Riot-shaken Toledo looks hard at causes - 10/19/05
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Wednesday, October 19, 2005

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J.D. Pooley / Associated Press

An "Erase the Hate" sign reflects the mood of some citizens, weary of the violence that tore through a Toledo neighborhood Saturday. Others are angry the neighborhood is being portrayed as divisive.

Riot-shaken Toledo looks hard at causes

Police say feud between two neighbors prompted neo-Nazis' march plans and the violent protests.

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TOLEDO, Ohio -- A feud between neighbors -- one white, one black -- over a dented car and kids trampling on a yard simmered all summer, eventually touching off a riot that has shaken this blue-collar city.

The violence that erupted Saturday over an aborted white supremacist march has moved leaders in a community marred by race riots in the 1960s to once again talk about race relations and re-examine efforts to combat gangs.

"This is something that's going to be with us for a while," Mayor Jack Ford said Monday.

Police say the squabble between the two neighbors was the catalyst for the sidewalk march planned by the National Socialist Movement. The neo-Nazi group said it wanted to draw attention to gangs and crime in the neighborhood, once a thriving Polish community that is now a mix of whites, blacks and Hispanics.

A mob that included rival gang members turned out Saturday to prote7st the supremacist group. But when the march was called off, they turned their anger toward police who they thought were protecting the neo-Nazis.

Protesters looted and burned a corner bar, smashed the windows of a gas station and tossed rocks and bricks at police. Twelve officers were injured and 114 people were arrested.

The area known as Polish Village once was the heart and political center of Ohio's fourth-largest city, though it's hard now to find a place that serves kielbasa and pierogis.

Jimmy Carter once dropped in during his presidential run, stopping at Jim & Lou's Bar, the tavern that rioters torched. "It was an institution," said Keith Wilkowski, a prominent local Democrat who grew up down the street.

Many longtime residents have died or moved out, leaving behind an area that is poorer and more diverse. High-paying factory jobs in the auto and glass industries have dwindled in the Lake Erie city that is about 50 miles south of Detroit.

Tom Szych, 35, who is white and Polish, is one of the holdouts. Police say it was his complaints about a neighbor and her children that drew the interest of the neo-Nazis.

Szych denied that his family contacted the group. He said he went to police because the children next door threw garbage into his yard and one broke into his house. He also told police he was being harassed by gang members.

"Just because the kids are African-American doesn't mean I'm a racist," he said while taking a break from picking glass bits out of his living room carpet. Rioters broke out four windows and a storm door.

"They make it like it's a black-white thing and it's not," he said.

His neighbor, Amelia Gray, disputed Szych's account. "There's no gangs around here," she said. "It's just blacks who he doesn't want here. He wants his old Polish neighborhood back."

Police Chief Mike Navarre said officers found nothing to verify Szych's complaints.

Others are angry the neighborhood is being portrayed as divisive.

"We have learned to respect each other out here," said Jean Overton, who organizes a citizens BlockWatch group. "I resent them drawing a spotlight on a neighborhood that has been integrated longer than most others in the city."

About a quarter of the city's 300,000 residents are black, although most live in the central city.

The mayor has asked ministers, community leaders and his staff to help the city recover by leading an examination of issues including race and the relations between residents and police officers.

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