Article published October 16, 2005
Violence in Toledo: What happened, when it happened
8:45 a.m.: Toledo Police Chief Mike Navarre talks with about 40 counter-demonstrators in a parking lot of Manhattan Plaza in North Toledo, about five blocks from the site of a planned neo-Nazi march. “You can pretty much go where you want,” the chief tells the protesters. “Just try not to obstruct anybody. It’s too nice a day to end up in jail.”
9:40 a.m.: Chief Navarre drives around the neighborhood and everything is quiet, with “Erase the Hate” signs displayed on many front lawns.
10:05 a.m.: A police dispatcher reports gang members wearing colors gathering along Stickney, Central, and Ketcham avenues. “This is not going to be pretty,” Chief Navarre predicts. “I’m starting to get a pretty bad feeling.”
11 a.m.: About a dozen neo-Nazis in uniform gather at the east side of Woodward High School yelling, “White pride, not hate” and racial insults. Across the street, a growing crowd of people yells back as they held signs like “No Nazi Hate” and “Fight Racism, Down With Nazis.” Police were stationed near the neo-Nazis to protect them from the crowd.
11:20 a.m.: A line of about 40 more Toledo police officers makes its way to the neo-Nazis to surround them in preparation for the march.
11:25 a.m.: Some police officers begin arming themselves with plastic shields.
11:35 a.m.: Protesters throw rocks at the neo-Nazis and mounted police patrols. Police make the first arrest involving the protest.
11:45 a.m.: After surrounding the neo-Nazis, numbering about 15, police and the marchers walk to Woodrow Wilson Park, where a wall of police stands between the neo-Nazis and members of the media gathered for a press conference.
11:50 a.m.: Bill White, a spokesman for the National Socialist Movement — which calls itself “America’s Nazi Party” — complains that police are preventing 40 more of his members from joining them. Police say those members arrived late, after the area was secured.
11:55 a.m.: The first of countless tear gas canisters are fired by police at crowds along Mulberry. Mobs swarm Bronson Avenue, throwing bricks and rocks through windows and hitting several people. John Szych runs into a back room of his house and emerges with a handgun. He fires six warning shots. “You want more?” he yells.
11:57 a.m.: As angry crowds along Stickney begin throwing bricks and rocks at vehicles, police decide to cancel the march out of fear that the situation could get out of control. Screaming “censorship” and making the Nazi salute, the neo-Nazis eventually agree to get into their cars and drive away.
12:20 p.m.: The neo-Nazis are gone from the North Toledo area by now, but violence begins to intensify. Crowds of several hundred people begin gathering at the intersection of Central and Mulberry.
12:25 p.m.: The Central and Mulberry mobs begin throwing rocks. Police respond by launching tear gas canisters.
12:30 p.m.: An endless stream of vehicles, including a local TV truck, is pelted with bricks and rocks by mobs. At least one Toledo police sport utility vehicle is seen driving through the neighborhood with its windshield and other windows smashed.
12:35 p.m.: The standoff between police and rioters intensifies on Mulberry. Thirty or more vehicles have their windows smashed by rioters at Central and Mulberry.
12:40 p.m.: Police yell through megaphones, asking the crowd to disperse or face arrest.
1:15 p.m.: Chief Navarre declares the “worst is over” and praises his officers’ restraint.
1:30 p.m.: More tear gas is fired at the crowd along Mulberry near Central. Police, stationed at the intersection of Streicher Street and Mulberry, begin yelling to one another that the crowd is getting ready to rush them. They move several patrol cars back to prevent them from getting their windows smashed. “Stay together! Don’t get separated!” police yell to each other.
1:35 p.m.: An ambulance is pelted by a barrage of rocks and bricks, and the windshield is smashed.
2 p.m.: Looters break windows and steal items at American Petroleum convenience store at Stickney Avenue and East Central. Police again launch tear gas at the crowd at Central and Mulberry.
2:15 p.m.: Mayor Jack Ford arrives at Mulberry near Wilson Park. Mayor Ford, Fire Chief Mike Bell, and the Rev. Mansour Bey from the First Church of God in Toledo walk down Mulberry toward Central. Mr. Ford, his head down, tells a reporter that he hopes to disperse the crowd without more violence erupting. With a megaphone, Chief Bell tries to talk to the crowd, numbering about 300 to 400. “Listen up! The Nazis have been gone two hours!” Mayor Ford also tries to talk to the crowd through the megaphone, explaining that the neo-Nazi group had a constitutional right to march. The crowd is angered by that explanation. Mayor Ford at times hands the bullhorn to a reputed gang leader, who tries to calm people down while the mob is screaming at the mayor and others.
2:50 p.m.: Looters break into Jim & Lou’s Bar, at 3032 Mulberry, steal liquor, destroy an upstairs apartment, and set it on fire.
2:55 p.m.: Looters emerge from a building, believed to be a bar, at Central and Mulberry, only 20 yards from where Mayor Ford, Chief Bell, and Mr. Bey are addressing the crowd. Shots are heard. Reports quickly circulate through the crowd that looters discovered guns in the establishment. Mayor Ford, Chief Bell, and Mr. Bey begin walking back on Mulberry toward Woodrow Wilson Park, shaking their heads in disgust and acknowledging their frustration.
3 p.m.: Chief Bell heads back to the police command post. “They said they’d disperse if the police left,” he explains, then heads back toward the crowd at Mulberry and Central.
3:15 p.m.: Smoke can be seen pouring from the looted bar. Chief Bell walks back to the police. “No negotiating. We’re done,” he says. Police begin to move in to secure the area so that fire trucks can get to the building.
3:20 p.m.: Two fire trucks arrive behind police crews on Mulberry near Streicher. Many of the firefighters are wearing bulletproof vests. A black man, Sir Boston, 53, of Central Avenue, runs toward the police officers and pleads with them not to let the fire trucks in for their own safety just yet. He warns that five gangs have control of the Central and Mulberry intersection, and that firefighters are sure to be assaulted if they attempt to put out the blaze. Police move in, anyway, now determined to disperse the crowd with tear gas and a show of force.
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