R.I. Pride protests police role in Providence parade

A national controversy over the participation of police in pride parades came home to Rhode Island on Tuesday when organizers of Rhode Island’s event criticized the presence of Warwick police officers in Saturday night’s parade in Providence.

The back and forth began late Monday when the organizers, in a Facebook posting, admonished police, as well as the Gay Officers Action League of New England, for bringing a marked cruiser — rather than an unmarked car — and for sounding sirens and illuminating lights during the R.I. PrideFest parade.

The dispute continued into Tuesday when Warwick’s police chief, Col. Rick Rathbun, said that his department had been invited by GOAL and that he and other Warwick police officers had walked in the parade as part of an outreach effort.

The posting on the Facebook page of Rhode Island Pride says parade organizers and representatives of GOAL had carefully negotiated the scope and visibility of the parade’s law-enforcement contingent before the event, agreeing to the presence of one officer on a motorcycle and one unmarked police car with no lights and no sirens.

But at the parade lineup, GOAL arrived with two marked motorcycles and then added a marked Warwick police cruiser “without our knowledge or consent,” according to the Facebook posting.

“They did this in a way that made it impossible for our volunteer at the location to stop them,” says the posting. “During the Parade, they also had the lights and sirens active, violating their pledge to us.”

“This,” says the posting, “was a complete disregard for the concerns of the community and the agreement between Rhode Island Pride and GOAL.”

Joseph Lazzerini, president of Rhode Island Pride, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

The participation of police in pride events this year has been a hot topic in some parts of the country.

Later this month, the LGBTQ+ community will remember the 50th anniversary of riots in New York City that involved hundreds of police officers and thousands of people from the community who were outraged by a police raid on June 28. The strife took place at a Greenwich Village gay bar called the Stonewall Inn.

Some observers trace the origins of the pride movement to Stonewall. In the decades since, however, changing sensibilities have given rise to a wide spectrum of gay-rights advocacy organizations such as GOAL.

The organization, which bills itself as the only support organization in New England for LGBT public safety personnel, has 200 members throughout the region. In past years, RI Pride has requested the participation of GOAL members, according to the GOAL news release.

But about a month before the 2019 parade, the RI Pride Committee expressed “concern” about the participation of GOAL, the release says.

GOAL and its supporting agencies, including Warwick police and Rathbun, took full direction from parade volunteers, says the release, and there were not any agreements or restrictions regarding the use of lights and sirens.

“We have used them for the past several years with an always-positive reaction from the attendees of the parade," says the release.

Rathbun said the cruiser was at the staging location for more than an hour, with lots of opportunity for organizers to notify Warwick police that they were out of place.

During that time, he said, he had numerous exchanges with people participating in the parade and he felt his effort to make outreach to the community and show support was a success.

Rathbun said he and three other members of the department, including a Warwick police officer who is a member of GOAL, Sgt. Robert Hart, joined in the parade.

Rathbun said he was sitting in the marked cruiser’s passenger seat at the check-in, which took place at a staging location off Richmond Street. A volunteer directed the cruiser to position No. 93, he said.

The allegation that Warwick police “circumvented” barriers to get into the lineup is “blatantly untrue,” Rathbun said.

“No one stormed any barriers,” he said. No one, he said, told them not to use sirens or lights, which they typically do at parades.

“If that occurred we would have honored it,” Rathbun said.

The GOAL news release says the organization’s board will reach out to the R.I. Pride committee with the hope of establishing collaboration.

“Our hope is to bridge the gap between the LGBT community and the public-safety field, as well as to open a dialogue of inclusion and understanding of all community partners.”