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http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs...GNEWS/51015023

Violence in North Toledo after Nazi march canceled; mayor declares curfew
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Residents gather on Stickney Avenue near Woodward High School.
( THE BLADE/ALLAN DETRICH )
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BLADE STAFF

Mayor Jack Ford declared a state of emergency this afternoon following a violent uprising in North Toledo that erupted following an aborted march by a group of Nazis.

He issued a citywide curfew starting at 8 p.m. tonight, tomorrow, and possibly Monday.

Mr. Ford said those protesting were mainly male gang members in their 20s. He said the protests were not triggered by race relations but by gang members with grievances.

"We went to talk to them. Most of them were gang members in full colors," the mayor said. "Their anger was based on some long-standing things but also that we had allowed the [Nazi] walk to occur in the first place."

North Toledo descended into chaos for several hours this afternoon after angry crowds who turned out to protest a planned march by a small group of National Socialist Movement calling themselves "America’s Nazi Party" erupted into violence.

A mob of at least 500 people threw bricks and rocks at police and vehicles, looted a bar at Central and Mulberry and started it on fire, and overturned a car at a North Toledo gas station and burned it.

There were reports of minor injuries to police and numerous arrests.

The violence started around noon as police were getting ready to escort about 15 Nazis on a march that was supposed to start at Wilson Park and continue on Mulberry Street and Bronson and Dexter Avenues, ending up back at the park.

Because of the violence - which broke out along Stickney Avenue away from the Nazis gathered in the park - police cancelled the march and told the Nazis to leave, which they did.

The violence began dying down around 4:30 p.m., according to Lt.
Frank Ramirez of the Toledo Police Department. But Mr. Ramizez said it was touch-and-go for several hours, and he was concerned about possible violence tonight.

"Originally, it was just crowd control. Then it went out of control,"
he said. "We just had to scramble" to bring in more police officers to back up the already beefed up presence of 150 officers on hand for the Nazi march.

"It was a mob. Obviously, the unexpected happened," Mr. Ramirez said.

He estimated at least 60 percent of Toledo’s police force was on duty just in the North Toledo area because of the violence, and the Lucas County sheriff’s office also was on hand.

Toledo Police chief Mike Navarre praised his officers, saying they "performed remarkably" and showed a lot of restraint. Before sending in police in force to make arrests at around 3:30 p.m., Mayor Ford and Toledo Fire Department chief Mike Bell approached the mob and attempted to negotiate a compromise. But as they talked, and as the crowd yelled and screamed at them, looters broke into the bar at Central and Mulberry and began taking merchandise.

Mr. Bell eventually began walking back toward a large group of police shaking his head.

"No more negotiating," he said. "We’re done. They just set a building on fire."

Chief Navarre said there were upwards of several dozen arrests made but he did not have exact numbers. He added that some police officers and fire fighters were injured in the melee but their injuries were not serious.

The chief said police could have arrested hundreds of people who were involved in incidents of looting, burning businesses, and throwing rocks.



What a way to make national news. First I would like to say, where the hell were the national guard? Did they (city officials) think there was not going to be violence? In the last 2 days, the media had been talking about this, but no one thought there would be violence. I swear, people are too short sighted. Second, this group that came, was from Virginia, they came to support the "whites" in the gang area, they knew what they were doing. They didn't even start the march, before the violence started. Now, they're gone, and the violence was extreme. I think they can say, mission accomplished. What a world we live in...

ARauckhorst

yeah, this annoyed me all day cutting into the football games!

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Siege

Umm. Maybe it's just me. But allowing a Nazi group to march and not expect violence is more than a little short sighted.

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hulk

Nobody was stopping the protests. If the Nazis get to march then everyone else gets to come out and yell abuse at them. When they started torching buildings, well, some fuckwits will use anything as an excuse to break shit.

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iccky

I remember when the Klan used to rally in Ann Arbor. The only place in town they could do it was on the roof of city hall. Hundreds of cops. Two 30 ft. chain link fences, one around the city hall grounds and one surrounding a designated counter-protest area that you had to be searched to get into. Two years the counter-protest had to be dispurdsed with tear gas. One other year, despite the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent by the city, the wife of the main klansman got hit by a brick and they sued.

All so 8 klansmen could stand around in their hoods on top of city hall. But given this I guess it's a good thing they took all these precautions.

MooseMan3000

Um, actually, that's irrelevant. They did expect a violent reaction. That's why the police were there to escort them.

What your response seems to actually say is that the Nazis shouldn't have been allowed to march. It's their Constitutional right to peaceable assembly. They didn't provoke anyone, they didn't kill any Jews, they didn't light any American flags on fire. They just marched. How does that justify violence?



As a side note, this sort of incident is exactly why my opinion stays firm in the New Orleans cop thread. Whenever people are in a mob, they get stupid and violent. That doesn't make it OK. I support any means necessary to stop violent riots, because when rioting is happening, I am suddenly endangered.

In case you didn't read it, the rioters started by throwing rocks. At some point, that escalated to breaking windows, flipping a car and lighting it on fire (at a gas station mind you... bunch of rocket scientists they must have been), and setting a building on fire. I think the cops should have used a lot less restraint and a lot more "shooting people in the head."


And yes, I understand that would have just escalated the situation. Of course the police can't actually kill the rioters. But the fact is this riot was not the fault of the Nazis, nor was it the fault of the police. It was the fault of the rioters, and every single one of them should pay the price.

VitaminH

I'm going to point something potentially sensitive out. Keep in mind after my post that I am sort of playing the devil's advocate and IN NO WAY SIDE WITH THE NAZI's AT ALL. They are idiots as far as I am concerned.

Now, what this article didn't directly point out, but another at CNN did, is that this particular Nazi march was against "black crime". Now the march was cancled because of the protests. I wasn't there, and the news reports I've seen aren't real specific on the demographics of the protesters, but I can guess, since the march was against "black crime" that a large number of the protesters were of African descent. So, how is starting a violent riot going to help things? It's not. I fully agree with the above posts that people in mobs do stupid things. Now, regardless of whether or not the mob was actually made up of a majority of African-Americans, the nazi's are going to see it as that way, and this will merely reinforce their point. You can bet they're sitting in their houses right now saying "see, we wanted to stop black crime and look at all these blacks that showed up and commited crime". Keep in mind that I DONT AGREE WITH THAT AT ALL. Thus, nothing has changed, the nazis continue to think they are right in their racist, close-minded judgments, and none of them see the proverbial light so to speak.

This may be very well what they wanted, show up and get people all worked up so violence happens and they can sit there and say "we didn't do anything it was those darn [insert any non-nazi group of people here]." That's another reason they're horribly, horribly wrong, because if they'd just stop and think, they'd realize the whole thing wouldn't have happened if they hadn't shown up and gotten people riled up in the first place.

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snowy

People have the right to peaceably assemble.

That said...this kind of violence would've never gone down in the PacNW...Seattle learned the hard way from the WTO riots some years ago. Now, any time anyone is thinking about gathering for protests (anti-war, etc) or other large gatherings, Seattle brings out the cops in full riot gear.

No joke.

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vermin

Pretty sad when the Nazis are more peace-loving than the anti-Nazis.

Maybe there's something to this "being a Nazi". I wonder if I should investigate membership requirements/benefits? I am, after all, of German descent and, more or less, peace-loving.

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Siege

I didn't say they weren't allowed to march, and yes I know that there were policeman there. My point is, that if a group of Nazi's are going to march, i'd be VERY surprised if violence didn't occur. This doesn't just go for Nazi's. Riots happen in the stupidest places at the most random times. All it takes is a few people to get riled up, and shit happens.

Maybe it's just me, but I think this is one of those times when it was pretty obvious that shit was going to happen.

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"Your name's Geek? Do you know the origin of the term? A geek is someone who bites the heads off chickens at a circus. I would never let you suck my dick with a name like Geek"

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Elphaba

Saw the very same situation in Dallas. The protesters outnumbered the Klan 10 to one and became the rowdy bunch. The Klan got what they wanted, though; lots of press and air time for a pathetic little handful of people. Just once, I would love to see the Klan stage a rally and no one shows up.

ratbastid

Holy Toledo!

I apologize. It had to be said.

You know, violence and high emotion are some of the things that occasionally have to be dealt with if you're going to have a society based on free speech. Those nazis have every right to speak their piece, as do the people who oppose them. I'd say that the right to free speech ends with the first person to throw a punch, but if you're going to be a country that stands for individual freedoms like that, you're going to have this sort of thing happen.

RogueHunter65

The reason why groups like these have marches is for people to show up and their organization to get air time. The mayor of Toledo, Jack Ford, publicly stated that the spokes person of the Neo-Nazi group, Mr. White, did not have the march on the basis of what he called good faith. The mayor thinks that the Neo-Nazis wanted this reaction and I would have to agree.

I am not surprised that a riot occured because people like to riot.

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jwoody

It's all a bit... 80's, isn't it?

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