Dirt bikes and ATVs take part in the “Justice for Jhamal” Gonsalves rally October 20, 2020 after the Providence rider was critically wounded in an encounter with police. Photo by Steve Klamkin WPRO News
By Steve Klamkin WPRO News
Providence is pledging to keep a crackdown on riding unlicensed dirt bikes and all-terrain vehicles on city streets, with Mayor Jorge Elorza pledging on Thursday to adopt ordinances on the unfettered sale of bikes and fuel, while community groups complain the Providence Democrat should adopt a “zero tolerance” stance toward the vehicles.
“Make no mistake about it,” Elorza said in front of the Providence Public Safety complex. “These illegal ATVs, they’re dangerous and they continue to create a dangerous situation for the public. And they will not and cannot be tolerated.”
Elorza said police, in consultation with police departments around the country that are grappling with the same problem, are developing policies to address the ‘ride-outs’ that have seen hundreds of the vehicles swarming the city and surrounding communities.
Elorza said his office would also offer ordinances regulating the sale of the bikes, and outlawing the sale of fuel by gas stations to riders.
“This is a zero-tolerance issue,” said Sharon Steele, President of the Jewelry District Association, who said she was also speaking on behalf of several other community organizations, including the College Hill Neighborhood Association, the Fox Point Neighborhood Association, and the Downtown Neighborhood Association.
She said Elorza should have outlawed the bikes from the start to protect both the community and police.
“The idea with the enabling legislation proposed by the mayor simply says ‘we want to register these vehicles, we want to insure these vehicles. And by the way, the vehicles are going to agree to moderating the noise that they make and that they are going to begin to obey traffic laws.’
“Well, if you believe that there’s a bridge that I can find that I can sell to you,” Steele said. “Because the reality is that these people are operating with impunity, because one, they know they can get away with it, and two, because obviously they are looking for the publicity. They are literally enjoying what it is they are doing, otherwise they wouldn’t be doing it,” she said.
It is a fraught issue for the city, after the October, 2020 encounter between a city police cruiser following a rider, Jhamal Gonsalves, who was critically wounded in a crash that police and prosecutors later determined was not caused by the cruiser, but sparked a march and riot in support of the Providence man, who was paralyzed in the incident.
Elorza said the city has a hotline for residents to report sightings of the bikes, at 401-680-8ATV.
Providence Public Safety Commissioner Steven Pare said the city would continue to crush illegally operated vehicles that are seized by police. For the past few years, the city has invited cameras and reporters to witness bikes being crushed by a front-end loader.
