Investigators are trying to examine the source of a Facebook flyer that encouraged looting, ahead of a disturbance that sparked vandalism across downtown Providence earlier this week.
Col. James Manni of the Rhode Island State Police tells The Public’s Radio that a trooper who works with the FBI is examining where that message originated.
“Your questions are all part of this investigation, to find out where it originated from and what the intent was – whether it was a Rhode Islander, whether it was someone from outside Rhode Island or whether it was a foreign government,” Manni said.
He declined to reveal whether investigators have found an answer to those questions.
Brother Gary Dantzler, the head of Black Lives Matter in Rhode Island, said he’s convinced the flyer originated outside Rhode Island, although he said he couldn’t be sure where.
Manni said a second flyer on social media tried to inspire overnight Tuesday a repeat of what happened Monday, when a crowd of young people squared off with police near Providence Place, broke windows around downtown, set fires and damaged a series of government buildings.
Gov. Gina Raimondo responded by activating the Rhode Island National Guard.
With Guard vehicles posted at the Statehouse, Guard helicopters circling overheard, and the entrances blocked to malls in Cranston and Warwick, things were quiet in Rhode Island from Tuesday night into Wednesday.
Manni said he hopes things remain quiet moving ahead, but that State Police are remaining alert. He says a total of 71 people were arrested and that things would have been far worse had police not known about plans for the disturbance in advance.
The unrest follows protests and riots around the nation after George Floyd died while held down by a Minneapolis police officer.
During a Q&A with reporters at her daily briefing, Raimondo was asked about the use of military vehicles and helicopters in Rhode Island.
“It is a deeply unsettling time,” she said. “And I knew when I made that decision to deploy the Guard, I knew the visual that people would see was military-type folks in the streets with riot gear, Humvees, hearing the helicopters. But I felt it was necessary. I’d rather hear that than what we lived through, and what other cities are living through, in terms of the riots.”
While young people who have faced discrimination and inequity have a right to be angry, Raimondo said, she called the tactics used during the disturbance earlier this week eerily similar to what has happened in other cities.
Manni, who characterized the vandals Tuesday, as “anti-government-type people” said that was based on their actions.
“There was an attempted breach of the Statehouse Monday night,” he said. “There was severe damage to the DCYF building and parking lot, where state vehicles were burned. There was the courthouse in Providence, where this group attempted to light the courthouse on fire. The AG’s office was damaged with rocks.”
The state Department of Administration building across from the Statehouse was also damaged. Vandals triggered water sprinklers in the Division of Taxation by breaking a window and throwing a smoke bomb into the office. The tax office remains closed to the public through Friday
Raimondo met Wednesday with Dantzler, the local head of Black Lives Matter. He said his message was one of “change and peace and how we move forward with race relations.”
Dantzler said the governor and he plan to take part in a news conference at Burnside Park later this week.
Raimondo has praised the local chapter of Black Lives Matter for staging a largely protest last weekend that she said was almost totally non-violence. Another protest by the ground is planned for Friday afternoon at Kennedy Plaza.
