmidt-Crockett and an unidentified companion harassed and mocked customers at the store.

Schmidt-Crockett is seen entering a store and asking an employee if the store has a gay Pride section for children in a video posted to Reddit. As Schmidt walks over to the Pride section devoid of children’s books, he mutters something about gay people.

“Just really tempted to just kick it down, man,” he remarks to his companion, adding that this display is a shrine to satan.

Seeking to ruffle feathers, the pair approaches the display.

“Here’s the gay loser Pride section,” he gestures. The two people peering at the books on the table suddenly look up. They turn and walked away.

In the video, Schmidt is told to leave the premises by Ryan, the store manager.

Schmidt-Crockett continues to rant as he approaches a young couple and asks them if they’ve been vaccinated. In response to Schmidt-Crockett’s question, the pair tentatively reply in the affirmative, but he dismisses them and mocks them for being vaccinated.

It is well known that Schmidt-Corckett is an anti-mask science denier.

Identifying Schmidt-Crockett’s by name, the manager rushes over.

“I am going to have to ask you to leave, so if you would,” he motions toward the door.

Schmidt-Crockett says, “What’s wrong? What’s wrong? You don’t like Ethan Schmidt? We exposed all your woke s**t!”

The manager does seem to have a problem with that: "That's fine," the manager tells Schmidt-Crockett.

As Schmidt-Crockett leaves the store, his companion follows him.

Schmidt-Crockett often appears in videos online arguing with supporters of policies he dislikes. For example, in Mesa-based private businesses that required masks, he recorded himself harassing store employees as the COVID-19 pandemic advanced.

Earlier this year, a judge sentenced Schmidt-Crockett to three years probation and a suspended jail term of 60 days for harassing a wig store for cancer patients. During an argument with a store clerk in February, he claimed the books showed racism against whites by featuring Black authors and Black history.

In August, he said, “We need to quarantine and isolate all the folks of the LGBT community. We need to find all of them. We need to hunt them down and put them into isolation camps for their own protection.”