The Toledo Riots

In her column in the Toledo Blade Saturday -- the day before the riots around the Neo-Nazi demonstration in Toledo that made national news -- Rose Russell issued the following plea:

YOUNG black people, let me be blunt: The march by hate groups in North Toledo today is aimed at you. Don't give them the time of day. Please.

If the hate groups can upset you enough to cause you to react and get arrested, or cause you to show an outburst of violence, then they will have accomplished their goal.

Don't give them that satisfaction, no matter how upset they might make you, and believe me, their words can make a minority pretty upset. You are not what they say you are, so stay home, do something else, or go to some worthwhile community function instead.

Sadly, they didn't listen.

I really do not know what to say about the riots. One would dearly love to blame the Nazis, as utterly dispicable as they are. But they didn't do it. It was the people themselves. One would like to blame economic conditions or frustrations generated by racism. But that is nonsense as well. The truth is that the riots were pure hooliganism: destruction of property for the sheer fun of it. The Nazis simply provided a convenient excuse.