North Toledo residents at forum blame poverty for riot

[Algorem]

http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/cleveland/index.ssf?/base/news-20/1130102941166191.xml&storylist=cleveland

10/23/2005, 5:20 p.m. ET
The Associated Press

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — Residents at a sometimes testy forum named poverty, above other causes, as the kindling for a riot earlier this month sparked by a demonstration by neo-Nazis.

A crowd of about 150, diverse in race and age, voiced a slew of concerns at city officials, including Mayor Jack Ford, who had tried to defuse the uprising a week earlier.

"Whether they're black, white or brown, poverty is the reason," said north Toledo resident Albert McClusker, 37, one of three dozen people who addressed the room Saturday's meeting.

Violence broke out Oct. 15 after and rioters turned their anger toward police because they felt officers were protecting the neo-Nazis and did nothing to stop their plan to walk through their neighborhood. The white supremacists' march was called off...

[SoCalDem]

1. BINGO... Ask any 10 yar old what they want to be when they grow up

I doubt that you will find a single one who answers:

single Mom on welfare with 4 kids
or
gangbanger in and out of jail

When people have real hope of success, they spend their lives preparing for that success//

When they have no hope, their lives head down the dumper


What this country needs is a MASSIVE WPA-style movement with a guaranteed "base-living stipend"..

Upwardly mobile, well-cared for people do NOT run wild in the streets creating mayhem..

[TMAS]

2. I don't understand

why they threw rocks at emergency vehicles, looted, and set fires. Just how is this hurting the nazi group?

Didn't MLK preach non violence?

[Oversea Visitor]

3. Just read the articles

If you still dont understand DU will have to work damn hard to broaden your thinking. Welcome to DU. :crazy:

[IndyOp]

4. MLK was right. Innocent people always, always get

hurt when people riot and loot. After the riots in SouthCentral LA - post Rodney King beating - I saw video of an African American man standing in his store in tears asking why they did that to him? How did it help them to destroy his store? He had no insurance and would not be able to afford to start it up again.

Pressure builds and people do the wrong thing. Depending on how bad the situation is, I sometimes don't blame them. In this case, they should not have reacted the way they did.

Remember, when reading coverage of events like this that the media will almost always make it sound worse than it was -- that 'everyone' was involved when only a few did bad stuff. Sometimes people are planted in a group that was just going to gather or just march and they are the people who do the bad stuff (or get it started).

:kick: