A shaken community reacts to the shooting of a child

"When did we get to this place where we are allowing young people to put us in fear, where young people are so brazen that they're going to pull out a gun in broad daylight?"

On Friday evening community leaders, politicians and members of the public gathered on the corner of Kossuth and Florence Streets in Providence for a Community Action Vigil. They were responding to the shooting of a seven-year-old girl. The girl was not the intended target, according to the Providence Police Department, who made two arrests in connection with the crime.

Note that Mayor Smiley and Councilmember Sanchez only spoke when those in attendance asked them to.

Here’s the video:

Harrison Tuttle [Black Lives Matter RI PAC]: I don't know the best words to say in a time like this other than [to stress] the importance of having each other's back and being in the community. Over the last week or so, our most marginalized community members - our brothers, sisters, family members, the people we go to school with, the people we hang out with - to see the violence that has occurred over the past week, number one, is the issue [of] gun violence and the lack of needed action by not only the City of Providence but the state as a whole. [We need] to allocate funding towards not only the people that are doing the work every day but to the people that are affected by gun violence in this city.

Most importantly, organizations like the Nonviolence Institute [need] not just funding to operate and change lives here, we need the Nonviolence Institute to have the full capacity in terms of street workers [and] victim services. That is the most important part.

We have city counselors and community advocates here, as well as state reps. How do we collectively come together and save lives? The only place this happens is in low-income, Black and brown communities. That's the only place where it happens. As an organization that is dedicated to the lives of Black and brown people in this state, but most importantly in this city at this time - for the Governor of Rhode Island to put out a tweet about Joe Mazzulla coming to the State House on Tuesday for the Basketball trophy when you have a 7-year-old who is in critical condition and people in our community are dying, literally dying -

We need not just thoughts and prayers, but an allocation of resources. We need policymakers to come to the table. Not the policymakers that aren't affected by gun violence in their communities, but the people that are in the communities doing the work. Those are the individuals like Lisa Pina-Warren and others in the community who understand what it takes to solve this issue.

Lisa Pina-Warren [Executive Director of the Nonviolence Institute]: First and foremost, I want to thank you all for being here. We can all agree that today we woke up with heavy hearts and the feeling that we have to do more. I don't have the answers, and I'm not here to point fingers at anyone. I'm not here to say this one needs to do that. That one needs to do this. What I am going to say is it takes all of us, we all have to do something. We all have to take responsibility, and I mean from the community. This is our community. We have to take responsibility and accountability for our community. When did we get to this place where we are allowing young people to put us in fear, where young people are so brazen that they're going to pull out a gun in broad daylight?

If you look at the track record over the last couple of weeks, there have been multiple things that have happened in broad daylight, and I know that because my team and I have responded in broad daylight. I walked away from my granddaughter's birthday party in broad daylight, so that's why I'm telling you I know it wasn't night. I didn't get woken up in the middle of the night. I was in the middle of dinner. It was broad daylight. It's when our communities are out here walking around actively that these things are happening. How did we allow it to get to this point?

We all know that there are [too] many guns in the community. We know that's an issue. What do we do? Again, I don't have the answers. Today, I had so many people calling, texting, and asking me, "What are we going to do?"

I'm asking everyone else. I'm down for whatever. I'm here because I love my community and because I'm not going to give up without a fight. We have to do something. I have a little girl at home the same age as the little girl lying in the hospital bed right now. I was with the [seven-year-old victim's] mom last night when her mom got to see her, and all I could see was my child in that bed.

I pray to God that I never have to experience the things that some of the mothers in our community have experienced, but I know for damn sure that we have to figure out, as a community - not in silos, not against each other - we have to learn how to communicate and figure out how we do it together. There are resources in our community. Why aren't we putting them together? Yes, we need funding. We need city, state, and federal funding. We need all of that. But what about the organizations in the community? Why aren't we sitting down at a table and figuring out how we can do it together? Let's put our resources together. We're more powerful together.

Again, I thank you all for being here, but this is what we do when we're outraged. This is what we do. We want to have vigils and rallies and come out and march. I think it's all great because we need to show solidarity. But what do we do afterward?

Diana Garlington [Community Activist]: I am just tired. I'm tired of having to come out here and say we don't want any more thoughts and prayers - that is not working. It's not solving these issues. Yesterday Lisa put up the [social media] post about this 7-year-old child fighting for her life. We got all these wonderful comments and likes, but where is everybody who was on those posts saying that we need to do something, [tonight]? You [have] to come out here. You have to be here with us.

I'm a mother. I lost my daughter to gun violence, but I'm not standing here for that. I'm standing here for my community. I'm standing here telling you enough is enough. How do we let these young kids take lives and do nothing? They don't own these streets. They do not own these streets, so why are we letting them come out here and take our children and take our streets? It's unacceptable. It's time for us to stand up and do something. I don't want to keep coming out here talking about a rally. I don't want to keep coming out here asking and begging people. We're begging people to come out here and save our streets.

This is uncalled for. We have to be out here for a 7-year-old child. It makes no sense whatsoever. And as Lisa said, we cannot blame anyone. We all have a hand in getting out here and doing what's right. Step out and march with us. Do what needs to be done to stop this violence. I'm raising my grandson because someone decided that they were going to take my daughter's life. Now I'm out here fighting for him. I'm fighting for all the rest of my grandchildren. I'm fighting for the kids in the community. They're our kids too. They're not just born to their parents. It's time for us to step up as a community and do what's right.

Thank you, Lisa, for having me come out here today. Like I said, I'm tired. I'm so tired of coming out here for these moments, but I know if this is what it's going to take, then I'll keep coming out here and I know that I can always count on you. But it should not be on my shoulders to do this every single time. I understand some people are afraid, but we're going to be more afraid [if we are] not fighting and stopping these shootings. It's time. Let's do something. Please.

James Monteiro [Community Activist]: I'm not too good with words. I just know there's a saying. "If you see it wrong, try to stop it with your hands. If you can't stop it with your hands, then you should speak out against it. You should say something about that. And if you can't say something about it, hate it in your heart." It [said that] the last of those three is the weakest of faith.

When I saw that, I was compelled to say something. Sometimes you're in the background, but at the same time, sometimes you still need to come out. You need to say something.

Especially in support of you, Lisa. I told you when you became the director, we got your back.

That shit's not cool, man. There are some things you just don't do, some things are just strictly unacceptable. There are no points for that at all. It's disrespectful to everybody [and] everything, on every level.

I agree with you, Diane. Because life goes on, yeah, we got events, we got all this stuff happening but wait a minute...

Stop. Pause for a minute. Pause because that shit ain't even that important.

I don't care who you are. I don't care who you think you are. I don't care what your position is in life. Some stuff needs to stop. It needs to pause because right now we are bleeding. There's a hemorrhage happening in the community and from what I've seen, it's happening more. You keep posting about shootings, Lisa. You keep posting about shootings and I feel bad. I feel bad for you every time because I know that's your burden.

But wait a minute. Stop. Pause.

A 7-year-old little girl who should be getting ready for school is in the hospital fighting for her life. Everybody should be out here.

Lisa Pina-Warren: Her 5-year-old brother was sitting beside her and witnessed it.

James Monteiro: Stop, everybody. Stop, stop, stop. Something's happening right now.

When a 7-year-old gets shot and you keep posting about shootings, stop, put it on pause for a minute. Whatever you have going on, it is not that big. Put it on pause and let's figure this out. Let's address this because there's no way this girl should be fighting for her life. I'm sorry to the family and [for being] emotional. Sorry that this predicament was even possible to happen. So I'll just leave it at that.

Benny [Comunnity member]: I grew up here all my life, all 58 years of it. I've seen tragedy. I've seen sorrow, and I was one of the ones who stood in the back and talked about it. I think it's time to be about it. I think it is.

One thing about me, and my nephews, nieces, and family members know this - if they do something wrong, I'm not snitching - I'm telling so they know not to do wrong. If you are a family member, I'm sorry. I love you. That was wrong. I'm telling Stop it.

How do you stop me from telling?

You don't do it. That's my message. [They] don't do it because they know I'm telling.

Sal Monteiro [Nonviolence Institute]: I've been teaching nonviolence training in the beloved community along with Shane and Lisa. I've been at the Nonviolence Institute for almost 20 years. I've been to Chicago, I've been to Los Angeles. I've been to Paris. I've been to Ireland. I've been to California, Michigan, and New York. The one thing I could always say we are proudest of is that the stuff that happens in other cities doesn't happen in the 401.

We know that violence happens. We know that people get shot. I spent half my life in Chicago, so I know what happens in Chicago to young kids. But the one thing that I held proud of, even if I don't agree with everything about the police, was I never had to wake up in the morning and see that the police done shot somebody [and] a young person had gotten killed. I never had to wake up [and] had to worry about that.

I'm worried about that now.

It's up to us, the 401, the beloved community. Let's not be cowards. The first principle of nonviolence is that it's not for cowards, it's for courageous people. Let's be courageous... We cannot be cowards. We are cowards if we sit back and let this continue to happen.

Lisa Pina-Warren: I want to thank everyone again for being here. I especially want to thank Mayor Brett Smiley and Commander Tim O'Hara. I know that you slept just as much as I did in the last 24 hours because we've been in communication and I want to thank you for the hard work that you all did in making sure that there was an arrest made today and that we have two people to hold responsibility.

This [event] was to bring the community together... Sometimes what we need is to get together, even if we just stand here together, okay? We are all grieving right now. We're all going through a tragedy and for the family members, I know that you hear us and I see you, and I want you to know that you're not alone and that we are here to support you.

Providence Mayor Brett Smiley: I didn't want to turn this into some political thing. This is a time that the community is hurting and what we talked about earlier today is we all need to do better. We all need to do more. I'm proud of the work of the Providence Police Department, but that's not the answer. More police isn't the answer.

I guess I feel like Lisa, which is if you have ideas, bring them to us. There are a lot of public officials here today at the state and city level. Bring them to us. We all need to do more. I need to do more. My team is ready to do more. I know the council is ready to do more. The State House is ready to do more, but I don't know the answers. I know that we're doing good things and part of the answer is doing more of that, but maybe we need to try other things. It's a moment of vulnerability and desperation - asking for good ideas and asking for ways in which you think we can be helpful and honestly, asking for all of your help because government policy - writing checks to organizations - isn't going to solve this. It's got to be people coming together and it has to be the community standing up to say that this is not okay.

Lisa said it. We're trying hard to get every gun off the street that we can. We're trying hard to make it harder to get a gun in the first place, but we are also living in a community right now where people think it's okay to fire that gun, and gun control is not going to solve that problem. That's a community problem. That doesn't mean it's not my problem - it's all of our problem.

I don't have much to say other than I know Diane is right. She said that thoughts and prayers aren't enough, but we do have a little girl who's in the hospital fighting for her life. So whoever it is that you pray for or pray to, pray for her right now because she's still in that fight. I think that that's worth something. I believe that's worth something. In the meantime, we're all ears. We're all ears to do more and we want to try everything we can to break this cycle at a time that this entire city is afraid and heartbroken. I don't have anything else to say.

Providence City Councilmember Miguel Sanchez: I also didn't want to speak because these events tend to take the attention away when politicians speak, but my name's Miguel. I'm the city counselor just from the neighborhood right over here.

Of course, much gratitude, support, and love to Lisa, the Nonviolence Institute, and every other community member here. There's a lot of pain. It's important to acknowledge that and embrace those feelings and emotions, but it is just as important to not let them defeat us. It's important to acknowledge these feelings... but to continue the work. The work of ending gun violence is work that needs to be [done] 365 days a year. Whether there are 10 shootings and murders in the city or there's one. The goal of all of us collectively here is that there are zero murders in our beautiful city that we all call home. And one small avenue that a few of us have started working on is a committee called the Pathway to End Gun Violence. We have folks from the Nonviolence Institute on it, people from the Attorney General's office, and different community members. Of course, the Providence Police Department is also on there.

That is an avenue that I encourage you all to participate in as much as possible. Every meeting there's an agenda, but more importantly, there's a space for public comment because ending gun violence is going to be on all of us. It's going to be on the community and elected officials. It's going to take all of us to move in a different direction.

Lastly, we've got to take care of ourselves. This weighs super heavy on all of us. As Mayor Smiley is very aware, it's so easy to get caught up in the next city issue, the next problem, or the next municipal challenge. But I'm going to take time this weekend to feel and be a human being because if we're not that, then none of these systemic issues are going to get addressed. At the end of the day, that's why we put ourselves in these positions - to be there for our community as much as possible and to tear down some of these systemic issues. As a city counselor, Providence resident, and neighbor of this community, I want you all to know that I'll always be here fighting to change the direction we're currently in.

Lisa [Community Member]: I'm Lisa. I never speak. I've lived in Providence almost my whole life and I did community work for many years. For the last two years, I've been telling people I'm retired and I feel guilty about that. My heart hurts so much. So Lisa, Diana, anybody - I'm back and I'm going to help. Even if you don't want to, you have to come out and start helping again. We need a strong presence of people out here trying to help these kids and trying to stop this. I don't know what to do.

Al: This evening I was on my way to my son's scrimmage in Woonsocket, and there was a post that stated what was happening here. As my brother spoke about, sometimes things just need to stop. Everything that's going on in our life, our comfortable settings, our life as we know it, needs to stop.

I'm a product of Providence. I was afforded many opportunities out of state and just recently moved back because of the burden that was on my heart for my city. I stand before you today as a father, a husband, and a first responder who has responded to calls like this. Around this time of year, I think about a 17-year-old shooting that I had to respond to, and even with all the efforts we tried that day, we still weren't able to save him. We have to make sure that situations like this do not become the norm. When a 7-year-old gets shot we need everyone to pull up and show that this is not okay. If this was any other situation that involved a police officer or any other situation, these streets would be packed. That's not to give any bias or anything, that's just being real.

It's not about whether you live in the city. It's not about whether you live in a state. If you have a heart of compassion, this is where we should be. All of us play a role, whether you are organizing, whether you are on a medic truck, a firefighter, or a police officer, we all have roles. It's not about just when the cameras are on. It's not about sending out sweet little posts so that people can like them, but what are we doing when nobody is watching? What are we doing in our churches to step outside the walls of the church and be the church in our communities? This is where we need to be.

At the hospital right now, interceding for that little girl - interceding [for] not just one shooting, but [three] shootings this week. This should not be the norm.

We as a community need to continue to come together. I'm asking my brothers and sisters to show up where you can and take action. If you have nieces and nephews, step up and talk to them. Be that person to walk alongside them. Don't criticize them for what they are doing, be transparent about your life, about the struggles that we face here in Providence so that they can see that they too can overcome with support. I'm putting out a call to all those who are from this city or from this state who may have gone out of state. I am asking you all to take the time, even if it's once or twice a year, to come back and give to your community. Let's not get so comfortable [that] we forget where we came from.

My prayer for my community is that we continue to unite. We continue to show up as brothers and sisters to show that this will not become the norm and can take faith and we can say we're going to apply action to it because faith without works is dead. Dead. God bless.