RhodeMapRI forces state to burn your house!


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Yes, *your* house.
Yes, *your* house.
What it will probably look like.

In yet another breathless press release from The Center for Freedom and Apple Pie today, I learned that the controversial RhodeMapRI plan will call for the incineration of your house. Right down to the ground.

Be afraid. Very afraid.

Yes, it’s true, your nice comfortable suburban house, the one you dreamed about for years, is to be sacrificed to build an affordable housing skyscraper in its place. The plan calls for you to be offered a semi-private apartment, since private apartments are to be phased out. But you won’t mind sharing the kitchen and bathrooms with your less fortunate neighbors. After all, you’ll be commuting together on public transportation, since the RhodeMapRI also envisions the end of private automobiles. Your car is to be taken via eminent domain and resold to UN bureaucrats, with the proceeds made available to help keep the subsidized birth-control vending machines full in the lobby of your new home.

For those late to this party, the Center for Freedom and Apple Pie has warned all of us about the impending danger to the state posed by “RhodeMapRI” an insidious plan to end capitalism hatched within the bowels of the Rhode Island Division of Planning. The official Rhode Island Tea Party similarly warns of the terrible peril, as do totally-100%-they-promise unaffiliated citizens like Colleen Conley and Gary Morse.

Just in time these citizen activists have alerted us to the dangers within. The jack-booted planners ensconced in a Smith Hill building made of — can you imagine! — pink marble, have gussied up their world-domination plans with such appealing catch-phrases as “sustainable development” and “affordable housing.”  You might think their economic development plan looks like an appealing alternative to the plans of the past. You might be distressed that “economic development” has always seemed like a synonym for “give business whatever they want” and that it’s high time to see economic development plans that actually take everyone into account. You might even think that economic plans that emphasize sustainability are precisely what our state needs these days. But that’s because you’re just an ignorant patsy whose house is going to be burnt.

Remember, the only sensible government plans either benefit rich people or are completely ineffectual. Aren’t you glad to have such patriotic citizens as the folks at the Center for Freedom and Apple Pie to make sure that’s true? I know I am.

Voices from Friday night’s #ThisStopsToday protest


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DSC_8143Friday night’s #ThisStopsToday march through downtown Providence was filled with excitement. There was an abortive and tense attempt to block the highway, at least two “die-ins” and an attempt to enter the Providence Place Mall that was literally prevented by police physically strong arming the protesters out the doors.

I have footage of all that in another post, but for now, let’s hear from the two speakers who opened the march.

“To say that ‘black lives matter’ seems to be a revolutionary belief in a nation where the possibility that a young black man may have stolen some cigarettes or that some self-appointed watchman was scared enough is enough to justify the murders of black bodies…”

“Why is success being quantified as a simple linear equation, hard work plus motivation equals success? Why do we not consider the other factors like race, gender, class that affect this so-called path? Michael Brown’s mother did everything she could for her son. Together they worked hard tirelessly so that he could have the opportunity to attend college where previously there was none. But in the matter of a few minutes, that did not matter. It didn’t matter that he studied. It didn’t matter that he applied. It didn’t matter that he did the work. In a matter of seconds he was nothing more than a black body…”



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Video from Friday night’s #ThisStopsToday protest


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Police prevent protesters from entering the Mall

Friday night’s #ThisStopsToday march through downtown Providence was filled with excitement and drama.

The march and rally was held to draw attention to the violence against black and brown persons being perpetrated across the country by police departments that routinely engage in racial profiling and police brutality. Many see the problem as systemic, that is, racism is cooked into policing so completely that you can’t have one without the other.

So protesters took to the streets of Providence, and at one point made an abortive attempt to shut down the highway as they did on November 25th. Though it has been reported elsewhere that the Providence Police and the State Police repelled the protesters, in truth it was the protesters themselves that prevented the shutdown. The video below is from two cameras, the first by me, the second by Adam Miner. You will see some protesters jump the fence, but many in the crowd call them back, saying, “It’s too soon!” and “the energy isn’t right.” By the time the police arrive, the protesters are already working their way back to the fence.

The first of the two “Die-Ins” was staged at the corner of Empire St and Washington, near Trinity Rep. The two videos below are the same event from two cameras. The second camera was operated by Adam Miner.

More dramatic was the second Die-In at the corner of Memorial Blvd and Francis St, in front of the highway on-ramp near the Providence Place Mall. Here the protesters lay on the ground, thumping their chests to the rhythm of a heartbeat.

“That’s a heartbeat,” said an organizer, “something we have the privilege of hearing. Other people don’t.”

After the second Die-In the protesters attempted to enter the Providence Place Mall. This is when the Providence Police became physical, strong arming the protesters out the door and physically preventing their entry. This might have been the most fraught moment of the evening, from my perspective.

A lot has been said about the irresponsibility of the protesters in blocking the roads, or blocking the highways in regards to delaying or preventing ambulances from being able to respond to emergencies. Last night the protesters encountered an ambulance, and their reaction is worth noting:

By now I’ve spoken to several people who were on the highway on November 25th. They tell me that when the police first arrived on the scene the protesters tried to negotiate an open lane for emergency vehicles, but the police refused to negotiate.



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Photos from Friday night’s #ThisStopsToday protest


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Protesters took to the streets of Providence Friday night in an entirely peaceful #ThisStopsToday march through downtown. Here are some photos from the event.

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