i spent the whole weekend feeling really upset that my hometown has been reduced to this. i've been trying to analyze this from as many angles as possible just to try to comprehend what it all means. this is the best i can come up with...

it seems like it's really easy to say "why did they even go in the first place?" you want to think that everyone can take the high-road and that if hate groups march in a vacuum that they'll just disappear.

this riot wasn't about hatred or anti-fascism or gangbangers gone wild or whatever everybody's thinking. this whole incident came to a head because people, essentially, want to be in control.

toledo has a real gang problem. gangs want to control their neighborhoods. when nazis come into gang-controlled neighborhoods, stuff like this happens. "but the nazis left and the riot went on for hours afterward," you say. it wasn't about when the nazis left or didn't leave; it was about showing who controls the neighborhood.

the mayor of toledo came in to try to get people to calm down and go home. all the people wanted to know was why he let nazis invade their neighborhood. they blamed him for the nazis being there in the first place. they showed it by throwing bricks at cop cars.

if the world you know is showing force to assert control, that's what you do. yeah, it sucks. yeah, it's really inexcusable. but a man will more likely act irrationally to preserve his pride than allow another man to walk over him without a fight.

if you want to solve the gang problem in toledo, you need to address poverty, inequality in education, "family values," and a myriad of other issues. unfortunately, all this riot is going to do is put more cops on the streets arresting more gang members and further straining race relations.



fuck, even from this angle, i still don't really get why people started looting gas stations and set a bar on fire. i know the think they've got it all figured out. i'm just baffled by the whole thing and being from toledo really kinda sucks right now.

Sawa fairly neat documentary from the Toledo riot last night. It should on the net pretty soon, I'll put up a link to it.