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NationHome / 24-Hour News / Nation  

 


Published: Oct 16, 2005
Modified: Oct 17, 2005 7:25 AM
Toledo mayor: Neo-Nazis had right to march


AP Photo/J.D. Pooley

Police use tear gas against a group of protestors Saturday, Oct. 15, 2005, in Toledo, Ohio.

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) - The city's mayor says there was nothing he could do to stop a white supremacist group from marching along the sidewalks of a racially mixed neighborhood, a demonstration that triggered violence.

A melee broke out Saturday when protesters confronted members of the National Socialist Movement who had gathered at a city park.

"They do have a right to walk on the Toledo sidewalks," Mayor Jack Ford said Sunday.

An angry mob, some of them gang members, threw baseball-sized rocks at police, vandalized vehicles and stores, and set fire to a neighborhood bar. More than 100 people were arrested and one officer was seriously injured.

Much of the anger boiled over because residents were upset that city leaders allowed about a dozen white supremacists to walk through the neighborhood and shout insults.

The march was called off after rioting started.

"They don't have the right to bring hate to my front yard," said Terrance Anderson, who lives near the bar that was destroyed. Three other businesses were looted or damaged.

Others said the neo-Nazis had the right to march. "Too bad the people couldn't ignore them," said Dee Huntley.

Police arrested 114 people on charges including assault, vandalism, failure to obey police, failure to disperse and overnight curfew violations.

Twelve police officers were injured, including one who suffered a concussion when a brick came through a side window of her cruiser and hit her in the head.

The disturbances were confined to a 1-square-mile area, police said. At one point, the crowd grew to about 600 people.

The area was calm Sunday as a police helicopter hovered above and police cars navigated the streets. Nearly all of the violence ended by late afternoon Saturday, and police had set an evening curfew for the city through Monday morning.

Police Chief Mike Navarre said the riots escalated because members of the National Socialist Movement took their protest to the neighborhood, which is predominantly black, instead of a neutral place.

"If this march had occurred in downtown Toledo, we wouldn't have had the unrest," he said.

A spokesman for the National Socialist Movement blamed police for losing control of the situation.

Police began receiving word midweek from officers on the street that gangs were going to descend on the neighborhood, the police chief said.

"We knew during the preparation that it was going to be a tremendous challenge," Navarre said. "Anyone who would accuse us of being underprepared I would take exception with that."

However, he said the protest lasted longer and was more intense than expected.

The neo-Nazi group came to the city, which relies heavily on the auto industry and has high unemployment in minority neighborhoods, because of a dispute between neighbors, one white and the other black.

"This is not a police problem," Navarre said. "This is a social problem."





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