Property owners and volunteers began cleaning up the broken glass scattered throughout Toledo’s central business district on Sunday following protests the night before over the death of a black man, George Floyd, in Minneapolis while in police custody.
Meanwhile, participants in Saturday’s protest and city officials reviewed the police handling of the protest and its aftermath — and whether to gird for renewed protests.
Manuel Parish thought about joining protests Saturday in downtown Toledo. He too is angry about the death of Mr. Floyd while in the custody of Minneapolis police and wanted to make a stand with his fellow Toledoans against police violence against minority communities.
He didn’t think protests would turn violent, but ultimately decided it was best to stay home with his wife and children.
But as evening came, he followed social media accounts showing video of Saturday’s clashes with Toledo police, windows being shattered in downtown buildings, and other acts of vandalism of area buildings.
At that, Mr. Parish decided he would act, and on Sunday morning, he arrived downtown with a broom in hand. Others he didn’t know arrived with the same idea and, together, got to work — starting at Adams and Superior streets — sweeping glass and picking up the pieces left littered on the sidewalks and streets by protesters.
“When I saw the [protest] moving downtown, I honestly thought Toledo would be an example,” he said. “Unfortunately, that was not the case. Fortunately, there wasn’t mass, mass destruction, but with a handful of people, we can get it back to where we were.”
Further up the street, loud sounds of heavy glass being swept across the sidewalk could be heard as workers prepared to board over broken windows at Plate One on the ground floor of the Ohio Building, 420 Madison Ave. The business is owned by Sandy Spang, a former city council member who is now the city’s commissioner of business services.
Other businesses nearby appeared mostly untouched, but Plate One was not so fortunate after at least five large windows were left broken following Saturday’s protest. Inside, Ms. Spang could be seen among the other workers Sunday — broom in hand sweeping the floor inside of the coffee shop. She declined to comment on the damage by protesters.
Desi Newell, who had joined Mr. Parish’s cleanup efforts earlier that morning, said he felt for business owners such as Ms. Spang.
“What happened to Mr. Floyd should not have happened. But we don’t believe what [protesters] did to the buildings down here and the way they rioted shouldn’t have happened either,” Mr. Newell said. “A lot of these businesses lost money because of [the coronavirus] and now they’re even having to lose more for no reason and it’s going to take them longer to open up. Common sense tells you you want the world to get back the way it was and you’re just delaying it.”
Broken plate glass was seen in a cursory tour of downtown in the PNC Bank building, Huntington Bank, the former Spitzer Building, the former Fifth Third Center building, the vacant Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority building at the corner of Erie Street and Madison Avenue, and others.
Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz on Saturday set a curfew after protests during the day spiraled into violence toward the end of the day. At a news conference late Saturday night, the mayor said at least 10 people had been arrested and three people were injured.
Mr. Kapszukiewicz said Sunday morning that there were no major incidents overnight, which he said was “fantastic news.” There were no further responses from the mayor’s office or police department Sunday.
The protests, similarly seen in cities across the country, were in response to the death of Mr. Floyd. An officer involved in that arrest has been fired and criminally charged.
Several participants in the disturbances that occurred after the 3 p.m. downtown rally said on Sunday that the police did not communicate well with the crowd and overreacted.
Anna Spinelli, a University of Toledo engineering major, said she was hit in the knee by a fired tear gas canister about 5:45 p.m. in a parking lot at Cherry and Bancroft streets.
“We were not told even once what they were going to do. They never once used their microphones or anything that I was aware of. I can understand they were upset that people were throwing water bottles,” Ms. Spinelli said.
“I feel that the police, if they had proper training for this circumstance, did not follow proper training. I don’t think immediately resorting to physical violence and chemical weapons is deserved,” Ms. Spinelli said. “I had told multiple police officers that I was injured and I couldn’t get out of the way.”
She said she had no involvement in the property destruction that occurred downtown and ended her involvement about 6:20 p.m. in a fire station where she got treatment for her knee.
Ruth Leonard, an activist who participated in the protest and in a subsequent march up Cherry to Bancroft, said water bottles were thrown at police after the first deployment of tear gas.
“When they threw the tear gas there was basically mass panic and chaos. That’s when police started shooting the rubber bullets. And that’s when people starting throwing water bottles at the police cars,” Ms. Leonard said.
She said she saw a half-gallon of milk thrown toward the police but a man who had been urging nonviolence caught the projectile before it reached the police.
Julian Mack, an activist who helped organized the 3 p.m. Saturday demonstration, attributed the property damage in the central business district to frustration over police misconduct.
“We have to value people over buildings, and there’s been a lack of response for decades, centuries even,” Mr. Mack said. “It’s the natural human escalation of things. It’s going to happen more often until systemic change happens.”
Toledo Councilman Larry Sykes, who was present for most of the protests until about 9 p.m., said the police tried to disperse the crowd from downtown, and that the tear gas was used when the crowds refused to disperse and went around police barriers. He attributed the damage to out-of-town agitators, many of them white.
“I was blown away by the number of whites. I’m like, what the hell are you mad at — you’re privileged,” Mr. Sykes said.
“The police did nothing until they started throwing water bottles,” Mr. Sykes said. He said he advised Mayor Kapszukiewicz to keep the curfew in place the next two nights.
Ray Wood, the president of the Toledo chapter of the NAACP, also decried the behavior of people who, he said, took advantage of the opportunity to commit violence.
“There were three groups of people. One group felt like they were there to support the protests. And then there were people down there who were angry and mad. Those two groups you can absolutely live with,” Mr. Wood said.
“The third group didn’t give a damn about the protest. They wanted to wreak as much havoc as they could. Some of them probably did not know who George Floyd was. It absolutely takes away from the powerful message that the protests and the demonstrations were trying to get across,” Mr. Wood said.
Two buildings on Alexis Road, far away from the downtown unrest, were broken into late Saturday night.
The store New Star Beauty Supply at 821 W. Alexis was broken into as a result of what police listed as aggravated riot at 11:52 p.m. Multiple people were identified as involved in forcible entry at the Target store at 817 W. Alexis Rd., in the same shopping center, and one person was charged. Brian Wilson, 30, of the 900 block of Brookley St., was booked into the Lucas County jail shortly after midnight. He is charged with breaking and entering and aggravated riot.
Two people were held for aggravated riot at the Lucas County jail. Kashawn Hamilton, 20, of the 300 block of E. Park Street, and Stephon Griffin, 23, of the 800 block of S. Erie Street, were arrested between 5 and 5:30 p.m. in the vicinity of Franklin and Southard avenues, according to Toledo Police, jail booking, and Toledo Municipal Court records.
According to the court record, Mr. Griffin was with a large group of people who were disorderly and failed to disperse after multiple commands by police officers.
First Published June 1, 2020, 12:56 a.m.
