Dear Friend and Reader,
There is growing concern over the vote in Ohio (see Genevieve’s article from this morning).
I found a short report from Aaron Brilbeck of WNWO, a local news source in Ohio, stating that police in Toledo are prepping for crowd control with riot gear.В
There’s no question that anxiety is running high today, even with Obama holding a steady lead over McCain in recent weeks.
This, combined with intense campaigning in Ohio (a swing state) and questions of vote tampering lingering in the state after the 2004 election have led to the police decision to carry gas masks.
The article can be read, in full, below, and we’ll update you with new information as it comes in throughout the day. If you’re in Ohio, I’d like to hear from you: send me an email at:
editorial (at) planetwaves.net.
Happy voting,
Rachel Asher
Toledo police are gearing up for possible “Civil unrest” during and after [today’s] elections.
In an internal memo obtained exclusively by NBC 24 News, officers are ordered to “Have their riot equipment with them Tuesday and Wednesday.” Police chief Mike Navarre confirms, officers will have gear similar to the equipment they used during the 2005 race riots. “They have been asked to have their helmets and their gas masks available tomorrow and Wednesday,” Navarre says, “That’s the equipment they would not normally carry with them on a normal day”.
Navarre also says, officers will not be stationed at individual polling stations. But the memo says otherwise. It reads, “On Tuesday, units shall be directed to patrol the polling locations.”