Pawtuxet River Valley

Here is a seminar to help

T. Lee Associates invites you to a
FREE!!
Interactive Workshop on
The Philosophy of Kingian Nonviolence

When Friday, March 7, 5:00 pm ?– 9:00 pm &
Saturday, March 8, 9:00 am ?– 4:30 pm
Where Tatnuck Bookseller & Caf?©
Westborough Shopping Center, (Route 9 & Lyman Street)
Westborough, MA
How You must pre-register! To pre-register
Email: robtleejones@rcn.com or call 508-344-8166

ABOUT KINGIAN NONVIOLENCE
The Triple Evils of POVERTY, RACISM and WAR are forms of violence that exist in a vicious cycle. They are interrelated, all-inclusive, and stand as barriers to our living in the Beloved Community. When we work to remedy one evil, we affect all evils. The issues change in accordance with the political and social climate of our nation and world.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. defined six principles of nonviolence which were the heart of his philosophy of nonviolence. A commitment to these six principles is the key to making nonviolence a way of life in our personal relationships and in resolving conflicts, reconciling adversaries and creating social change at the community, national and international levels. He also identified the six steps of nonviolence as a methodology for applying the six principles in solving problems and resolving conflicts peacefully.

Workshop Presenters
Rob Jones, Chief Empowerment Officer of
T. Lee Associates
Certified Kingian Nonviolence Trainer
Richard Tarlaian, Retired Providence, RI Police Captain, Certified Kingian Nonviolence Trainer,
URI Center for Peace & Nonviolence


By Arthur

?‘They didn?’t need to kill him?’


Betty Swift said when her 30-year-old son had emotional problems a few months ago in Massachusetts, she called the police for help. They took him to Massachusetts General Hospital without incident.

?“I thought he could get the same help here,?” she said yesterday in a telephone interview. ?“But I was wrong.?”

On Tuesday, a Pawtucket police officer shot and killed Jason M. Swift in the apartment he shared with his mother, at 71 Lupine St. It was the fourth fatal police shooting in Pawtucket in two years.

?“I called them for help and they killed him,?” she said.


She said she called 911 for help getting him to Butler Hospital, a private psychiatric facility in Providence.

When the police arrived, at about 7:30 a.m., Betty Swift said, ?“I told them he?’s a big man and he?’s going to think you?’re trying to harm him.?”

Jason Swift was big, about 6 feet 4 inches tall and 300 pounds. When he went outside, he was brandishing a Samurai-style sword that, according to his mother, was sheathed.

His mother said he dropped the weapon when the police told him to. She said she grabbed it and threw it out of the yard. According to the police, the sword was later found outside.

Police officers told Jason Swift to put his hands behind his back, she said, but instead her son pulled his shirt over his head.

According to Betty Swift, the police tried to subdue him, and he struggled, hitting one of the officers in the head and knocking his sunglasses to the ground.

?“You could see it, they got so angry when Jason hit [the officer?’s] glasses off,?” she said.

At that point, she said, the officers used pepper spray on him. But he wasn?’t subdued. He ran back into the apartment.

?“He was trying to get into his house,?” Betty Swift said, ?“to his safe haven. He was afraid of them. They didn?’t need to kill him.?”

At that point, she said, she was standing near the stairs, trying to keep her son from going inside.

?“They yelled at me to let go, but they didn?’t follow him,?” she said. Instead of subduing him while he was still disoriented from the pepper spray, she said, ?“they waited for him to get up there.?”

/

The officers would not tell her what had happened, Swift said. They had her wait for a superior to arrive.

?“He said, ?‘Ma?’am, your son is dead.?’ ?”

Betty Swift said she hasn?’t gone to see her son?’s body, which is at the medical examiner?’s office.

?“I can?’t see him because I feel like I killed him,?” she said, gasping for air over the phone. ?“I called them for help and they killed him. If I hadn?’t called them, he would still be alive.?”

/
THE POLICE have not released an incident report about the shooting, saying that the investigation continues. But they say that when two officers responded to the call about an ?“emotionally disturbed individual with a knife?” outside 71 Lupine on Tuesday morning, they found Swift acting ?“erratic?” and ?“threatening?” outside the building. Swift was swinging a sword, said Police Chief George L. Kelley.

Following protocol, the officers attempted to subdue Swift with pepper spray and physical force but Swift eluded officers and went inside to his third-floor apartment, according to Kelley. The officers called backup and another patrolman arrived. The officers apparently chased Swift into his apartment. At some point he took off his clothes. Swift indicated that he would cooperate with the officers and agreed to be handcuffed, Kelley said. Then there was a violent struggle, Kelley said. One of the officers ?— identified yesterday by the department as Patrolman Wallace H. Martin ?— fired two shots. Department officials placed Martin, who works the midnight shift, on administrative leave until an investigation by the department and the state police is complete, according to Whiting.
/
Betty Swift said that she wanted people to know that her son is not the monster ?“he is being made out to be.?”


Continued in the article 2/14/08

By Tom Mooney- Projo

Shouldn't we judge dealing fair

Mentally Ill folks need to be dealt with in a fair way on their level. The report seems to indicate there was no effort to talk, but to chase him even after the mace spray. Were the police threatened by his shirt removal?
Some of the officers need to be trained pronto before Pawtucket becomes known at the OK Corral!

By Allison

ProJo unfairly bashes Pawt. P.D.

The Thursday, 2/14 Providence Journal irresponsible coverage of the policemen who has been accused of shooting a Lupine Street suspect was slanted, biased and unfair.

In essence, I can understand interviewing the victim's mother. That is fair journalism.

What makes the shooting article slanted, biased, and unfair is the fact the ProJo editorial and research department did a time line of Pawtucket Police misdeeds in the past few years.

If the ProJo practices balanced journalism, the editors should have done a time line of all Rhode Island communities where police were forced to fatally subdue suspects.

To ProJo writers and editors, please do not use the city of Pawtucket as your verbal assault victim. At the same time, the ProJo staff does a disservice to the great Pawtucket detectives and police officers who labor every day for a ethnically diverse city.

In closing, the ProJo slanted, biased, and unfair journalism is why I stay loyal to the Pawtucket Times.