NORTH TOLEDO -- One day after the disturbance and looting in north Toledo, those who watched the mess unfold are now trying to make sense of it all. On Saturday, an angry mob of several hundred people threw rocks at police, vandalized vehicles and stores and set fire to a neighborhood bar.
Much of the anger boiled over because residents were upset that city leaders were willing to allow about a dozen supremacists to walk through the neighborhood and shout insults. The march was called off after the rioting started. Police arrested 114 people on charges including assault, vandalism, failure to obey police, failure to disperse and overnight curfew violations.
Bronson Street resident Tom Szych cleared the last of the broken glass from his roof on Sunday. Szych's home was one of the homes targeted by vandals during Saturday's disturbance on the streets of north Toledo. "When I got the phone call and voice mail, I thought they were just joking around," said Szych.
When Szych returned from his day-long concealed weapons class, he found out news of a trashed home was no joke. "Every window in the front was broken out. Rocks, glass, beer bottles. It's upsetting," said Szych. Will his family continue to live on Bronson Street? "I'm not moving. This is my home. This is my street. I've lived here all my life."
Szych has said he has no connection to the National Socialist Movement and says he did not ask the Nazi group to march in Toledo. Szych says he plans to sue NSM, saying they should pay for the damage to his house.
Sharon Frisch has lived at Stickney and Central all her life. Sharon captured the violent scenes Saturday with her home video camera. "Scared to death. Didn't know what was going on. Wanted to protect my family," said Frisch. She also wanted to protect a pregnant clerk working at the gas station next door attacked by looters. "These people in our neighborhood are not bad people. They were just a little riled up," said Frisch.
Riled up to the point that the mob did not notice the native north sider taping every move from her front porch. "It was unbelieveable," Frisch said, "I never thought I would see a day like this."
How has the violence changed Sharon? "I'm probably going to be the trusting person I always have been. A little more looking over my shoulder."
Posted by AEB
All content © Copyright 2000 - 2013 WorldNow and Toledo News Now, a Raycom Media Station. 
