Toledo mayor caught on video berating teen involved in fight
6/17/2009Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner was captured on video earlier this month calling a teenage boy a "fatso" while attempting to break up a fight at Highland Park.
"Come here, Fatso!" the mayor shouted at the boy in the undated video.
Megan Robson, the mayor s spokesman, said Mr. Finkbeiner was walking alone at the South Toledo park when the incident occurred.
"A couple weeks ago he was walking in Highland Park and he saw a pretty large group of young men getting into a fight," Mrs. Robson said. "He thought it was a highly charged situation and he took action to stop it."
Mrs. Robson stressed the video was edited and parts of it could have been taken out of context.
In the video, Mr. Finkbeiner calmly speaks directly to several youths and threatens to call the police and have the park closed.
Brian Minley, 20, who video taped the mayor at the park, said the fight was already over when Mr. Finkbeiner intervened.
"That s not how you re supposed to approach some children," Mr. Minley said of the mayor s actions. "You re supposed to be the bigger and better person, not sink to their level."
The mayor arrived in Tampa Wednesday morning to help audition Toledo to be named an All-America City again.