No More Summer Riots?

Remember Greensboro's summer riots, the fights at coming of age parties, the dreaded problems of Summer? Well Summer is almost here again and as expected the City of GReensboro has done nothing to prevent a repeat. But thanks to local blogger, Jon of Jon's Font Of Useless Information I was able to track down a solution to Greensboro's Summertime blues. From Strengthening Chicago's Youth:

"Nothing Stops a Bullet like a (Summer) Job

In this week’s blog, SCY explores the results and implications of the evaluation of Chicago’s summer youth employment program, One Summer Chicago Plus. 


A study carried about by the University of Chicago Crime Lab and the University of Pennsylvania has found that One Summer Chicago Plus dramatically reduced youth violence. Over a 16 month period, violent crime rates fell by 43% for youth enrolled in the city’s summer youth employment program. A randomized controlled trial was completed on 1634 high school students in 13 different high-violence Chicago schools to test the effectiveness of the One Summer Chicago Plus program which provided summer jobs and assigned job mentors to participating youth. Half of the One Summer Chicago Plus group also received social-emotional learning (SEL) supports to help navigate the thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that might interfere with work. The control group was not given any employment or SEL supports but were free to pursue their own summer opportunities. Read the full report published in the journal Science here.


The study launched after University of Chicago Crime Lab researcher Sara B. Heller found that effectiveness of a summer youth employment program as a violence prevention measure had not been rigorously evaluated and the research that currently existed on a broad array of youth employment programs was not consistent. Prior to this study, there had been conflicting evidence to suggest whether a program like One Summer Chicago Plus would be as effective as it has been. Much of the research indicated that only intensive, costly youth employment programs were successful at reducing youth crime and that scaled-down versions of those programs produced no lasting behavior changes for participating youth.


The One Summer Chicago Plus evaluation proved something different. Summer jobs for high school students reduced crime. Compared to the control group, both the jobs only group and jobs + SEL group were equally effective in reducing violent crime arrests by about 43 percent. The summer jobs themselves (rather than the SEL component) caused significant behavior modification in this population of young people that could be seen even a year after completing the program. In fact, most of the difference in crime rates can be seen after the youth had completed their summer jobs. This finding means that the element of incapacitation (i.e. keeping kids busy so they don’t get in trouble) alone cannot explain the success of One Summer Chicago Plus. Something specific to the youths’ experience during their summer jobs changed their future behavior. It will take further research to come to a greater understanding about which elements of summer youth employment and/or social-emotional learning methods contribute to changes in decision-making capacities of this population.


So what did One Summer Chicago Plus get right that other programs didn’t? Prevention. Most youth employment programs that preceded One Summer Chicago Plus targeted youth who had already dropped out of school, whereas this program specifically targeted students before they reached the point where they are out of school and struggling to find a job. One Summer Chicago Plus provides some job experience, skills, and employment networks to help young people thrive in the job market once exiting an education setting. Studies like this are the driving force behind the development of sensible policies and programs, begging us to continue to think about ways to shift our financial investments from remediation efforts to prevention. This is the kind of knowledge that saves lives.


Continuing to advocate for investment in evidence-based youth employment programs is a policy priority for SCY in our 2015-2016 Policy Agenda. SCY will continue to advocate for the expansion of One Summer Chicago Plus and other evidence-based youth employment programs that prevent violence and build resilience in our youth. SCY is excited to see the Mayor’s Commission for a Safer Chicago recommend that One Summer Chicago Plus participants to be connected to year-round education and employment opportunities based on their skills, interests, and educational needs."


Of course anyone with a brain could have told Greensboro leaders that very thing but they've been too busy building performing arts centers we can't afford to go to, funding downtown hotels we don't need and giving away incentives for jobs that will never come here.


Seems to me like a local public works project modeled on the old Civilian Conservation Corps or WPA would be a better use of taxpayer dollars. After all, it's pretty much a given the kids would spend the money locally. And money spent locally is money that keeps the local economy moving.


Not to mention fewer problems with our kids. You know, the ones we're supposed to be building a great city for in the first place.

Greensboro City Council Proves Incompetent Again

And Confirms Billy Jones Right Again

On the matter of the Downtown Riots, the Greensboro City Council decided last night that THEIR curfew was not the solution to the problem just as myself and others have said all along. The entire story of the Greensboro Riot including the lies exposed by myself and others can be found by clicking the link then scrolling down the page.

Greensboro Mayoral candidate George Hartzman said of the curfew,

“I think the curfew is socioeconomically biased and racist,” Hartzman said. “It’s about keeping poor, black people out of downtown at night.”

As Roch recently pointed out, the 60 day cerfew has cost us over $81,000 and appears to be racially motivated in its enforcement.

I agree, children shouldn't be out late at night, nothing good ever comes of it but it is the responsibility of parents to take care of their children. 10:00 cerfews prevent teens from working on weekends and Summer nights. And finally, the Federal government bans cities and states from requiring citizens carry IDs simply to walk down the street so legal enforcement of the cerfew is impossible. Sooner or later the City would get sued.

Zack Matheny and Nancy Hoffman voted to continue to criminalize your children solely because of their age. and race. 

George Hartzman, Right Again

Greensboro Mayoral candidate George Hartzman thinks the downtown Greensboro curfew was socioeconomically motivated. As a matter of fact, George said, 

“I think the curfew is socioeconomically biased and racist,” Hartzman said. “It’s about keeping poor, black people out of downtown at night.”

Previously George pointed out how his own white teenage children are free to go downtown without fear of being approached or harrassed by the police. Today, Roch Smith Jr publishes information from the City of Greensboro that proves George right.

As usual, Mayor Perkins and Councilwoman Nancy Vaughn have nothing to add that will prove otherwise.



Remember: only by electing 5 new members to the Greensboro City Council can we demand and get an independent 3rd party investigation into the activities of the previous council and city staff.

Downtown "Riots" A Result Of Not Enough Cops

In Joe Killian's article, Curfew for teens ends but questions remain, he writes, "According to (Chief) Miller, the police department dedicated 107 extra officers to the effort for what amounted to 2,046 on-the-clock hours. That cost the city an estimated $81,800, Miller said."

Mayor Perkins, Councilwoman Nancy Vaughan, the remainder of City Council and even Chief Miller all cite the curfew as a success with its 9 warnings, 8 citations and 4 arrests.

But perhaps if our city council were to invest in hiring, training and equipping more police officers instead of building performing arts centers the curfew would have never been needed in the first place.

$81,800 pretty much says it all: Hire cops instead of building monuments to Greensboro's elites. At least cops shop here.

Via Roch

Theresa Yon Downtown Greensboro "Riot" Evidence

Greensboro's Theresa Yon, aka axleskater, Centerpoint resident provides video evidence of 400 people fighting in Downtown Greensboro. Or does she? Anyone see any actual fights or just hear Theresa Yon talking about imagined fights?









Theresa Yon needs to be made to understand that gunshots are every day occurrences in many Greensboro neighborhoods and that her sweet ass isn't so precious that she should be exempt before any of the rest of us are. Why just last night over 20 shots rang out just 2 doors down from my house while children played in their very own front yards. Where was the curfew then and what good would have it of done?

Theresa Yon and the rest of the Downtown boosters and gentry were quick to call myself and others "naysayers" in the blog threads years ago when we warned this would happen as she hid behind the alias, axleskater, while running for the State House of Representatives. You made your bed, Theresa Yon. take another Valium and lay in it.

And Jeff Martin, you only get dumber with time, blowing whichever way the wind blows like a dumb piece of tattered cloth hanging from a rotting pole.

Downtown Greensboro Curfew On Huffington Post Live

For those of you who didn't stay up past 9:00 last night, Greensboro made the worldwide media again and again it ain't good.

Also, Atlantic Monthly: With a New Curfew, Is Downtown Greensboro Telling Young Black People to Stay Away?

Thank you Greensboro City Council, you blew it again.

The Greensboro Riot That Never Was: Facts, Figures And Videos

Alex Seymour



George Hartzman

Roch Smith Jr



As you can see by Mayor Robbie Perkins' reactions, he does not care that Greensboro's reputation has been stained under his watch. He even thinks the whole thing funny.

My Latest Submission To The N&R

Let's see if they print this one:

What Does It Take To Get Your Attention?

In response to Joe Killian's article, Upscale conflict, Sunday, July 14, I have spent the last 2 years addressing those very concerns at my blog, East Greensboro Performing Arts Center, e-mailing my posts to the entire Greensboro City Council, Greensboro City Manager, City Staff and editors and reporters at the News & Record, News 2 and other local media outlets. All to no avail.

I pointed out the dangers of gentrification-- repeatedly. I warned you people were angry. I tried to make you understand that life on the streets-- where I come from-- is very different from Greensboro's leaders' perceptions of what life is really like in Greensboro's working class neighborhoods. I appeared before city council And even though thousands of Greensboro residents read my blog every month Greensboro's leaders still did nothing. Nothing that is, except continue the mistakes I warned them against.

That is, until there was a "riot."

Is that what Greensboro's working class must do to get the attention of Greensboro's leaders and the local media who caters to their every whim? If yes then lets have a few more riots.

As Hell Day continues...

Proof: The City of Greensboro Could Not Have Possibly Maintained Control of Saturday Night Lights

It's all here in this public information release provided to me by the City of Greensboro today.

Included are the 3 questions I asked the City to answer. So in essence, 19 civilians and a handful of GPD officers who were not with the children the entire time were charged with managing what could have been over 400 children. And remember: these same officers were involved in controlling the fights a few blocks away on Elm Street. Can GPD officers be in 2 places at 1 time? Yes, their numbers say 43 signed in and 73 left but previously the City claimed 150 were in attendance. What gives?

They have no means to be sure of their numbers and no means to control the children the City of Greensboro ensured the safety of.

And they have the audacity to blame the problem on teens?

Greensboro Riots Caused By Issues Greensboro Leaders Long Ignored

As usual, there's more to it than the Greensboro City Council is telling us, more than they would like to admit.

Cyatta Siler, the mother of a 15-year old whose friends were among those arrested in the fight, said the issue stemmed from a killing at the GYC Carnival last year.

“High Point and Greensboro teenagers are having a beef because of the young man that was killed last year by people from High Point,” Siler said. “[The fights] happened everywhere else. Now that it’s downtown it’s an emergency or problem. It’s been going on for a long time.”

Siler suggested that the fights downtown may be more prominent because “important people live there,” and added that there were also fights between teenagers from different sides of Greensboro.

And Zack Matheny's solution: Place the responsibility on the voters when he is the one who was elected to come up with ideas:

"Nobody can deny there’s a problem downtown, he said, so his question to curfew opponents: What should the city do instead?"

That's pretty typical of the councilman with the flask inside his jacket. What was it I just wrote about  creativity, vision and courage instead of reacting in fear? Looks like we can cross Zack off the list for any medals or battlefield promotions, the dumb drunk doesn't even know where the battle is taking place.

How The World Sees Greensboro

Over the course of the last few months I have contacted and been contacted by a lot of reporters from across the nation concerning the issues I write about here at East Greensboro Performing Arts Center. How many? Dozens, perhaps a hundred or more. I lost count a long time ago.

Many will look at what I write and that will be the end of it. Occasionally something gets picked up and they write their own story. Such was the case with stories about GPAC and Mayor Robbie Perkins. Regretfully none of them consulted me first before the lies about the Greensboro Riots were spread around the world.

Recently I had an off the record conversation with one of these reporters, someone who isn't local but has covered Greensboro and many other cities and states. The following is from that conversation:

"well it's an election year and it will be interesting to see if anything changes

having covered politics at the local and state level, your leaders are among the slowest

to act

i'm generally unimpressed in my dealings with just about all of them. they're not creative, visionary and most seem totally self-involved

it's a shame

and that's off the record"

That, is how the rest of the world sees Greensboro. As hard as these great journalists try to remain neutral in their reporting it's almost impossible to keep at least a tiny bit of their opinions from slipping into the page. Even the world's best journalists sometimes slip up and add a tiny bit of opinion. Over time those tiny bits of opinion color the world's view of our home and who we are.

Only when our leaders are willing to act with creativity, vision and courage instead of reacting in fear will things ever change for the better. Is there one among our current crop who can show us these traits? For if there is I have yet to see him or her awaken.

Greensboro Saturday Night Lights: Public Information Request

In three part harmony:

1. How many adults where on hand for the Saturday Night Lights event at Festival Park on Saturday, June 29 and what were their names?

2. Festival Park is an outdoor venue with no fences, walls or other barriers to keep children inside or uninvited guests outside. What measures were put in place to make sure that every child dropped off for SNL did in-fact attend SNL and din in-fact remain there until the end of the event? Numbers please.

3. What measures were put in place to make sure that children were in-fact picked up by parents or legal guardians and not simply allowed to run the streets at the event's end or before?

This public information request has been posted online at http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/ . Welcome to Hell Day.

Thank you -Billy Jones, your friendly, freelance neighborhood Tyranicide.

PS. You need to act fast, it's an election year.

Finally, The Greensboro News & Record Speaks Truth!

From Greensboro News & Record Executive Editor, Jeff Gauger

"The city Parks and Recreation Department did our cops no good deed last Saturday in inviting teens to a movie showing in Festival Park, as candidate Hartzman has pointed out. Police spokeswoman Susan Danielsen’s assertion that the movie had “absolutely no correlation” to fights that night is — how can I put this in a family newspaper? — complete bunk.

It’s not that the city acted with ill intent in showing a movie for teens. It’s that actions have consequences, sometimes unintended consequences. Own your actions, own the consequences. It’s that simple."

For the first time in years we read the truth from the local daily:

"It’s the election.

Yup. The election filing period was set to start Friday, just two days after the council voted 8-1 for the downtown curfew. November, here we come.

We’ve got a hot race for mayor, with Councilwoman Nancy Vaughan challenging incumbent Mayor Robbie Perkins, and the unpredictable gadfly George Hartzman as a possible spoiler.

Methinks the mayor’s race would qualify as an “affray.” That’s the formal legal charge that authorities unshelved against some of the people allegedly involved in last Saturday’s downtown fights, those that sent Robbie and the Frets rushing to make law."

Jeff points out the truth of the matter again:

"If I make fun of our elected officials, and I do, it’s because I sense electioneering at their backs, not because of the issue they sought to address.

It’s not good when a few people of any age in a public place start throwing fists, scratching, pulling hair, perhaps even stabbing and shooting. It’s not good when enjoying an evening out, while strolling along our eclectic Elm Street, that you stumble into a street fight and become an inadvertent victim.

Unfortunately, early descriptions of events that first Saturday were imprecise enough to permit imaginative interpretation. Four hundred youth in the park and along downtown streets? Fighting? A gunshot? Arrests?

In truth, it appears a handful of youth and young adults were fighting. Downtown Greensboro was not a battle scene from the movie “Saving Private Ryan.”

Now the question becomes: is this a new trend for the News & Record or the exception that proves the rule? One can only hope for the first.

Hat tip to George

Greensboro Riots 2013: Thank You Mayor Robbie Perkins

Welcome to Hell Day Greensboro! Again, it starts early as sometimes I just can't wait.

To get the full story on the Greensboro Riots...Well that was the link. A few screen grabs from the web the rest of the world will see and remember forever: That's right, forever, just like the world remembers Greensboro for the 1979 Klan-Nazi shootings that could have been prevented by a previous corrupt and inept Mayor and Greensboro City Council.


From the Greensboro entry at Wikipedia:

From around the web:

Wait, there's more:

 And with each passing day it grows bigger... I could have provided a thousand such screen grabs if I wanted to take the time to do so and not even scratched the surface. A slease bag club owner happy to get free publicity for his club and a failed mayor desperate to be seen as doing one thing right in an election year latch on to a few kids fighting and propell it to a worldwide media event that destroys our city's reputation for generations to come.

But a search on YouTube for the claimed video evidence of Saturday night's downtown riots turns up zero results. Hundreds of city owned video cameras are installed downtown but the City of Greensboro can't provide video evidence. Local television stations show videos of children running from police but zero fights. Greensboro police and local media have yet to name even 1 victim. No proof has been offered that anything more than a couple of fights broke out over the course of about 4 hours and when someone fired a gun-- a police officer maybe? and police deployed tear gas, children began running away.

There was no riot, just a few kids fighting and a who bunch of kids running away from the fights just as their parents taught them to do. Since when do we punish children for running away from fights?


Parents took their children downtown to watch a free movie hosted by the City of Greensboro  without adequate adult supervision where their children were assaulted by the Greensboro Police Department and our City's reputation ruined by an overzealous Mayor who needed an excuse to impose a curfew that had already been planned weeks before. That's right, the curfew was already being planned, almost a month before the "riots." How many adults were supervising the event at Festival Park? The City of Greensboro has yet to say nor do they talk about the fact that the movie was shown outdoors in a park with no fences and no barriers to keep children inside or trouble outside.

And the Greensboro City council blames your children for doing exactly what children do.

The Greensboro Propaganda Machine Continues Unabated

The damage done, thank you local media and Mr. Mayor

Mayor Perkins declines to substantiate his remarks on downtown fights, leaves Drudge "brawl' report unchallenged

On Greensboro's Saturday night self inflicted "riot"; The communities' teens were invited downtown

Greensboro Police Department Crime Rate Per 1000 Persons By Census Tract; Look at Downtown's Relative Location

Updateed; An email I sent last night in response to the violence etc... Saturday night in Greensboro

Roch Smith on Greensboro's politics and accomodative news industry

Children below the poverty level and relatively black within walking distance of downtown Greensboro

And the Mayor's solution: an unconstitutional and unenforceable curfew. Greensboro City Council elections are in November, make sure your rising 18 year olds are registered to vote.

Summer Night Lights In Greensboro

From the City of Greensboro:

From the SNL Facebook Page:

City News:

Summer Night Lights on Bing

Summer Night Lights on Twitter

Summer Night Lights on Google

Summer Night Lights at Achieve Guilford

SNL in Yes Weekly

SNL at Greater Greensboro Business

Greensboro's Summer Night Lights all the way from Winston-Salem at WFDD and in article after article a theme is too often repeated, "Moffat says the city is looking for volunteers and other sponsors to help with the program."

Thousands of dollars were spent promoting Summer Night Lights on websites, in newspapers, television, global press releases and on city buses but how many volunteers were on hand last Saturday night when 400 teenagers showed up? And why hasn't the City of Greensboro told us?

Self inflicted?  You bet it was.

Yep, Hell Day started early this week and it's only going to get worse.

WFMY News 2: Curfew Doesn't Work

Reports from the City of Greensboro's #1 very own propaganda machine:

June 3, 2013 SNL Program Kicks Off Friday, June 7 announces thousands of kids will be invited Downtown.

June 6, 2013 Summer Night Lights invites teens Downtown

Festival Park, no fences, no walls, no ways to keep kids inside, no way to supervise the children dropped off there and no way to actually know how many children were dropped off at Festival Park to see an outdoor movie who quickly turned and ran towards the bright lights of Downtown.


View Larger Map

In a press release circulated world wide the City of Greensboro shamelessly brags about the effectiveness of the curfew but later that same night more kids are arrested for fighting after the curfew than before the curfew. WTF?

Happens a lot to braggarts. Get back on the porch, Mayor Perkins.

For or against the curfew, it's not working, the issues haven't been addressed and the Greensboro City Council continues to blame kids for the mistakes made by political leaders. Typical of the cowardice that currently remains in charge of Greensboro City Government. These are self-inflicted wounds and it's time we stopped blaming the kids for stupid mistakes made by adults.



Eleven kids fighting is not a riot. Children running away from a fight (something good parents beg them to do) is not a riot. And yet one week ago today one sleaze bag club owner more concerned with profits than the welfare of Greensboro's children, gets on television, calls it a riot, a media feeding frenzy begins and a chicken shit City Council who helped to cause the problems in the first place by inviting children from the entire county to downtown, overreacts, blames everything on your children and takes it on their own to punish them.

It's called entrapment, do you plan to allow the Greensboro City Council to get away with entrapment against your children?

Solutions? I've plenty. But you'll have to read more that one blog post to find them.

Greensboro: Safety Should Come First

"Safety should come first..." Those are the words of Allen Johnson of the Greensboro News & Record speaking on the issue of the downtown curfew.

We heard the very same thing right after 911. Look where that got us. When terrified people make the rules the rules will always be an over reaction and the issues are never addressed. Real leaders aren't scared of teenagers or terrorists. Too bad we've no real leaders any more.


Gotta go pick up some chicken feed now...

Teenagers Doing What Teenagers Do

George Hartzman tells us the truth about what happened in Downtown Greensboro last Saturday night.



Remember that come election day.

The British Imposed Curfews On The Founding Fathers As Well. How'd That Work Out?

Four adults and seven teenagers are arrested for fighting in what Greensboro Mayor Robbie Perkins and the media falsely described as a riot in Downtown Greensboro on Saturday night and every teenager in Greensboro gets punished with a downtown curfew on Independence Day, July 4th, the very same day our nation celebrates its independence from an overbearing, punitive British monarchy who cared more about making its subjects follow orders than it cared about addressing the actual issues that brought about the tiny insurrection that eventually lead to the overthrow of the largest and most powerful empire in the history of the world.

Kids, some of you will turn 18 between now and election day come November. You might want to remember that the only member of the Greensboro City Council who didn't vote against you was Councilwoman T. Dianne Bellamy-Small of District 1. She makes a lot of dumb mistakes and I call her on them quite often but she cares about the kids in her district and actually has a clue what it's like growing up poor in Greensboro.

And she defiantly ain't British.

You can click here to learn how to register to vote, download a voter registration form or pick up a mail-in voter registration form at any Greensboro Public Library.

Greensboro: I Challenge Anyone To Show Me 400 People Fighting

It's taken me days to find it. Below is the only video in the world that actually shows the fights that happened Saturday night in Greensboro, dubbed a riot by the sleaze bag owner of a Downtown Greensboro night club and posted on websites around the world as evidence of a brawl involving 400 teenagers. As you can see in the video there were no more than a couple dozen fighting and a whole bunch more wisely trying to run away from the fights.



The jury is in: Greensboro Mayor Robbie Perkins lied. The Greensboro Police Department lied. Greensboro's media outlets lied. And the Greensboro City Council overreacted in an 8 to 1 decision to pass an unenforceable and unconstitutional curfew against African American teenagers in the very community in which they live.

And frankly, most any high school football coach in America has dealt with rougher brawls than this without guns, tear gas, badges or stun guns. Or at least they did when I was in high school. Though admittedly, Coach Boyers at Dudley did swing a mean baseball bat.

Update: As Roch points our in the comments below, those who actually watch the videos see no fights-- only people running. The sleaze bag owner of a Downtown Greensboro night club dubbed it a riot, a sleaze bag mayor desperate to be seen as doing something positive in an election year seized on what he saw as an opportunity and the sleaze bag local media propelled the story to International attention with the headline, 400 teens riot in downtown Greensboro.

It was all just a big fat lie and the video proves me right-- again...

Remember folks: I am the man who outed Mayor Robbie Perkins' personal and business bankruptcy, divorce and Federal Securities and Exchange violations to the world. Over the course of the last 2 years he has failed at every task, made enemies of Greensboro's left and right. The man is desperate and will do anything to hang on. Without his political position, his business, NAI Piedmont Triad Commercial Realtors goes down the tubes.

And Mayor Perkins: there are secrets I keep private about you out of respect for your family. They deserve better than you. Sadly, none of us can choose our relatives.

Seriously folks, 11 teenagers fighting is not a riot...

Want the entire story on the Greensboro Riots, all the links, all the video, all the facts, figures and documentation the City of Greensboro and the media continues to hide? Click Greensboro riots. After all, the City of Greensboro owns 700 cameras and has produced zero videos. How could 400 people riot and not be filmed by 700 cameras?