Well, that was priceless. At the church revival meeting to hang Dan Foley and the “Dayton Together” plan- which has no chance of passing- I went up to ask a question- was interrupted at least 3 times in the first 25 words- and then had the microphone cut off-
to which I loudly told the pastor in charge- “FUCK YOU” gave the 1 finger salute and walked back to my camera, where I was asked to leave.
It’s really easy to be against something – especially change.
It’s hard to answer a question- but, not hard if you don’t let someone ask it.
The question I was attempting to ask- Why do we have the second highest tax burden in the state- yet, in the last 30 years- our police department has been cut in half- while private police departments have grown- paid for by organizations that don’t pay taxes- UD, Premier Health, Kettering Health- and why do tax collectors like MetroParks, Sinclair, Dayton Public Schools also have private cops?
Is this the best our current system can do? Is that why you can’t find a punk who stabbed a girl in broad daylight in a school yard- despite having witnesses and video?
It’s time for some kind of change….
I’ll have video uploaded sometime tomorrow. But, I’m sure someone has it up already…
UPDATE
Here is the video of the comments. We have 2:20 of Pastor Johnson telling everyone how this will work. I begin at 2:29, first interruption 12 seconds in. 2:41, at 2:50 second interruption, 9 seconds later, mic off at 2:53 that’s a total of :24 seconds.
I owe Pastor Cooper of Wayman A.M.E. an apology. However, Pastor Johnson of Bethel Missionary Baptist Church owes me one. Disrespect breeds disrespect, people. Cutting microphones off and censoring questions isn’t what we do in this country.
You have to ask yourself why they are putting so much energy into the negative promotion of a draft of an idea. I think they are using this as a campaign subject to get re elected next year. People are not happy with these individuals. They are waking up to the fact that no new initiatives are being introduced, but if they can rally the west side of Dayton behind a cause that, at the moment is really nothing but an idea …. well, people might feel like giving certain commissioners and a mayor one more chance. I wonder if people realize they are being hoodwinked again.
…”in other news, the Devil convened a blue ribbon panel in his headquarters in Hell this afternoon. The committee, hand picked by Satan himself, will set the punishments for Dayton, Ohio activist David Esrati. Esrati condemned himself to eternal damnation Monday evening, when he admittedly used the ‘f’ word and the use of the one finger salute while in a sanctified and historically significant house of God. Spokesman for the Devil said the Prince of Darkness has taken a personal interest in the case, due to Esrati’s longstanding deviancy”…
Wow, David. Gotta admit, to me that really was an epic fail. I’m not gonna preach to you (excuse the pun) about the various reasons why it was because you know why. I think a specifically titled apology post OR private apology is in order to the pastor and congregation. Your apology comes way too far down in your post. Having said that though, few of us can say that we have not let our passions get the better of us. (Guilty too many times myself.) Your passion not only for Dayton but the police issue particularly is valid to many. Bounce back and get refocused.
WOW, David. All I can say is “WOW!!” You are right though – disrespect breeds disrespect. And your disrespect for the people in that room turned into their disrespect for you. Actually, I must say that in spite of your rudeness and disrespect, those in attendance treated you with respect that you didn’t deserve and they didn’t deliver an ass-kicking (metaphorically speaking) that you did deserve. Unlike “PATTI”, I am going to preach to you because you lack the self-awareness to know why what you did was an “epic fail”. Your first act of disrespect is ignoring the Pastor’s requests (or “rules”). He made a point (in an effective and super humorous manner) of the differences between a “question” and a “comment”. He requested only questions. He asked to keep your questions short and to the point and not ask “questions that have 8 or 9 parts to them”. But, in true Esrati fashion, you didn’t listen to him (since you rarely listen to anyone) and proceeded to make statements before asking your question. Of course, you have to rush to be the first one to the mic since no one else’s questions matter. Before you started talking, your body language becomes defensive – which could also be construed as disrespectful. Look at the video just before the 2:15 mark. You cross your arms in a “defensive posture”, just waiting to be handed the mic. C’mon – be patient and polite. When the audience starts saying “QUESTION!” (since they obviously listened to the Pastor’s instructions) you immediately become agitated. When the Pastor asks you to actually ask your question, you raise your voice in a hostile – and intimidating – manner. The Pastor had remained super polite while saying something like “if you’re not going to actually ask a question, we’re going to have to cut you off.” And, even after you yelled “MY QUESTION IS…” he then asks that your mic be turned back on, just before you show what a complete asshole you’re capable of being and yell F-You, flip him off and then storm down the aisle.… Read more »
Watched the video….it’s hard to know where to begin. I have seen high school students do a better job of meeting together to iron out differences and reach a consensus while remaining civil towards one another.
Pastor Johnson was obviously expecting problems. And David, you gave him one, served up immediately, hot and fresh.
David, you simply cannot give anybody the finger and swear at them in a church. It doesn’t matter who did what with the on-off switch on your mic, or how many times you were interrupted. It’s a house of worship, Dave, and your words and actions desecrated a place held holy by many member of the community.
There is such a thing as civil discourse. It’s important.
Make your apologies. Hopefully, you’ll get a few apologies in return, but your apologies cannot be contingent on that reciprocity.
Something to consider: As I get older, I find myself spending more time listening, and less time talking.
From Saul Alinsky:
“The picketing lawyers threw away a beautiful opportunity to create a
nationwide issue. Offhand, there would seem to have been two choices,
either of which would have forced the judge’s hand and kept the issue
going: one of the lawyers could have stepped up to the judge after
the voice said, “Fuck you, Campbell,” said that the lawyers there did not
support personal obscenities, but they were not leaving; or all the lawyers
together could have chorused, with one voice, “Fuck you, Campbell!” They
did neither; instead, they let the initiative pass from them to the judge, and
achieved nothing.
Radicals must be resilient, adaptable to shifting political circumstances,
and sensitive enough to the process of action and reaction to avoid being
trapped by their own tactics and forced to travel a road not of their
choosing. In short, radicals must have a degree of control over the flow of events.”
Well…Esrati showing his true colors there. If I missed it, this appeared to be a open meeting that doesn’t qualify as a public meeting per the Ohio Public Records and Open Public Meetings law. Had it been, good old Esrati would have stood his ground, and a he didn’t.
I don’t agree with about half of what Esrati pushes for, especially regional government. Multiple police departments didn’t cause the failure of DPD and the lack of police service resulting in the increase of crime. Poor fiscal management by elected and appointed officials across Dayton did. I am not for regional forms of service that water down adequate and above standard service that others have. You mention Sinclair, UD, Kettering Hospital, and why they are there and why are they successful. UD and Kettering are paid for by slush fund private entities with fiscal accountability. Sinclair is funded by property tax and is held accountable by people with a clue.
Don’t look to amp up your local service on the backs of those who are responsible. You don’t outsource things you can provide for the same cost and at a better service. Dayton has failed at their own service. Why in the hell would anyone else want a watered down version of Dayton service when they already have good service? Regionalization is about power and about shifting funding from those with, to those without. Unless you can’t do it as well, then feel free to pay someone else to do your work for you.
There are public services that can be shared and police protection isn’t one of them. The standards of response time in the suburbs are different than in the city. So are the expectations the citizens have of their public employees working for them.
For every logical point you make that goes across party lines, you pull something off like this that proves exactly why you are on the side of the Dais you are on at every meeting you attend.
Once again this all proves that nothing will be together and nothing will get done but the same tricks in the play book rerun and played over and repackaged.
The only thing that will continue, sadly, things will not be better but the people will be fooled and power and money for the few selected continues with little hope and a lot more of us being controlled by these corrupt monsters because it is long over due for a real revolution.
You can only beat this horse to complacency but it never changes unfortunately used up and tired, like the rest of us.
So can someone please explain why all the idiots in Dayton keep voting in the same ol’ idiots in Dayton? Seems to be that’s Step Numero Uno in bringing about some real change, if that’s really what you want.
Now that the City of Dayton has (quietly) done a cross-county annexation of part of Bath Township (Greene County) the merger proposal is now being withdrawn since any city that has property in multiple counties can’t be part of a merged government. Oh, well.
However, this still doesn’t excuse David from making the apologies that he should make…..
I posted pictures of the Emergency Ordinance here. Since it was passed on March 23, 2016 I would question the purpose of the church meetings in the first place. I would also question why they annexed this land now because I suspect the City has owned it since the formation of the Conservancy District which was soon after the 1913 flood..
https://www.facebook.com/garyleitzell/posts/10209459183098117?notif_t=feedback_reaction_generic¬if_id=1462983445596715
Nan the Whale admitted on Channel 2 last night that part of the reason for the annexation was to stop the merger. The other reason was to “protect” the water. Kind of dumb to admit it, if you ask me. That just opens the door to someone filing suit to protest the annexation.
I’m sure that the City employee that came up with this idea got a nice pat on the back – or maybe an extra couple of weeks of vacation time! LOL! Something tells me that The Whale isn’t smart enough to think of this on her own. The interesting part would be to see the footage and/or minutes of the meetings or work sessions where this was discussed and why none of this came to light until now. Isn’t there regular media coverage of those meetings?
http://www.whio.com/news/news/local/town-hall-meeting-tonight-on-proposed-city-county-/nrJ9K/ has been updated a couple of times over the last couple of days. It includes what The Whale told Channel 2. The article also includes this gem:
“David Esrati, a former Dayton City Commission candidate, was escorted out of the church after yelling an obscenity after his microphone was cut off as he spoke during a question-and-answer period of the event.”
What’s the old saying? “All publicity is good publicity”. LOL!
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