By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer

Oakwood residents have reported seeing White supremacist flyers affixed to posts at Shroyer Road on the Oakwood-Kettering line, in Oakwood at the intersection of Shroyer and Forrer Boulevard, and along the jogging path to the west of Shroyer on the Oakwood-Dayton line.

Sightings of six “White Lives Matter” hate flyers on or near this main route through Oakwood have been posted at the Citizens for a Better Oakwood Facebook group since last week.

Nicole Rahter told The Observer her fifth-grade daughter spotted one on her way home from school Dec. 3, on the lamppost in their front yard, at Shroyer and Forrer.

“Before I could say, ‘Let me call the Oakwood police to look at it,’ she ripped it down,” Rahter said. “Then I just took a picture and sent it to the Oakwood police and posted it to the Citizens of Oakwood page. I know this crap is out there and it happens. I’ve never been faced with it this brutally.”

Rahter said she posted an image of the hate flyer — which includes a website and QR code to the URL — at the Citizens for a Better Oakwood Facebook group in the hopes that her neighbors would check lampposts nearby their homes.

Oakwood resident Bradley Seligmann posted at the Facebook group that he had found three White supremacist flyers on a lamppost on the Kettering-Oakwood line at Shroyer Road on Dec. 3.

One was identical to the flyer Rahter shared at the Citizens for a Better Oakwood group page; the other two were smaller and included shorter versions of the same message, with the website and QR code. The website, White Lives Matter Official, includes a 12-page “activist’s manual.”

Seligmann was walking to the Speedway at Shroyer and Dorothy Lane when he saw the three flyers at eye level.

“What I did was I actually immediately ripped all three down off the pole and ripped them up,” Seligmann said. “The stuff that was still stuck to the pole, I ended up taking out one of my keys and just sort of scraping as much as I could to cut the QR code and the URL. I just wanted to make sure it ended with me seeing it.”

He added that he wasn’t planning to say or do anything about the hate flyers until he saw the post at the Citizens for a Better Oakwood group page about it. Seligmann said he didn’t want to draw attention to the racist message.

A third member of the Oakwood citizens Facebook group, Angie Griesinger Stroud, posted that her husband found two flyers affixed to posts on the bike/jogging path west of Shroyer on the Oakwood-Dayton line on Dec. 1 or 2 that were “exactly the same” as the one Rahter saw. Stroud said her husband also ripped them down.

Although Rahter confirmed that she contacted the Oakwood Public Safety Department and emailed the department a photo of the flyer her daughter had taken down, the department told The Observer that despite its awareness of the incidents via the Citizens for a Better Oakwood Facebook page, “we have not had anyone report a thing like that to us yet.”

Marcy Paul, senior director of the Jewish Community Relations Council, said it’s important for community members to have a process in place when they encounter hate materials or hate vandalism.

“When you see something, as difficult as it may be, don’t touch it. Take a photo of it. Mark down where it’s located and call the police,” Paul said. “This is important because we want to help the police do their job, so they can understand the context in which you found something. And please let the JCRC know (937-610-1555), and we can help you navigate law enforcement if you’d like our help.”

To read the complete January 2022 Dayton Jewish Observer, click here.