Providence man helped protect a shoe store from looters. His secret? Respect
PROVIDENCE -- At around 2 a.m. Tuesday, hundreds of youth were clashing with police in riot gear in downtown Providence, but Bennie Stephens wasn’t aware of that yet.
The 54-year-old Providence resident was taking a peaceful bike ride to clear his head.
“I take them every now and then, maybe three, four nights a week,” he said. “Late night, no headphones on, just listening to the wind, get some thoughts together.”
As he pedaled along Broad Street, he saw a friend of his, community activist Dewayne "Boo" Hackney, standing in front of Expressions Shoes, a shoe store owned by another friend.
Stephens stopped to say hello. Hackney told him about the chaos unfolding in downtown Providence and that he feared their friend’s store might become a target of looting.
And so the men, with no tactical gear or weapons, waited out front for the rioters to arrive.
Sure enough, as the crowd, which had originally gathered outside the Providence Place mall around midnight, began to disperse, groups of people spread through the city’s neighborhoods, some of them breaking windows and wreaking havoc on local shops.
Stephens said waves of people began to show up at Expressions Shoes, ranging in age from 14 to 35, sometimes in cars and sometimes on foot, with the intention of breaking into the store.
With each group that appeared, Hackney and Stephens asked them, respectfully, to leave and go home.
“Every one of them listened,” he said.
The secret, he said, to getting rowdy young people, some of whom had just been rioting, to walk away peacefully, was the respect he said he and Hackney had been able to earn among so many youth.
“We said, ‘Go sit down guys. Cut it out,’ and they looked and said, ‘Oh, that’s Boo and Bennie,’ ...and they go, ‘Yeah, we better go sit down,’” he said. “Simple respect. It is so easy to gain respect and easier to lose it.”
At a news conference held Tuesday afternoon in front of Expressions Shoes to announce the institution of a citywide curfew, Mayor Jorge Elorza thanked Stephens and Hackney for their actions earlier that morning.
“They took it upon themselves to do what they could to de-escalate the situation and to ask people to go home or remain peaceful,” Elorza said. “Bennie and Boo, they stood right here and put their bodies between the store and the people who were looking to loot it, and they said, ‘Not in our neighborhood.’
“This is an example of how every single person can take it upon themselves to be part of the solution,” he said. “We can all play a role.”
Stephens said he understands and sympathizes with the anger people are feeling across the country. The killing of Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died last week at the hands of police officers in Minneapolis, has sparked peaceful protests, as well as violent and destructive riots, in dozens of cities.
But, Stephens said, rioting and looting is not the correct way to express anger.
“It’s OK to get mad and ball your fist up,” he said. “Instead of marching regular, it’s OK to stomp when you march. That’s fine. But to actually use those boots that you’re stomping to kick a window or a door in, that’s not .. a march. It’s not. ... It’s vandalism. And it’s vandalism on things that your family members go to or need.”
Many of the rioters Tuesday morning were young, and adults everywhere can help guide the youth in their communities -- beginning with earning their respect, Stephens said.
“It starts with you walking down the street and you see some kids playing basketball, whatever, and you walk over there and you join in,” he said. “You see a kid with his bike and he’s on the side of the road and he’s trying to fix the pedal and you go and you help him. You join in.
“Pay attention to your youth,” he said. “And they don’t have to be yours to be paid attention to.”
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