Hits, runs and errors. Society’s failings- not baseball.
I’ve never been afraid in Dayton, Ohio. Maybe because I’m wired wrong. On the way home from the first CIRGV meeting, I saw a young teen walking fast up W. Third with a 22.-caliber rifle, I turned my scooter around- and stopped him to talk- before he scurried off, and I called the police. Yes- I should have called cops first- and headed on my way. I’ve also been all over Dayton- way past dark, hanging basketball nets. Carried the ladder at least a thousand feet to the remote court in Western Hills – close to midnight to put up nets- without a worry.
Urban Nights is supposed to be when we put out our welcome mat. When all feel welcome to go downtown. Well, all, except the people we don’t want to acknowledge live in our community- urban, black youths. And, this isn’t an indictment of them- we’re all to blame. We’ve worked for the last 50 years to separate ourselves and to pretend that everything is hunky-dory. What happened and what I saw Friday night, 9 May, 2014, Urban Nights wasn’t an epic event by any means. As a very young boy- I remember my Dad lifting me to the window in East Cleveland of our 8th floor apartment to look North West over the city of Cleveland- with the sky glowing orange from the fires during the Hough and Glenville riots. He took a photo that ended up on the cover of the Plain Dealer Sunday magazine- my grandmother, painted it, the painting hung on our walls for a long time, and faded away from relevance. I don’t know where the painting is now, but- the memory of the sky stuck with me. That was an epic event.
This year’s spring Urban Nights seemed like it was lightly attended compared to others. The rain was holding off, but, the crowds were still light. I had almost stayed home, after a long week, but a friend had texted and I headed over on the scooter and parked it next to Drake’s Gym/Gentile Produce and started at St. Clair between Fourth and Third. As usual, I ran into lots of friendly faces including our former neighborhood cop, former Mayor Gary Leitzell, a BOE worker, Tim Kambitch- head of the Dayton Metro Library- all within the first 40 minutes. I headed over to 2nd Street and saw my friend Haitham at Carmen’s Deli- and waited for the band to start at 9- it was Hal Melia’s Brass Tacks band- with a horn section. I talked to Brian West- a friend and trumpet player- who said the guy on trumpet was probably the best in a 200-mile region. They were tight- the singer had a great voice- but, when they started playing their second song by Chicago after only 6 tunes- I’d reached my limit of pop- and headed round the corner to see what was going on at Courthouse Square- and to check out the AIA at the Business Furniture spot.
The police were congregated at Second and Main. On bikes, cruisers, and a few of the new SUVs. Courthouse Square was dark. The architects had already closed up shop- I continued ambling down S. Main where I passed a white guy with a megaphone standing on the corner- reading scripture. Other than the security guys that I saw at the RTA bus depot, he was the last white person I saw as I made my way through a crowd of black youths. I didn’t feel threatened. I didn’t sense any tension. It was around 9:20 pm. I made it down where I was almost to 4th street, having passed TNT Fashion and was looking over at the Kuntz building- at the corner of 4th and Main- it’s still one of my favorite downtown buildings, with its red clay color and castle-like ornamentation. I glanced back toward Third and saw a swarm of kids out in Main Street- moving like a flock of sparrows, undulating, changing direction together as if they were some sort of magnetic liquid goo being moved by a mysterious unseen magnet.
I took out my phone and started recording, with the thought that the police would be the ones to act badly. I was wrong. Someone says at 0:45 “he’s recording” – as if they are totally oblivious to the city’s new security cameras and the ones RTA has had. At 1:05 my phone gets swatted from my hands, I pick it up, stick it in my pocket and start chasing the punk. At this point, I’m mad, but not thinking about what comes next. Sort of like GWB invading Iraq. Thanks to his baggy pants and me not being totally out of shape at 51, I am gaining on him as he stops, midway down 4th St., across from Dave Hall Plaza- you can hear the complete exchange. He wants to fight, I don’t know what I want. I’m also aware of the huge mob that has run after us and is starting to surround me- someone swings- hits me in the temple- my glasses go off, I turn- and step on them. More hits come- I’m moving to the wall to at least make sure that I don’t end up in the center of a beat down- and can stay up. Fighting a lot of people doesn’t work out like a Bruce Lee movie- they don’t conveniently wait for you to dispatch them one at a time, they all come at you at once. Most of the blows come to my head- at some point- I lost vision in my left eye temporarily. As fast as it starts, it ends- I go over to pick up my glasses- one arm of my glasses is askew- I pick up the lenses and stick them in my pocket. One of them is going to be the only way I can read until morning. A cop on a motorcycle pulls up as I wave him down- and tell him I was assaulted by a kid wearing a white wife beater, baggy jeans. The cop told me to wait here.
I post to Facebook using Siri voice recognition- at 9:45 pm
“Just got assaulted at urban nights, while videotaping of Nealeigh out in front of the RTA glasses are broken so I can’t see what I’m typing”
Apologies to my friend Tommy Nealeigh, who is usually worth videotaping, I said “melee” – but Siri apparently isn’t a riot girl.
Another crowd swarm started at Fourth and Main- by an RTA bus. I filmed again.
No cops had come back- so I called 911, and as I was on the phone, another officer came by- I flagged him down. Told him again what had happened and asked 911 to send a medic. I told them I was moving toward 4th and St. Clair- but was crossing over to the Dave Hall plaza corner- and would wait there for a medic. I didn’t think I was bleeding- which was confirmed by friends, former city planning director Paul Woodie and current city purchasing director Pete Hager, who were walking down Jefferson toward Fifth Street. The fire engine passed us- then the medic passed us- even as we waved- and I called back to 911 to confirm my location. The medic had my neighbor Jen Quinn in it- and she checked me out and suggested I go to a hospital- I said I needed to go to the VA- and they started driving before I agreed to it. I would have had a friend take me, but she said it was too late- just decline transport.
My phone was getting messages like crazy- with friends checking in. I had to hold up the one lens to my right eye to read them. A Dayton cop came and took a statement, gave me a report number. About an hour later- another officer showed up to do the same thing.
In the thread on Facebook, the discussion turned to safety of downtown, whom to blame. A friend pointed out that there had been an event promoted to youth- and then cancelled at the last minute and blamed organizers. I found no evidence of this event happening this year- but they had a teen celebration in the fall of 2013.
The VA called in the guy to give me a CAT scan- and I left with a shot of an anti-inflammatory in my butt. The three hours of ice pack seemed to have averted major bruising. I got a printout of my recent eye exam, so I could get some glasses. My head is still a little sore, and thanks to Kevin Harrington at Downtown Dayton Optical I now have 2 new pairs of glasses- one for reading and one for the computer. When I tried to pay Kevin, he refused payment- almost had me in tears.
He said “most people don’t appreciate what you do for this city- I do. One of the advantages of owning your own business is you can do nice things for people. I really appreciate you, and- I’m sorry what happened last night”
I’m sorry what happened too.
After the video had stopped recording in my pocket- some kids did come over and said they were sorry- I said that I was kind of in shock- after hanging 300 plus basketball nets- I’m the one that gets beaten up. One kid said – “oh, you’re esrati” (mangling my name)- which was the one glimmer of hope for the evening.
But, after the bruising of my ego and when my head heals- what do we as a community do? The Dayton Daily has kept this event to a few column inches in the back of the paper today. Chastising the Downtown Dayton Partnership, or reporting negative things happening at their signature event is something to be minimized. It was on the 11 p.m. news- I saw it from my bed in the VA ER. From 100 to 1,s000 youth have been attributed- my guess is around 500. That someone had a gun is also part of their synopsis.
But, this is more than one event. This is what happens when you stop finding money to put basketball nets on rims, fill in pools, close rec centers, stop having midnight basketball in the summer. This is what happens when you bus kids all over the city- instead of maintaining strong neighborhood connections. This is what happens when kids have kids- and let their kids run the streets. If you are a mother, or a grandmother and see your kid in these videos, you are failing your babies.
I’m lucky I’m here to write this, with my only problem being the two- to three-week wait for my new no-line bifocals with AR coating to show up. I’ve had friends say I should take up boxing, others say I should have had a CCW. Meeting violence with violence is not the answer. I’m sure that had I been carrying a gun, someone would be dead right now, possibly me. I do know how to fight- but, one man against a mob- the odds aren’t good. I’m not happy in retrospect with my own choices of words and actions in the span of those few minutes- but, then again, a bad decision in a few minutes is what puts many of our young black men in prison. I’m not black. Someone told me on the campaign trail last time, that “if you were black, you’d have been elected long ago.” I still wonder about what would make someone say that- and, if it was true.
I’m sure that this post is too long for an event that spanned just a few minutes. If you are still reading, thank you. If you’ve watched the videos- thank you. If you see your kids in the videos- it’s time to have a talk with them. It’s time for our community to have a real talk about this. Our kids need better options than this. It’s not their fault, it’s ours. We’ve failed them.
Had I been anyone else, I would have seen that crowd and would have run the other way. I’m sure that I may think twice about doing what I did on Friday night. But, hopefully, the young man who decided to hit my phone, and then me- maybe, just maybe, he might read this, and realize that this wasn’t his triumphant moment in life. Maybe when he tells his friends about his beating on this old white dude- one of them says- you hit the green net man, that guy is cool. Maybe not.
I know I could have behaved better as well. We all need a better understanding- a better dialogue in this community. We need better solutions for our youth. For our community.
I got hit, I ran, I committed errors. This isn’t baseball. Let’s all work together to fix this.
You didn’t deserve to be assaulted, but your post-incident report is laden with cringe-inducing, egotistical masturbation.
Quiet yourself for a moment and just contemplate this: You always come off like a bit of a clown because you inject your massive sense of self-importance into everything you write. Rarely, maybe even never, do we see an article on this website that doesn’t eventually come back around to a thesis of “Esrati is a great gift to the city of Dayton.”
@David, At our last South Park Historic meeting, I had mentioned: “What is the ruling on Flags hanging from our front porches, stating that Ladder 11 had a UD flag, a Snoopy flag hangs across the street from me, and a Stars and Bars hang from a new tenant up on Johnson Street.” I was informed that there is no flag ruling in Historic Districts, than Galen informed me (about the Stars and Bars) that we had won the war (The Rebellion, or as some call the Civil War). Then I just read David’s “Hits, runs and errors. Society’s failings- not baseball”. With me saying to myself, did we win a war, or is the the war just beginning?
I think what Larry is trying to say is that the great African Satan has finally risen from its slumber and is once again attempting to overthrow our sacred Anglo order.
Welcome Marty. You could have stopped reading after the 2000th word….
And Larry- class wars never have a definitive beginning- but they always begin when the gap gets too big.
I stopped reading at the end of the post, like I always do. What are you implying, Dave?
@David_I forgot to mention that I have an American Flag flying its colors to the breeze to the front of my house, where is yours or for that matter, where is South Parks American flags? Are Miss Sue and I the only Americans in South Park?
Sorry to hear you were assaulted by a current or future democrat voter. You are a classic politician on the left that is incapable of bringing the community together only dividing it more. You have spewed hate speech toward so called right wing groups calling them “nuts” etc. yet none of them ever behave like the despicable hoard of 96% Obama voting black people that assaulted you. Can you imagine a tea party night out where a black reporter was assaulted by a disgusting gang of violent racist white people like you were victimized by blacks that voted for Obama? How would any hard working, private sector, fair, decent, country loving, honest and respectful conservative ever respect someone like you that is so institutional in your bias? Stick to reporting and exposing the corruption in our city and county not trying to get elected David you are honestly to clueless.
I’m not judging the incident, but your comments section is pretty funny. I read the whole thing and I think you have some great ideas; sorry bad shit happened to you, it happens though.
I really wanted to say to Penny that I could imagine a lone Tea Party-er gunning down a black kid for no reason being in the same situation way before it escalated. (I liked it better when Tea Party-ers were Tea Baggers)
Thank you for just being a really decent citizen Mr. Esrati. Not every situation can have a perfect outcome, being a calm empathetic human being was what we all need to do better.
I’m sorry this happened to you, the attack was senseless, and I’m glad you were not more seriously injured. However, I disagree with your conclusion that a lack of taxpayer funded recreation is to blame; this is Bad Parenting 101. I was as a kid who had a kid. My parents were far from happy about it, but they didn’t disown me – they continued to parent me. Their only failing was in trusting me too much. My kid turned out to be a wonderful, responsible, productive, law-abiding person (and not a teen parent himself). I would also add that ANY parent who recognizes their kid in the video should know they are failing their babies. The last time I checked, producing babies was not solely a female activity.
@somewhiteguy I am sure you could just as easily imagine two lone Obama voting muslims blowing up a few bombs at the Boston marathon and killing an innocent cop on their way to try and kill even more people. Hating your own race is even worse than standard bigotry, but that type of bigotry along with racist black, latino and muslim americans are what wins the Democrat party elections. Tea baggers? Is that like people that vote for Obama should be called douche baggers?
Penny, wait…Do the hoodlums suck because they voted for Obama or did they vote for Obama because they suck? Gasp! This is a paradox so devastating that it could have only been created by The Muslim Brotherhood. Finally, we know what they have been cooking up in their secret hideout beneath NPR’s San Francisco bureau.
Gosh I don’t know Marty, you make such a good point. Does the 70% of white population that disapproves of Obama as president do so because they are racist or does not approving of Obama make them racist? Are the people in the tea party law abiding, peaceful, responsible, employed and reliable contributors to society because they are white or does doing all of those things make them white? I am really confused and I blame it all on the Koch brothers and Rupert Murdoch for sure.
This one…It’s…Self aware.
Check this out: all of the things you disapprove of Obama for? It’s reasonable for you to do so.
But where were you between the hours of 2000 and 2008? Where was your outrage over the corruption of American government in those days? Was it perhaps directed at the left?…Like it still is today?
There were a lot of people during 2000 and 2008 that were asleep or just in denial in my opinion, there were a whole lot of Bush voting zombies in those days. The left should be and deserves to be the point of the outrage as the left seems to believe that a huge in all of our lives government will somehow make things better. The only solution for more freedom is to regain control over our own communities and push both corporations and equally the federal government out of out lives. How we do that and bring everyone together is another story. We can start by not having one standard for how we judge white people and then make excuses for even worse behavior committed by blacks or other non-whites because they support the political party of choice.
I hope that all this talk about the children being black is satirical. I couldn’t imagine any intelligent person truly believing that senseless violence is endemic to one race. At any rate, I am sorry to hear that you were assaulted Esrati, but if we’re talking government action, I don’t think that recreation centers are the answer just yet. I would like to interview the people who assaulted you and learn why they got involved instead of breaking up the fight.
Dayton suffers from many systemic problems which contribute to heightened tension between the youth, community members, police and government officials. At any rate, I’m hoping we can meet up this summer and brainstorm. Hope your glasses come soon.
Sincerely,
Jonetta
Irony of ironies. On that Friday evening, Dad and I were watching “Boy’s Town.” Admittedly, Father Flanagan (Spencer Tracy) was dealing with society in1938, but have basic needs changed since then?
I’m with you, Allison and Jonetta.
“…the great African Satan has finally risen from its slumber and is once again attempting to overthrow our sacred Anglo order.”
Wow. Marty is quite the dick.
I got a call from Haitham Iman at Carmen’s yesterday to check in on me. He said that shortly after I left- Carmen’s got swamped with teens who started helping themselves to drinks and chips without paying and forced him to close his doors early. Clearly, this wasn’t a problem just at 3rd and Main.
Sorry to hear Carmen’s was also victimized by democrats growing up on the democrat plantation. I guess the Republican’s will have to free them again from a type of slavery provided by the democrat party.
Do what I’m doing David. Leave.
I’ve had enough of Dayton. I was born and raised here but unlike you, I am sensing fear and it’s growing (at age 55). I’ve seen a hell of a lot of incidents downtown and in the Oregon district, and yes, they have involve young male blacks (although that was only my experience). Urban nights and “urbanites” can be a lethal mix when there is real or perceived provocative situation. It’s my intent to move to Columbus as soon as I can dump my depressed market home and take a beating (of another type). I feel much safer even the worst areas of Columbus than I do most anywhere in Dayton (and some of it’s suburbs). Shame on our “leaders” for failing us so badly all these years.
I personally outraged that someone co-oping the name of a song by our rock gods, the Beatles, as their handle would go online making racist and polarizing statements. Instant Karma is gonna get to you…
Esrati: thanks again for keeping it real
Downtown Dayton is a condition or state of affairs almost beyond one’s ability to deal with and requiring great effort to bear or overcome, for lack of a better word, I call it a War Zone, and also the reason I never go downtown after five o’clock at night. That is unless I am physically and mentally armed, in case some fool wants to commit felo-de-se, I am more then able to guide them down their path of no return. You never run, you charge David, didn’t you learn anything in the Army, cause that is what you learn and are taught on the streets. Trust me…
I got a bad vibe last year (last May) at Urban Nights when I was by the old courthouse and I was shocked at the racial homogenity – that is to say, me and my two friends (females) were the only white people within a hundred yards in any direction.
I didn’t go last fall, which if I recall was rained out anyway. And I beat feet out of downtown well before the events began this time. I had a fun time hanging out with friends at the Fairfield Commons.
And I’ll be leaving the city as soon as my lease is up. Barring some miracle if someone would like to change my mind, some place in the suburbs has my name on it. When I moved to Dayton in 2011 I had higher hopes for this town. At least back then we had a mayor who was willing to come up with creative ideas, think outside of the box, and actually believe in a bright future – something other than the same old tired party politics. We don’t have that anymore. The mayor’s race last fall between Whaley and Wagner (I voted for neither) was indicative of where the city was headed – although Wagner had more respect from me, I still only substantively agreed with him on about 15% of the issues, and couldn’t pull the lever for him.
And the landslide by which the permanent income tax passed just last week is further indicative that Dayton voters have an unfortunate history of voting against their own self-interest. Although I am a believer that one person can change things…. it’s hard to swim upstream…. against a tide of the self-destructive culture that pervades this town.
I think we should take an Obama approval rating poll with black people that show up for the next urban nights in downtown Dayton. I bet he gets an 90% approval rating with them! Maybe Dayton could pay Jeremiah Wright big money to set up a church here and inspire the thug that beat up Esrati to be our next president!
Sorry to hear what happened to you and that any such incident occurred.
Midnight basketball? What happened to being in bed sleeping? Based on the pictures, it appears that the crowd was predominantly young people who should be home in bed at midnight. I realize that the incident didn’t occur at midnight, but it was after sunset. Today’s youth aren’t being taught boundaries or having any discipline enforced at home. There are probably many people who read your blog that could recount stories of their youth when they would leave the house in the morning and run the neighborhood with their friends all day with the one golden rule of being home by dark.
I’d be willing to bet that Allison learned from her actions and set boundaries for her son. Kudos to her success.
All of you who are complaining about the condition of Dayton and its youth – what are you personally doing to help the situation?
50 plus years of democratic rule…keep it classy Dayton!
Dayton, Keep it classy.
I mean I know most of you are transplants from Appalachia or the South, but jeeze you really do let those confederate flags fly, literally and with your posts.
And I think it is funny when people forget Mayor Mike was out mayor at one point, with another Republican on the Council. And they just about bankrupted the city.
So, you see a group of black youths, and still chase the phone vandalizing punk? Are you frigging serious dude?
So you put yourself in a situation to get your ass whipped, and you got it? Now you wanna boo hoo on an internet blog and us to support you? Not hardly
As for the group of youths, it’s not “this big” at the RTA hub, but there is a considerable amount of punks their DAILY. RTA chooses not to do a damn thing about it. Of course, I’m sure Mr. Esrati is probably in the RTA’s backpockets, so I wouldn’t expect much to be done about it
Look for the zero turnout at the September Urban Nights.
Make sure you apply for a CCW between now and then, should you choose to go
So in my understanding David, the two 2013 Urban Nights featured an event called Teen Celebration Urban Nights which was held in DPS parking lot at Fourth & Ludlow with RTA providing free outbound ride for all teens attending. I can not find any evidence this event was ever scheduled or even planned for spring 2014 Urban Nights – however RTA continued to promote the free ride home for a non-existent event. It’s not rocket science to figure out there were several thousand teens in downtown Dayton with nothing to do and left to their own devices. I would term this as a mass failure of communication and planning on the part of the Urban Nights planners and promoters. I was there for the entire evening, I’m not speaking hypothetically from my arm chair. It breaks my heart that you were filming to protect the little bastards from potential police brutality and got swept into a herd with mob mentality. Said, I totally dismiss the above posting trolls and dog whistle blowers.
Re-post from Reddit’s r/dayton. Mr. Esrati, I just wanted you to know it was out there… I know in general you like this type of stuff: —- By David S Ratty I’ve never been afraid of Dayton Ohio. Disappointed by it, yes, but who isn’t? On my way home from whatever it is I do all day, I saw some guy point a loaded gun at me. Being the self-designated city ambassador that I am, I stopped to talk to this fine young man to ask for his vote in the next election. He put his gun away and ran off after he realized the weirdo on the scooter wasn’t afraid of him, so I called the cops. Dumb I know, but that’s what I do in that situation. I’ve been all over Dayton, way past dark, hanging basketball nets in trees and on people’s doorknobs. I even carried a ladder almost 1000 feet once to do this. It was hard work. Urban Nights is supposed to be when downtown is safe. When you can go downtown without dropping your glasses and stepping on them. When I was a kid living in Cleveland, I climbed up on the railing of my eighth floor apartment balcony and saw the sky glowing orange. My dad said the Cuyahoga River was on fire again. My dad took a picture of it and they printed it in the newspaper. It was pretty fucking epic. This spring’s Urban Nights seemed like it was lightly attended. I wasn’t going to go, but a friend called and I headed over and parked next to Drake’s Gym on the corner of Patterson and Fourth. After pumping some iron at the gym, I walked 200 feet west towards Sinclair and fourth. There I met former mayor Gary Leitzell, my former mailman, and Tom Peters, manager of the city’s third largest mattress store. I also talked to a guy with a bicycle and a woman wearing a hat. Finally, I headed north-northeast to where “Transit Authority,” a Chicago cover band, was playing. The singer had a great voice and their… Read more »
Hilarious, OHKID. Thanks for starting my morning off with a chuckle. :-)
@Shortwest Rick- All I’ve been able to find that was a youth oriented event- and only second hand- was that there was a youth talent show at the Convention center. I found lots of old info on the teen celebration- from last year.
As to OHKID- I see links, traffic and search terms. Frankly- unless you sign your name- or I know who you are on this site- I take things posted by people like the stuff on Reddit- pretty lightly.
If you are trying to change the world- and people aren’t talking about you, you’re doing something wrong.
I just got word my first order of chain basketball nets came in at Tuffy Brooks- I don’t really like chains- they rust, they tear up balls- and they cost more than nets- but, we’ve got some rims where putting nets up with zip ties is pretty hopeless. If anyone would like to donate- to help me keep putting nets up- the widget on the right side will take your gladly take your donation.
@Esrati – You are right, you aren’t making waves if no one is talking about you. Good talk or bad talk. I personally appreciate everything you have done for the city, and I thought you might get a kick out of the light-hearted (in my opinion, at least) humor about you from Reddit. Have to laugh at yourself every now and then to keep sane haha. Regardless, glad to hear about the new nets – they go a long way toward making a better community.
But about not using my real name… I will happily e-mail / FB / etc. you that if you would like. I try to use the same posting identity wherever I post (if you do look around at Dayton discussions on the internet, you’ll see my primary hangout is a site called City-Data.com, particularly the Dayton Forum). But right now I’m a college student, and I spend most of the year away from Dayton. So I figure someday if I become more involved in the Dayton community (which I’m planning to do once I graduate), I will make my identity more public. But for now, the pseudonym works for what I want to accomplish, which is to discuss what makes Dayton a great place to be, and what can be done to make it better.
Honestly, there has to be a Darwin award for when a lone middle aged guy walks into an angry mob of aimless rowdy stupid kids, filming with his cellphone.
Extra Darwin points when that lone person is of a different race than the vast majority of the crowd.
“This is what happens when kids have kids- and let their kids run the streets. ”
At least the final sentence has some sense to it. “Programs” and “Community” don’t create good behavior out of kids from broken families.
“Broken families” don’t necessarily create bad behavior in kids, either. Divorcing my ex was the healthiest thing I could have done for our family, and my two kids are doing great. It all boils down to the parenting – a no-excuses and relentless focus on education, reading, bettering yourself, discipline, setting and achieving goals, teaching the difference between right and wrong and leading by example – that nurtures a successful child who grows up to be a solid citizen. And yes, that takes a lot of energy, and it’s a hell of a lot harder for one parent who has the responsibility to do it all alone. Just having two parents under one roof doesn’t ensure anything.
True enough… I meant “broken” in the sense of dysfunctionality all around – parent(s) who doesn’t/don’t care, a culture of anger against “the system”, passed down disrespect for authority, being angry simply because they’re supposed to be angry, etc.
I have a business idea for someone in Dayton, inspired from the old “girls gone wild video” concept. We can do a similar concept in Dayton with video like esrati took downtown but call the series “democrats gone wild”.
Esrati is just like George Zimmerman he just didn’t have a gun with him lol.
I don’t see the point of many of these posts. David Esrati has consistently and ethically addressed the growing problems in the community and strives to give Daytonians the information they need in order to vote and respond intelligently and effectively. And for that, he got/gets…………..a bunch of people ‘killing the messenger’ rather than seeing how big Dayton’s problems are getting without proper city leadership. Unbelievable! The City Council and School Board are closed to outsiders and stone cold deaf to the pleas and words of Dayton citizens. If that permanent tax “won by a landslide”, it is because the people of Dayton are intentionally being kept ignorant. Do you all know that for the first time in the Dayton Daily News’ history, non-subscribers to that paper must not PAY to read even one article??? How can the majority of Dayton folks be and stay informed when the powers that be remove even newspapers from their view?!?? I stayed and fought for seven years….’til I realized that the game is rigged and nothing could get better as long as the political insiders maintained their choke-hold on policy and operations. Things just keep getting worse. David is to be commended for hanging in there and fighting to wake people up to the state of affairs within the city’s borders. He deserves support and the attention of the local folks, not criticism and mockery. Kudos to you, David……you say what needs to be said and you’re doing a lot for our youth! Parents alone can NOT save our youth when the entire infrastructure of the city has deserted them and destroyed their futures………where are our once-public swimming pools, our safe and functional, well lit parks, our strong public schools, our middle class jobs that could put enough food on the table???? Fix THOSE things, Dayton, and then maybe we can begin to talk about parenting for our hapless, hopeless young people……..
…….meant to say MUST pay……..not ‘must not’ pay! Costs 99 cents to get the online version of the paper for just one day.
Hello, I’m a moron, I saw 25 black kids and thought I was farking McArthur. Oops! I really screwed up. You woulda thought after the cell phone was bounced to the ground, I woulda walked away. Nope, I wanted to be the next GEORGE ZIMMERMAN! I forgot to bring my gun that night.
This is all a big cultural misunderstanding. In the black democrat community a beat down is the modern democrat plantation way of thanking white people for all the free stuff they get from them. Esrati got extra special attention for all of those free basketball nets! Don’t worry on election day both Esrati and all of those wonderful black people come together and vote for Obama.
@ Kevin , I forgot it was my responsibility to raise other people’s kids. I helped MY situation by moving out of Dayton.
This is not a black/white thing. This situation is a result of loser people having kids because they could not keep their dick in their pants. Poor people like to have sex to pass time. People with money find better things to do. Poor kids are more sexually active than rich kids. And poor people under twenty two have sex like they get tattoos, which is seemingly every day. People with money actually work and are driven to succeed,’which takes time away from having casual sex. Poor people, simply put, can’t help themselves and those with money are more disciplined and selective with whom they have sex with. Truth hurts. Poor loser white people are in the same boat. It’s a money thing, not a color thing.
Geez, Dave…be careful! People get shot and stabbed in scenarios similar to the one you described. It sounds like you are basically OK, but this could have gotten very serious, very quickly. In a crowd, it’s nearly impossible to identify and counter every threat.
@Gene: It’s a money thing, not a color thing.
It’s a STUPID thing AND a money thing, not a color thing.
I always thought downtown Dayton was for the Gay action, since that is where most of the Gay bars and nightclubs are. I have been to the bus hub a couple of times, and I felt like a stranger in a strange land, and have no intention of going back unless my car breaks down again. I have read with great interest all of the excuses people have been making for the people of color, personally speaking I think that they are different then white people, when I was in Alaska the native people were different then the white population, as was the Red Bones, Coon Asses, and Cajuns when I lived in Louisiana, people new their place and acted accordingly. When I read the Dayton newspaper there is always about shootings, knifing or killings on the west side or the north Main Street area, you do not need a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing, with me feeling that David’s altercation will be the start of or the beginning of some type of War, and not a War of words and excuses for this hate that hangs like a grey cloud over Dayton. I wonder how long this will stay on this site???
If we really want to clean up Dayton, and I personally do not because it is a lost cause and not worth saving it will require action no government is going to provide. There is no fix for the low standards and awful behavior of blacks in this city and many other in the rust belt and south. The Marxist race base solutions pushed by the left using slogans and names like diversity, inclusion and equality are evil, oppressive and a complete failure. Equality is not oppressing white people with the burden of taking care of black people who were only here to make a few rich white guys in the south some money a long time ago. Making us put our race on applications so the government can discriminate against white people in college and jobs to help the people that beat up esrati is more racist than having to sit in the back of the bus. I would not be surprised if one of the blacks that beat esrati gets a job as a Dayton cop after getting his bonus affirmative action bonus points and then getting a 55% on the police test because some racist dirt bag that works for Obama made the city of dayton hire him. Stop the evil, racist discrimination of your own people white democrat sheep. Let’s bring freedom back to all the races to succeed or fail on their own. I don’t see the Asians having any problems here, wake up morons we our destroying our own people.
Wow..David! Sorry to hear about this! This sort of explains what I was seeing when i was downtown. I ride RTA pretty much all the time, and was catching the bus back to Centerville around the time you were beat, and yeah I did notice stuff was afoot, but maybe the tail end of this swarming. For me, no problems, but risky stuff for sure. Like you I feel fairly safe in Dayton (and always safe on RTA), but sorry to hear about the altercation!
Going back and reading some of the comments seems that this is way under-reported. A similar but maybe more extreme incident or series of incidents happened in downtown Louisville back in March:
http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/crime/2014/03/28/louisville-looks-cities-lessons-flash-mobs/7030697/
Long Hot Summer anyone?