TOLEDO, Ohio — The community is still reeling from Saturday's tense events across Toledo. Police used different types of force against those protesting George Floyd's death in Minneapolis.
But were the methods they used excessive? Terry Lodge, a Toledo civil rights and civil liberties attorney, believes the police overreacted to the situation.
Protest organizers like speaker Julian Mack and Community Solidarity Response Network leader Ruth Leonard said they do not condone the violence and property damage that occurred but they do understand it. They stressed police do not seem to understand the raw frustration that the community is feeling right now and that the way they handled themselves Saturday shows nothing has changed.
Rubber bullets, wooden bullets and tear gas were some of the things used against protesters.
Lodge said the protest reminded him of the last use of this type of force back in 2005. That was between an anti-Nazi and KKK protest.
But he believes the police department is failing to realize how to properly handle these situations. There needs to be, he says, more practical de-escalation tactics used than ones that can harm the public in general from peacefully protesting.
"I'm not saying that police don't at times have to have SWAT teams, and have to have heavy armor and all that," said Lodge, "but there's also a tendency if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail, so the ability to overreact is very much within the grasp of local police officials to react with excessive force in a military type of way."
Lodge said it's an uphill battle for any protesters making a legal case for excessive force because of the circumstances.