Police began receiving word midweek that gangs were
going to descend on a neighborhood where a riot
erupted over a planned march by a white supremacist
group.
But someone allowed the march to happen anyways.
Angry about this, the riot broke out Saturday when
protesters confronted members of the National
Socialist Movement who had gathered at a city park.
Rioters threw baseball-sized rocks at police,
vandalized vehicles and stores, and set fire to a
neighborhood bar, authorities said. More than 100
people were arrested and one officer was seriously
injured.
Police said the protest lasted longer and was more
intense than expected.
About two dozen members of the supremacist group,
which calls itself "America's Nazi Party," had
gathered at a city park just before noon Saturday to
march under police protection. After rioting started
the march was called off.
Authorities want to determine why protesters turned
their anger toward police after the Nazi group left,
Lucas County Sheriff James Telb said. Officers wearing
gas masks fired tear gas canisters and flash-bang
devices designed to stun suspects, only to see the
groups reform and resume throwing rocks.
People were "highly angry over the idea that someone
from outside the community could come in and insult
them" in their neighborhood, Mayor Jack Ford said.
Twelve officers were injured, including an officer
riding in her cruiser who suffered a concussion when a
brick came through a side window and hit her in the
head, Lt. Ron Pfeifer said Sunday.
A state of emergency remained in effect through the
weekend. About 200 officers patrolled the neighborhood
overnight, Navarre said, and police reported no
problems. Another overnight curfew was to be in effect
starting at 8 p.m. Sunday.
City officials stressed the disturbances were confined
to a 1-square-mile area. Police arrested 114 people on
charges including assault, vandalism, failure to obey
police, failure to disperse and overnight curfew
violations.
The neighborhood northwest of downtown, full of
tree-lined streets and well-kept brick homes, once was
a thriving Polish community. But within the last
decade it's become home to poorer residents.
A spokesman for the National Socialist Movement blamed
police for losing control of the situation.
WilliAnn Moore, president of the Toledo NAACP chapter,
had said she worried the march would exacerbate an
already tense situation, and urged black youths to
ignore the demonstrators. Local leaders were taking
steps "so this doesn't turn into some kind of race
war," she said.
Only a few people were out Sunday morning raking
leaves, walking dogs in a park or going to church.
"This never should have happened," 80-year-old Ed
Kusina, who has lived in the neighborhood nearly all
his life, said Sunday. "They should have never let
them march here."
Rioters set fire to 86-year-old Louis Ratajski's
neighborhood pub, Jim & Lou's Bar, but he and his
nephew, Terry Rybczynski, escaped the flames.
"I was shaking. I feared for my life," said Rybczynski
said.
Keith White criticized city officials for allowing the
march: "They let them come here and expect this not to
happen?" said White, 29.