Nazi visit ignites violence; 60 arrested as crowds rampage

Luke Shockman:

It started with neo-Nazis, mushroomed into a riot, and left behind a community shaken and wounded.

With violence not seen in Toledo since the race riots of the 1960s, crowds sometimes numbering more than 500 yesterday threw rocks, bottles, and bricks at law enforcement officials. Police responded with clouds of tear gas and wooden “knee-knocker” pellets.

At its ugliest, looters struck at least four businesses, including Jim and Lou’s bar at 3032 Mulberry St., which they set on fire. There were assaults on bystanders and vandalism with damages in the tens of thousands of dollars, including attacks on emergency and media vehicles. Police said overtime costs could easily exceed $100,000.

Police arrested at least 60 people — 43 adults and 17 juveniles — primarily for aggravated rioting, assault, and vandalism. Some were gang members, police and Mayor Jack Ford said.

One police officer was treated for a head injury after she was hit in the head with a stone. A firefighter paramedic was also treated. Numerous other officers sustained minor injuries when struck by objects. There were no official reports of injuries to citizens, but some people were overcome by tear gas and at least two Blade photographers were assaulted.

The city’s image also took a beating, as news helicopters circled overhead and images of looting and burning in Toledo were broadcast across the country.

Police Chief Mike Navarre didn’t mince words last night about what happened in his city.

“You have cars burning and stores being looted and disregard for law enforcement where they can’t do their job without taking rocks and bottles,” he said. “Officers are going to the hospital because they’re getting their heads hit with a rock. I’d call that a riot.”

The area around Central and Mulberry near Woodward High School erupted into violence after crowds in the predominantly black neighborhood were angry about a planned neo-Nazi march. Even though police canceled the march by the National Socialist Movement before it began, it wasn’t enough to stop the violence.

The Nazi march, scheduled to start at about noon, was canceled before it started due to the violence. By the time it was over yesterday — and authorities are still nervous about more violence — parts of North Toledo were strewn with shattered glass, broken bricks, and a city left wondering how it all happened.

“It’s a sad day for Toledo,” said Joe Walter, city safety director.
Last night, police said the situation had calmed down, but the violence and its aftershocks had already rippled through the city.

Mr. Ford instituted an 8 p.m. curfew last night, and said there would also be an 8 p.m. curfew tonight.

The local population seems to have used the Nazi march as an excuse to engage in lawlessness:

At around 2:30 p.m., Mayor Ford, Mr Walter, Toledo Fire Chief Mike Bell, and the Rev. Mansour Bey, associate pastor of First Church of God, approached a crowd of about 600 people at the intersection of Mulberry and Central in an attempt to calm the crowd.

It didn’t work.

Using a megaphone to make themselves heard over the shouts from the crowd, Mr. Ford and Mr. Bell tried to explain that the Nazis had left hours ago.

“I’ve sat here, and for the last couple of hours, we have tore up our own neighborhood ... The Nazis are gone,” Mr. Bell shouted.

“Why were they allowed to be here? That’s what I want to know,” screamed back one man.

Many members of the crowd yelled that the Nazis should never have been able to march in the first place.

Mayor Ford said he heard one person in the crowd say to him: “I ought to shoot you.”

As the officials talked with the crowd, looters just across the intersection broke into Jim and Lou’s Bar and began stealing merchandise.

At one point, Mr. Bell appeared to be successful in negotiating. He approached a crowd of police officers gathered a couple of blocks away and announced that the crowd “said they’d disperse if the police left.”

He returned to the intersection, but someone had set Jim and Lou’s bar on fire.

Walking back toward the police, Chief Bell just shook his head.
“No negotiating. We’re done,” he said. “They set the building on fire.”

Unable to kick a side door of the bar open, one rioter had used a gun to shoot the lock open. The stairway inside led to the upstairs apartment. Rioters started throwing furniture and appliances and book shelves from the apartment’s windows before setting it on fire.

They chanted and waved their hands outside as the blaze roared through the upstairs apartment.

“This is stupid,” said O’Shai Crenshaw, 27, who lives on St. John Avenue. “Why burn this building? That building isn’t [owned by] the police or the Nazis. This doesn’t make any sense.”

Police began to move toward Central and Mulberry, firing tear gas, and pushing the crowd back and making arrests.

Sir Boston, 53, of Central Avenue, pleaded with police not to let firefighters down to that intersection just yet.

“Don’t let them go down there. They’ll brick em,” Mr. Boston said. He warned them that five gangs had taken control of the intersection.

“This is crazy,” he said as he saw police move in along Mulberry. Firefighters followed close behind, many in bullet-proof vests.

WHAT HAPPENED IN TOLEDO?

Toledo Mayor: Neo-Nazis Had Right to March

Holy Toledo! Gang and Crime Stats Higher Than National Average