Toledoans freedom will be diminished on Saturday

Most of you know Toledo experienced a riot in one of our neighborhoods back in October after a visit by the National Socialist Movement. Thanks to the publicity the NSM received, they have decided to make a return appearance. This time it will be a very different situation.

Michael Brooks from the Toledo Free Press has more information on part of this story. He's been following it very closely as a professional journalist for the Free Press as well as writing about it on his personal blog

The Toledo Blade outlines briefly this. A large part of Downtown Toledo will be shut off to vehicles and anyone wanting to enter that "zone" will not only have to do so on foot and at limited entrance points but they will be subject to metal detectors and/or physical patdowns.

I wasn't planning on going downtown this weekend anyway, however the Downtown Library will be closed and now COSI will be closed. Many businesses will be affected by this even if they stay open. None of their customers will be able to get to them in an easy manner depending upon their location. Last time the NSM came the cost to the City was over $300,000. Even if there is no damage this time, it's obvious the cost is going to be at least that much with the increased police presence.

Why is this necessary? Why should a group of people the majority of whom don't even live in our State let alone this suburban area have so much power that the rest of us should have to have our lives disrupted so they can stand on the steps of One Government Center and say a few Sig Hiels and pose in their uniforms for some pictures? Why should some planning by some anti-nazi groups add to the reason for all of this extra security and the basic shut down of a large part of Downtown?

It shouldn't, while it is technically the NSM who have created this response by their appearance this is necessary because we have allowed a situation to exist where our Local Government needs to be our daddy. We aren't mature enough to have the common sense to know that the smart and cost effective response from a tax payer point of view and a business point of view would be to just not show up at One Government Center on Saturday. So since we were so bad last time and demonstrated we don't know how to behave ourselves? "Daddy" is going to make sure none of us misbehave this time.

One of the deepest ironies of this situation is it concerns "Free Speech", yet thanks to our own inability to allow this to happen without a huge fanfare? It's not going to end up being very "free" in the end.

Update: I just finished reading an Editorial on the Toledo Free Press by Michael S. Miller that is titled "Nazis Suck"...Also if you haven't read Bob Frantz's take on this at his blog? He chimes in with "Flaming Bags of Filth"...