Saturday, October 29, 2005

The Court aspect of the Toledo riot begins....

“Hands off our young, black men,” said Washington Muhammad when Marcy Kaptor arranged for a public forum on the 22nd of this month.

In the Juvenile Courts this feeling of minimal charges versus felony charges continues. The above linked article in the title line gives the complete story in the Toledo Blade. Some important points:

Several defense attorneys began their day by viewing their clients in videotapes of the riots taken by police, by reporters, and by private citizens.

“I think that led to some pleas or to some serious discussions with their clients,” said Dean Mandros, head of the Lucas County Prosecutor’s Office criminal division. He was filling in yesterday for Larry Kiroff, the chief of the juvenile prosecutors.

In nine cases — most of them involving misdemeanors or low-level felonies — juveniles pleaded to charges or lesser charges, according to the prosecutor’s tally by the end of the day.

The pleas irritated police, many of whom were working the day of the riot.

“Of course they were mad [at the pleas]. They were getting bricked out there,” said Capt. Ron Spann, whose detectives had pieced together the identities of many of the juveniles through videotape and interviews.

This is going to be a delicate tightrope walk for Toledo. How to charge those who were involved fairly without making those like Washington more frustrated; yet still demonstrate to the Toledo Police Department that this type of behavior directed at them is not acceptable.
Posted by at

4 comments:

historymike said...

Wow - I was thinking of a post on the same lines, Lisa. You are creeping me out; as Chris from Family Guy told Meg:

"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!"

You have eloquently summed up what is going to be a difficult situation for the city. There are, no doubt, people charged with multiple felonies who do not deserve this prosecutorial excess.

Likewise, there are likely people who have gotten away with criminal behavior who will never face justice.

The case of Brian Matuszewski is interesting, and I will be profiling him soon on my blog (as soon as his attorney Terry Lodge calls me back - hint, hint). He was marching with ARA, and was arrested early on for carrying a wooden stick.

He received two felony charges - felonious rioting and carrying a concealed weapon (the stick was 28" long, I am told, and prosecutors considered it similar to a billy club).

He spent about 10 days in jail before his court case, at which time charges were reduced to a single 4th degree misdemeanor. This, in my mind, is more in keeping with the "crimes" for which he was charged; he never actually got a chance to "riot," since he was among the original detainees, and a felony CCW charge is usually tacked on only in the commission of another felony.

The idea that a stick is a weapon, of course, is a bit of a stretch, when compared to guns, knives, shivs, and the other more legitimate weapons confiscated during and after the riot, but that's another story altogether.

Anyways, great post! You really need to pursue work in the lucrative (ahem) world of journalism, as you have the gifts of clarity, insight, and the ability to see the big picture.

1:16 PM
Unknown said...

Thanks Mike for the compliment but I'm happy with my blogging, I'm not anywhere close to being able to be a professional like you are. It looks like I'm going to expand to be included as a occassional part of the new BBC program I was on last week. I just got the email yesterday that the pilot was accepted and they want me to participate on stories I am involved in. More will follow as soon as I get exact dates. Bad news was since it was a pilot they aren't going to link it as a download.

I've always had a secret dream of doing radio. So the chance to do the BBC show once in a while is pretty thrilling. I've always been told I had the voice for it so we'll see what happens with this. It should be fun.

Back on topic though, it is going to be hard for this to balance out. I forsee some tough times ahead as far as more hard feelings from not only the neighborhood but even the police department depending on how this all works out. We really need some strong leadership from Toledo Government to step up and smooth this out as it progresses else nothing will have come from what happened. We will then be doomed to repeat that Saturday in the future. I' not sure if Jack Ford can pull this off, especially given his comments that the only reason the Police Union complained about his ads was because they endorsed Carty. The fact that both the Command Officers, the Toledo Police Union and the Firefighters all endorsed Carty does say something. Does this mean the majority of the actual officers feel that way? If they do, then that adds to a possible struggle that will make this situation even more delicate.

As to Brian? Taking the stick was not a smart move but that doesn't mean he should be charged with a felony. Especially if it wasn't concealed and he didn't use it. I look forward to hearing his side of it though.

I'm sorry I'm creeping you out - lol - It does show we both have same train of thought though thankfully we don't always agree else that would really be freaky. Now if you start thinking about writing about things like my Siamese Blue post? Then we need to be very afraid....

:-)

2:20 PM
historymike said...

Yes, I have been pondering a Prussian Blue piece, although I have been toying with trying to get an interview with them and doing a straight piece, rather than the usual editorial slams that they normally get.

It would be hard to pull off, because I find their politics so abhorrent.

As for being a "professional" writer, that is only a state of mind and one's attitude. I consider you to be a "professional" writer in the sense that you have been paid for your writing, in the form of your book.

"Professional," I have found, is really the point where you develop that confidence that you can tackle a given project without thinking about the artificial hierarchy that sometimes gets thrown in your face by other media. The major media people will walk all over you if you let them, and sometimes try to get in your way for a pic or the placement of a microphone.

Then, one day, they have seen you enough, and you are suddenly an accepted member of the club. Now, given the fact that I am curmudgeonly, I don't socialize much with other media types, but at least I don't get the "you don't belong here" stares.

If you are interested in pursuing this, just start showing up at events with a camera and a tape recorder. Design your own press pass for LCS (hey, you have several years and tens of thousands of visitors to your site, so you are hardly committing an act of deception).

Better yet, hook up with one of the weeklies (even the small suburban ones) as a stringer. Then you'll get a more "official" press pass that will get you some respect, at least until you are so awesome that you don't even wear it anymore.

But getting back to the original point - it's all mental. The tradtional media is desperate to hold onto their hierarchical position, and look upon bloggers as upstarts. However, the world of communication is evolving as we speak, and the traditional rules are being rewritten.

Matt Drudge, for whatever his faults, kicked open the door a few years ago, and journalism will never be the same again.

A geek like me with a laptop, a camera, and the ability to make coherent sentences can beat the "traditional" media to a story and get it out faster just by being lucky and getting a wireless signal.

9:46 PM
Hooda Thunkit (Dave Zawodny) said...

Let's hope that both sides have learned something from this unfortunate event and can get past the subsequent events that neither controls.

Let's also hope that our courts, by their actions, send the right message to both sides.

11:38 AM

Post a Comment