December 10, 2005. The day the Nazis came back to Toledo. I decided I wanted to go and see what I could shoot as I thought it would be interesting. I arrived at 2p.m. the start time at the check point you had to go thru and wa told I couldn't bring my camera bag in. I hiked back to my car dumped my bag filled my pockets and went back. I was told to empty my pockets and open my coat. I asked for a tray as I had most of my gear in my pockets. I was told I could hold it in my hands while I was patted down. After the pat down I was told to put my stuff on the table and step thru the metal detector where I was promptly patted down again while another officer went thru my stuff on the table. I was then told I couldn't bring in my spare batteries (still in the package) and that they would be happy to throw them out if I wanted in. Not at $20 bucks a package! I decided fine I would just shoot from the perimeter which was a 2 block radious from the event. After about 20 mins of shooting my old batteries gave up, so once again I went back to the check point for a double pat down and search. I was told I could go thru. I get outside the check point tent when another officer stopped me and told me to take off my hood and face warmer and turn to the left so the could take my picture. Naturally I smiled and waved for the camera. The cop called me a smart ass. I told him I just wanted them to have a good picture of me. As I headed toward the event the first thing I noticed were all the police in riot gear and how pleased they looked standing out in the freezing weather. I think the location was picked deliberately for crowd control to keep the protesters back quite aways from the Nazis and make it hard to see and hear them as we were on the other side of a devided street with trees between us. The horse police also kept coming along the baracade keeping people off it, and if you weren't watching the would step on you! They came thru about every 5 to 10 min. The rally was supposed to start at 2. The Nazis didn't show up until about 2:45 and at first there were only 5 or 6 of them! Them first speaker got the podium set up and started talking and about ten mins into his speach about 20 or so more came out. The rally was going smoothly for awhile until I noticed the police at the one end of the street faning out. I made my way to the other end of the street and noticed the same thing there and that the officers were getting thier zip ties ready. I pointed this out to a photojurnalist I had been talking to and he said, "Aw shit, they're getting ready to gas us!" He grabed my arm and pulled me to the end of the street along the line of cops telling me if I see anything get thrown to step behind the cops and keep moving backwards. He had been gas twice at other events and had no intention of going thru it again! The horses moved along the baracade like normal but this time a line of riot cops went with them and when they reached about the middle the horses turned into the crowd pushing them back into a bus stop where they grabbed a couple of people and arrested them. The crowd was stuned. About ten mins later the horses and cops came back and did the same thing only now the crowd started to get ugly chanting not only against the Nazis but the police also. It had the affect I think the police wanted because by the third go round I noticed the crowd had thined out quite a bit! All in all it was an interesting expierence. The police said that the crowd was small due to the cold weather. The cost for the Toledo police dept. was estamated at $300,000. That does not include all the other departments that were there. It was estamated that there were 700 law enforcement officers on hand for this event.