August 20, 2006
What's Going On in Rhode Island
On a quiet East Side street yesterday morning, police dug bullet slugs from the vinyl siding on a house and the fender of a nearby car. A teenager walked by with a bloody bandage on his elbow. And mothers complained about the stupidity of young people shooting each other for no good reason.The night before, five people were shot as they sat in front of 94 Pleasant St., waiting to go to a club. Witnesses said they heard 15 shots. ...
"It's an East Side-South Side thing and they're fighting over nothing," said Denise Taylor, who lives on Pleasant Street. She said she has a 17-year-old son who has been shot once and shot at several times.
"I can't take him to the mall because he'll get jumped," she said.
Most of the massage parlors in Rhode Island are operating in office buildings in the capital city -- some just blocks from City Hall -- but the mayor says the state's weak law on prostitution hampers the police in shutting down the brothels. ...A quirk in current state law makes prostitution legal in Rhode Island, as long as it takes place indoors. Only the streetwalkers, their pimps, and the customers flagging them down from vehicles can be charged. ...
Last year, legislators rejected an attempt to strengthen the prostitution law, saying it would punish women who may be working as prostitutes against their will.
At the last session of the General Assembly, two bills that targeted human-trafficking also died.
I don't know what to say, except maybe this: Hey, yeah, let's throw a casino into the mix. That'll help.
Don't forget the full-blown gang war that Mayor McGraft and Chief Shiny Badge are working furiously to keep out of the paper.
And the epidemic of young teenaged kids too friggin stupid to put on a seatbelt that drive around like life is Grand Theft Auto and end up plowing into trees, poles, buildings and wind up dead.
And that's not even counting the underaged kids that are DRUNK driving...
I'm beginning to think the casino is just a red herring designed to make people stop thinking about all the other serious issues we have to deal with in this state.
Posted by: Greg at August 20, 2006 7:04 AMDon't forget to give Mayor McGraft and Chief Shiney Badge full credit for the explosion of gay sex clubs in Providence. Both men should be commended for their loyalty to their own. lol
Posted by: Tim at August 20, 2006 11:33 AMCome on, stop complaining and enjoy the shows.The logic of using bread an circuses to deflect the public's attention from civic decline has a long history. We're just seeing another version of it. Bring on the casino -- it will distract people from the fiscal collapse speeding towards us because of out-of-control spending on social welfare and public sector employee benefits. Just make sure you have Paul Arpin lined up, so you can head on out ahead of the pack when the taxes really start to rise...
Posted by: John at August 20, 2006 12:30 PM>> Don't forget the full-blown gang war that Mayor McGraft and Chief Shiny Badge are working furiously to keep out of the paper.
Funny how those statistics never seem to make it into the campaign literature.