The MAE Organization for the Homeless and AHOPE (Americans Helping Others ProspEr) held their first annual “banquet luncheon event” Saturday in Cathedral Square. For two hours the groups served delicious Middle Eastern style meal and more traditional pasta to the homeless and hungry of Providence.

About four dozen people managed to serve about 300 meals in two hours. During that time it was not our difference that mattered, it was our shared humanity.

AHOPE is a volunteer based organization that was established to assist new refugees coming to Rhode Island with little to their name. Since its inception 6 months ago, A HOPE has been able to help over 30 families, over 150 people, resettle in RI. The MAE Organization is a spiritually based but not religious organization that seeks to serve the homeless population in Rhode Island.

For the effort in Cathedral Square these groups were assisted by the Islamic School of Rhode Island, Masjid al-Islam, the Universalist Unitarian Church, Rhode Island Belleza Latina, Rhode Island Miss Galaxy, and others.

The organizations hope to offer another meal like this sometime in the spring.

In response to the massive destruction caused by Hurricane Matthew in Haiti, where it is estimated that at least 350 thousand people are in need of immediate aid, Bernard Georges, of New Bridges for Haitian Success here in Providence, has begun collecting donations of supplies and money to help.

The materials will be sent to Belle-Anse, Haiti. Georges’ organization has partnered with ARAB (Association des Rassembleurs pour L’Avancement de Belle-Anse) to deliver the much needed aid.

“People are homeless,” said Georges, “there’s no communication and no food. We are afraid that a lot of diseases may come. We are asking people to support us and to give a donation.”

Bottled water, non-perishable food items and supplies can be dropped off at 603 Elmwood Ave Providence, RI 02907 or A & G Multiservices Center LLC, 608 Charles Street, Providence RI 02904.

You can donate straight up cash on-line here, or mail a check to payable to New Bridges for Haitian Success, Inc. here:

New Bridges for Haitian Success
P.O. Box 27552
Providence, RI 02907

Please include your full name, address and phone number and note that the contributions are for aiding Haiti.

I know Bernard Georges personally as a good man who will make sure this aid gets to where it needs to go. Please help.

Below, Bernard Georges makes his appeal on video, and after that there are more pictures from Haiti in the aftermath of the storm.

Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza attended an East Side forum on the Community Safety Act (CSA), saying that despite some differences, he doesn’t “think it will be a problem getting this done before the end of the year.”

East Side City Councillors Kevin Jackson and Sam Zurier were in attendance. Councillor Seth Yurdin was out of town. While Jackson is fully in support of the CSA, Zurier and Yurdin have both publicly registered doubts.

After Elorza heard the speakers below, he spoke about his own encounters with the police, due to racial profiling. Though in broad agreement with the CSA, Elorza did outline some points of disagreement, including issues around the use of canines in policing, requesting proof of ID from juveniles, a prohibition against photographing juveniles, the eradication of the gang identification database and concerns that a “community safety review board” clashes with the police officers bill of rights.

On the gang database, Elorza believes that there will be a way to make the process more open, so that people will be able to have some measure of oversight. He also feels that there may be ways to craft policies that will satisfy both sides of the issue.

“There are many more places where there is agreement than disagreement,” said Elorza, “and on the areas where there are disagreements, I still remain very hopeful.”

There was little doubt that the community members in attendance were squarely behind the CSA. Nine residents spoke passionately about the need for expanded oversight of the police. Resident Don Baier told a very personal story of when he called the police to help find his sister, who was roaming the streets, delusional. Because of the excellent work of the police, his sister was recovered unharmed and received treatment. Not everybody has such positive interactions with the police, said Baier. He wishes that “every neighborhood could get the same kind of swift, thoughtful action” from the police.

Resident Maureen Reddy is a white East Side resident with a black husband and children, and she is afraid to call the police, for fear that her family might be imperiled. “Both of my children have been hassled by police, repeatedly,” said Reddy. Her son simply assumed that when he left the house, he would be stopped by the police and asked to explain himself. Her daughter was stopped on Benefit St by officers with guns drawn. Had it been her son in that position, she fears he would be dead.

Once a man pulled into Reddy’s driveway and asked her to call the police. Before she did so, she made sure to tell her husband to wait inside the house, so he wouldn’t be a target when the police arrived. Another time, when a woman was yelling in the middle of the night, Reddy did not call the police. Her husband and other neighbors went outside to assist the woman, but before the police arrived, her husband went back into the house. Again, he did not want to be a target of police suspicion, simply because he was black.

Julia Carson is the Principal of Central High School in Providence and an East Side resident. “I am heartbroken when I am ordered, by police officers, to clear the plaza [at Central High school], ‘get the trouble out.’ I don’t know about any of you, but high school was my safe haven growing up. We used to hang out every day after school and I don’t understand why my kids can’t do the same thing.”

Criminal Justice Attorney Annie Voss-Altman cited research that shows that non-whites are more likely to experience the use of non-deadly force in their encounters with police. “Subject compliance didn’t matter,” said Voss-Altman, “across the board, you’re fifty percent more likely to experience the use of force in your encounter with the police is you are black or Hispanic than if you are white or Asian.”

East Side resident Doug Best made the financial case for the CSA. “…the cost of paying settlements for police misconduct,” said Best, is “our major contributor to poor ROI [return on investment].” In other words, when the police mess up, it costs the city money to settle cases.

East Side resident Mark Santow is an American historian provided a historical context for the CSA. Present policing policies in communities of color drive resentment towards the police, said Santow, “and resentment can prevent the type of effective policing needed to keep communities safe and officers safe.”

Libby Edgerly highlighted the positive efforts the Providence Police department has made in addressing some of the concerns presented this evening. Including Mayor Elorza’s recent announcements regarding plans to address concerns about homelessness downtown. “Other notable recent police department initiatives,” said Edgerly, “include requiring police to use department phones, not personal phones, when videoing non-violent demonstrators. Also, supporting a youth basketball group. Also, instituting additional police training on how to work with people suffering mental health disturbances and, finally, choosing not to purchase military equipment offered by the federal government to police departments nationwide.”

The last item generated appreciative applause.

Ondine Sniffin is a resident of the East Side, a Latina, “and I’ve been arrested at a traffic stop… I learned that even though I’m an educated, English speaking U.S. citizen, I can still be mistreated, solely on account of my gender and/or ethnicity.”

East Side resident Sarah Morenon said that having theses practices established as policies is not enough. Policies change and are enforced at the whims of whoever is in charge. “My concern,” said Morenon, “is codifying the desired practices, to put into writing the police behavior guidelines, and get them into law… where subjectivity will not play such a major part.”

“I would like to see the city policy about non-compliance with ICE holds codified,” said Morenon, right ow the policy is “an informal directive.”

Councillor Sam Zurier expressed some doubts about the CSA, and talked about legislation he plans to introduce as a kind of a “stop-gap” measure.

Councillor Kevin Jackson has black sons, and he’s been a stalwart supporter of the CSA.

Moderator Wendy Becker

Martha Yager of the AFSC helped organize the event.

Vanessa Flores-Maldonado is the CSA coordinator.

Elorza’s support for the CSA was clear. Zurier may need more convincing, and Seth Yurdin’s present opinion is unknown.

The march briefly detoured through the East Side, to pass by the home of Governor Gina Raimondo, who broke a campaign promise to grant licenses through executive action. Instead, the governor threw the issue to the General Assembly, where House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello declined to advance the legislation.

The march was organized by the Safer Rhodes Coalition and Comité en Acción. Organizer Claire Pimental, writing for RI Future, said that passing this legislation will improve the quality of life and overall safety of our communities, from higher rates of insured and licensed drivers, to greater cooperation between police and the immigrant communities they serve.

Before the march Mayor James Diossa of Central Falls was joined by state Senators Donna Nesselbush and Frank Ciccone, Senator elect Ana Quezada, and Representatives Aaron Regunberg and Shelby Maldonado.

Below find pictures and video from the event.

In order to send a loud and clear message before the next legislative session, the Coalition has organized a march that will take place on Sunday, September 25th. The March will begin at Jenks Park in Central Falls at 11am, will go past the State House, and end at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Providence. At the end of the march, there will be a cultural festival to celebrate the contributions of immigrant communities to the State of Rhode Island.

The Coalition has been advocating for the passage of legislation that would allow undocumented immigrants to earn driver’s license in the State of Rhode Island. We believe the impact of this legislation will improve the quality of life and overall safety of our communities, from higher rates of insured and licensed drivers, to greater cooperation between police and the immigrant communities they serve.

From a Coalition for Safer Rhodes Press Release

With any speech from Trump, there are the usual bombastic claims that need to be addressed.

1. Undocumented immigrants cost the United States $113 billion a year.

Trump claimed that undocumented immigrants cost $113 billion a year. What Trump failed to mention in his address is that this number originates from an organization known as the Federation for American Immigration Reform, otherwise known as FAIR. This organization is known for using what could be considered a flawed methodology. For instance, they assume the cost of Medicare fraud, and yet knowingly admit that “only anecdotal information is available”. They also allocate more than half of their estimate to education and healthcare for children, neglecting that most are actually native-born U.S. citizens – not undocumented immigrants.

In reality, immigration drives economic growth, leading to new job creation and additional tax revenue. For every immigrant that migrates to the United States, 1.2 new jobs are created. Furthermore, Trump’s claim does not take into account the tax contributions of undocumented immigrants, totaling $11.64 billion nationally per year and over $33.4 million in Rhode Island.

2. Reinstating Secure Communities and 287(g) will help identify criminal aliens that we don’t know about.

Trump praised the two Department of Homeland Security programs, vowing to reinstate them as president in order to deport undocumented immigrants that have been charged with serious crimes and misdemeanors. Although Trump didn’t express his wish to deport all those living in the United States without legal status, his proposal to reinstate these two dragnet enforcement programs will lead to deportations of those who are not criminal aliens. For instance, Secure Communities has deported non-priority immigrants, who have, in many cases, committed no crime at all. In fact, 22.7% of the people deported by ICE and Secure Communities in 2013 had no criminal conviction. Only 12% were actually convicted of a serious criminal offense. And many others were caught by the Secure Communities dragnet for minor traffic offenses, such as driving without a license – according to data from the University of Syracuse.

Trump’s proposal has been tried by several states in the past – including Arizona, Georgia and Rhode Island. Earlier this year, H7408 was introduced in the Rhode Island General Assembly, masqueraded as an e-verify bill – hiding the fact that the legislation contained two provisions that would re-instate Secure Communities and the 287(g) program in Rhode Island.

3. The current administration policies on immigration are ‘weak and foolish’.

Trump’s speech echoed many of the same points as the Obama administration, and yet, calls those policies ‘weak and foolish’ – perhaps just as political theater.

The Obama administration has implemented a similar program to Secure Communities, known as the Priority Enforcement Program (PEP). The intent of PEP is to identify undocumented immigrants who are suspected of committing serious crimes in order to make a determination as to whether to deport them. The administration has also deported more than the past 19 Presidents combined. Is Trump calling his own policies ‘weak and foolish’?

Trump also showcased victims of crimes committed by undocumented immigrants, but neglected to mention that the vast majority of undocumented immigrants are not criminals, but law-abiding workers that actually commit less crime than citizens, especially in regards to homicide.

Coincidentally, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump came to Minneapolis MN on the same day I made my first visit to the city. This turned a day that I had planned to spend sightseeing into a day of traveling to three different anti-Trump events.

“Trump’s rhetoric is creating an unsafe environment for the Muslim community, for the Somali-American community, and we have seen an increase in Islamaphobia and anti-Muslim efforts across the state of Minnesota,” said Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Council of American-Islamic Relations- Minnesota (CAIR-MN), “We have seen, just a few weeks ago, an incident involving five young Muslim men who were shot… we believe that incident is a hate crime.”

Hussein believes that Trump’s extremist rhetoric is creating a hostile, unsafe environment for Muslim Americans and immigrants, and the effects are being felt by the most vulnerable.

Hussein introduced 13-year old Yusuf Dayur who has been experiencing bullying in his school because he is a Muslim. Hussein suggested that Dayur might one day be president. Though Dayur’s school is very proactive in providing Dayur time and space in which to pray, some of his fellow students do not trust him because he is a Muslim. Dayur bravely fought back tears as he described the difficulties he faces.

Jaylani Hussein’s full comments:

After the press conference I headed across town to the Minnesota State Republican Offices where Cosecha Minnesota was holding a “Wall Off Trump” event. Cosecha is “a nonviolent decentralized movement that is focused on activating our immigrant community and the public to guarantee permanent and humane protection for immigrants in this country.”

Estaphania and another woman explained that their protest, in which they painted a wall, like the one Trump is promising on the Texas-Mexico border, is meant to draw attention to Trump’s extremist rhetoric that threatens the health and safety of immigrant Americans.

My last stop was at the Minneapolis Convention Center, where people representing virtually everyone Trump has ever publicly maligned, including immigrants, black Americans, members of the LGBTQ community, women, Muslims, indigenous Americans and more, gathered together to denounce Trump ahead of his visit to a large donor rally.

This protest was organized by MIRAc, the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee, a group that, “fights for legalization for all, an end to immigration raids & deportations, an end to all anti-immigrant laws, and full equality in all areas of life.”

Trump did not make a public appearance in Minnesota, or even speak to the press. He spoke to donors only at the Convention Center. But his very presence in the city was enough to galvanize this group to come out to speak, sing, dance and chant their opposition to Trump being president.

According to the Minnesota Star Tribune, after this event, as Trump donors left the convention center, they were confronted by angry demonstrators. “The demonstrators who harassed donors were not present earlier on, when the protest was peaceful. Many in the later group hid their faces behind scarves,” writes reporter Patrick Condon, “Minneapolis police spokeswoman Sgt. Catherine Michal said there were no arrests and no reported injuries. There was, however, minor damage, including graffiti on the walls of the Convention Center, and officers had to escort Trump supporters in and out of the lobby because they were being harshly confronted, Michal said.”

Below are the rest of the pictures and video from the three events.

The Nuns arrived at St. Michael’s Church in South Providence to the music of the Extraordinary Rendition Band and St. Michael’s own drummers.

During the discussions the Nuns learned about the obscene child poverty rates in Rhode Island, the criminality and disconnect of many of our elected leaders and our state’s support for the fossil fuel industry and the environmental racism such support entails. The meeting filled the basement of St. Michael’s.

From Providence the Nuns headed to Hartford, Scranton and Newark before arriving in Philly on  July 26. You can follow their progress here.

The Providence City Hall Council Chamber was packed over capacity. The crowd was so raucous and loud it was hard to hear the speakers on their microphones.

“I Sabina Matos, would like to pass the Community Safety Act.”

“Seconded.”

Voice after voice pledged their support for the Community Safety Act.

“I, Seth Yurdin, would like to pass the Community Safety Act.”

“I, Sam Zurier, would like to pass the Community Safety Act.”

The Community Safety Act (CSA) passed unanimously. Not a single voice spoke against it. The City Council Chamber erupted in cheers and applause.

It was a brilliant moment.

But the Providence City Council never actually voted. Minutes before the City Council was to begin their meeting, their last meeting before taking a break for vacation, hundreds of protesters in support of Black Lives Matter had crossed the street from Kennedy Plaza and entered the chamber en masse. They took the seats of city councillors and acted out what passing the CSA might look like.

The CSA never passed. It has only recently been scheduled for consideration, when the City Council comes back in September.

As the crowd filed out of the chamber, Nick Katkevich of the FANG Collective asked a just arriving City Councillor Seth Yurdin if he would really support the CSA when the time came.

“I don’t support the CSA,” said Yurdin.

Neither does Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza or Public Safety Commissioner Steven Paré.

Fifteen minutes earlier crowds gathered at Kennedy Plaza, across the street from City Hall. The Movement for Black Lives had called a nationwide, July 21 Collective Action for Freedom, in response to the recent slew of high profile police killings. In Providence, the action was organized by the Step Up Coalition to Pass the Community Safety Act and the White Noise Collective RI around the idea of supporting the CSA.

The proposed Providence ordinance has 12 key points pertaining to police interactions with community members, including providing interpretation, documenting traffic stops in a standardized manner, and limiting police collaboration with other law enforcement agencies such as ICE. The CSA would also re­establish the Providence External Review Authority (PERA) with the power to recommend that Public Safety and Police Department budgets be reapportioned to youth recreation and job training programs.

“We don’t want to compromise on the safety of our community. When you have women dying in jail because they didn’t use a turn signal or youth being shot in cold blood for having toy guns in an open carry state, we can’t compromise,” said Community Safety Act Campaign Coordinator, Vanessa Flores­-Maldonado. “We need police accountability now because no one feels safe in our community.”

The campaign recently scored a win when organizers secured a public hearing for the CSA at the beginning of September. The “mock hearing” was organized to put additional pressure on the City Council to pass the CSA.

At the mock hearing, Flores -Maldonado spoke directly to the city council members present, including Council President Luis Aponte, saying that the city council should listen to what the people had to say.

The protest left city hall and marched up Washington St towards the Providence Public Safety Complex, where people gave a series of speeches in support of the CSA, hiring more teachers of color, community defense, and abolishing the police. Here the speeches were in turn thoughtful and emotional. I would recommend them to those seeking a better understanding of these issues.

After leaving the public safety complex the march continued on to Cathedral Square, where there was some last words before the march disbanded.

Rhode Island celebrated World Refugee Day on Saturday in the People’s Park (Burnside Park) in downtown Providence. The Rufugee Dream Center’s Omar Bah, a Gambian refugee and now a United States citizen, was the emcee for the event. He noted that Rhode Island’s founder, Roger Williams, was a refugee from Massachusetts seeking freedom and safety in our state. Bah said that welcoming refugees is a Rhode island tradition that must be protected.

Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island sponsored the event.

On stage were cultural dances, poetry and music from around the world, including Colombia, Burma, the Congo, India and many more. The event ended with dancing from members of Rhode Island’s Syrian refugee community.

The United Nations notes that “World Refugee Day has been marked on 20 June, ever since the UN General Assembly, on 4 December 2000, adopted resolution 55/76 where it noted that 2001 marked the 50th anniversary of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, and that the Organization of African Unity (OAU) had agreed to have International Refugee Day coincide with Africa Refugee Day on 20 June.”

This is the first outdoor World Refugee Celebration in Providence. Representatives David Cicilline and James Langevin, as well as Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea, spoke briefly.