Able to sleep again
My perspective on Providence Mayor Brett Smiley’s handling of the Brown University attack is a little different than some I’ve read. For one thing, I live in West Warwick, but then again, the first suspect was found right next door in Coventry. Perhaps it was unwise to tell folks they were safe, but all in all I was impressed with the mayor. Nobody is ever prepared to be the lead in a tragedy.
But the fear surrounding the suspect still on the loose reminded me of an experience I had more than 30 years ago. The suspect was known but not found. In 1989 Craig Price was suspected (and later convicted) of murdering four people in Warwick. At that time, I lived two streets from the murder site.
When news of the murders came out, my neighbors and I poured out into the street. There must have been a dozen of us sharing our fear and our phone numbers, talking about how we would keep ourselves and each other safe…