Providence, R.I., youth protest racial profiling

WW photo: Bill Bateman

On May 23, some 200 people, mainly youth, marched on Providence’s South Side to protest escalating racial profiling by police. They began at Central/Classical High School and walked to police headquarters. Next, the protest moved on to City Hall and other locations and ended up at the State House. There, speakers from community groups called for legislators to pass the Comprehensive Racial Profiling Prevention Act.

En route, the demonstrators paid tribute to those who have been abused or killed due to racial profiling, including Trayvon Martin.

Protesters opposed Mayor Angel Tavares’ appointment of the former head of the Rhode Island State Police as public safety commissioner, giving him authority over the city’s police and fire departments. March organizers and participants called for an end to the increasing police harassment against working-class and poor communities, with city and state police targeting, searching and abusing people of color.

People are fed up and fighting back. Participants in the march were from a variety of organizations, including the Providence Student and Youth Movement (PrSYM), Direct Action for Rights and Equality (DARE), the RI Peoples’ Assembly, the Coalition against Racial Profiling, the Onleyville Neighborhood Association (ONA), Somos Todos Arizona, the Providence chapter of the NAACP and the Eastern Medicine Drum.