[Summit] CSA

[Mikaila Mariel Lemonik Arthur]

For those who wish to call in support of the CSA: Something as simple as 
"I am calling to urge that the [city council pass/mayor support passage 
of] the Community Safety Act in a form as similar as possible to that 
supported by the Step Up Coalition as soon as possible" should do it.

Calls should go to Mayor Elorza's office (401.421.2489) and to the City 
Council. The number for the City Council is (401)521-7477 but you may 
also wish to email them. You can email the entire city council at 
council at providenceri.com 
<http://council.providenceri.com/contact-city-council> --or you can 
email Aponte, the Council President at Ward10 at providenceri.com and 
Hassett, the Chair of the Ordinance Committee at Ward12 at providenceri.com 
(if you know people in other neighborhoods, direct them to 
http://council.providenceri.com/members to find contact info for their 
Councilperson and to http://council.providenceri.com/efile/217 if they 
do not know which ward they live in.

As to Itisa Costume's observations about the CSA, some of those are 
based on a misunderstanding or misinterpretation of the ordinance. For 
example, Costume objects to the translator requirement on the grounds 
that police would be unable to question anyone at a crime scene--but the 
CSA clearly permits questioning without a translator in emergency 
situations. (Besides which, if you've every had a conversation with 
someone who is not proficient in English, you'd know that interrogating 
that person in a language they don't speak is unlikely to produce much 
in the way of valuable information, given that they won't even 
understand the questions you have asked).

More importantly, Costume points out a section protecting immigrants 
from inappropriate referrals to ICE and suggests this is an "anti-Trump" 
provision. This is patently impossible, as the CSA was drafted long 
before the 2016 election. In fact, the initial version of the CSA was 
unveiled on June 19, 2014, after many months of negotiations and 
discussions 
(https://www.facebook.com/events/283492315164997/?active_tab=about). 
This was before Trump even announced his candidacy for office, so 
suggesting the language is "anti-Trump" is preposterous. Of course, 
given Trump's (and RI Representative Corvese and his colleagues') 
interest in deporting our friends, relatives, and neighbors, this 
provision of the CSA has taken on importance its drafters could not have 
foreseen.

You might also want to know that the language has been adjusted and 
modified in a number of ways over the years to address the needs of city 
government and law enforcement. Indeed, some portions are simply a 
formalization of existing policy, including the section on immigration 
Costume objects to. As Providence Public Safety Commissioner Pare 
recently stated 
(http://ripr.org/post/providence-police-will-not-act-immigration-officials-following-homeland-security-memo), 
when local law enforcement works with ICE it "erodes trust between 
police and city residents" and thus can result in more crime and less 
safety for all residents.

--Mikaila

-- 
Mikaila Mariel Lemonik Arthur
mmlarthur at gmail.com <mailto:mmlarthur at gmail.com>
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