What I’m trying to say is depasquale square as-is is pretty unique. we don’t have many other places in providence that are like it: car-free, diverse in terms of race/age/class, walkable to other fun stuff. The bars and restaurants are a big part of the vibe (not even taking account the tax revenue, jobs, etc.) and I think they should be encouraged.

On the other hand, we as a city are blessed with a TON of publicly available green space, fed hill included. There is something for everyone, but fed hill has a specific character.

If you didn’t like the bocci park because it’s full of fed hill people, you prob won’t like another park full of the same fed hill people.

Lol if you scared of old Italian bocci players, wait till you see drunk Italian twenty somethings. Maybe the neighborhood isn’t for you?

You make much use of the bocci park or St. John’s?

I love going there. It's one of my favorite places to go out with friends in the summer, I think the extra seating makes it more festive, and you never have to wait.

Restaurants and entertainment bring us a lot of tax revenue and a lot of decent working class jobs (i used to wait tables at constantinos/venda, it's a good place to work). Places like DePasquale Square bring that Boston/suburb money into Providence for dinner, and then those folks usually spend money across the city in the course of the evening. I think it's probably a good investment

I love chilling in public parks, but DePasquale square isn't that fun to hang out in: look at it: there are no public seats, it's all paved. There are two available, much nicer public parks (my favorite: the Bocci park and st. johns) within easy walking distance.....

I don't see the problem

Lol did anyone else think he was talking bout sherm?

I was "complaining about" the original poster who didn't call the police for "obvious reasons" and then went on to call a non-emergency line.This is about as good as praying to god for the situation to resolve: it might make you feel good, but does nothing to help anyone.

I have no problem with having mental health workers with cops, but best case scenario for someone threatening random people on the street with a knife is a high dose of sedatives in a relatively-comfortable low-security carceral institution until they age out of violence (and using up resources that could be going to education, affordable housing, and helping young families).

The sooner you get authorities involved, the better chance for this. If they hurt someone (which sounds likely) they will be put in the ACI and probably get stabbed up by higher functioning convicts who don't want to deal with their predatory bullshit.

What do you mean by treatment? The state ward? Are you at all familiar with these places?

This person is inevitably going to end up subjected to violence and locked away in prison or somewhere worse, where they will be subjected to more violence. The only question is how many people they hurt before hand.

You are not really suggesting anything. Unarmed social workers don't and won't intervene in situations like this (because they don't want to get stabbed). This is something that (unfortunately) can only be solved by coercive force. Calling the police is the least-bad of a bunch of unpleasant options.

This is naïve view that is ultimately harmful.

How do you non coercively care for a violent predator on the street? What specifically do you mean by de-escalation?

Lol

I wish folks had as much sympathy for the women, children and other people this crazy guy will inevitably hurt as they do for violent, knife wielding predators. Most mentally ill people aren’t dangerous, and erratic behavior doesn’t give someone the right to threaten others on the street.

There is a decent chance that by ignoring this situation OP caused a weaker person to be badly injured.

Not all Islamic terror attacks are the same. September 11th really had no pretext, and was responding to Saudi internal politics.

Iraqi resistance attacking American soldiers and media was not something I loved seeing, but it was an inevitable and somewhat justifiable reaction to an illegal invasion, yes.

That being said, while the invasion of Iraq was illegal and bad, what the Russians are doing in Ukraine is an order of magnitude worse, and they should expect a worse reaction.

I support ukraines right to do this. They got invaded. Putin actually doesn’t benefit from these assassinations OR the pipeline attack.

You probably thought Putin killed dugina, even though it was fairly obvious who was behind it.

They are at war. There’s clear motive and (I would say) moral pretext for doing it.

If I said “Ukraine probably killed Dugina” last week I would have gotten downvoted, even tho it’s obvious.

I think MANY of these assassinations of high profile Russians have been committed by elements of Ukrainian intelligence. It would be easy for them to infiltrate Russia.

I also think it’s possible that Ukrainian intelligence is also behind the destruction of nord stream. They definitely had the best reason, and probably could have pulled it off w an underwater drone and high explosive.

edit: lol at the downvotes. i support Ukraine's right to do this, it's classic asymmetric warfare, but the it's pretty obvious they are the ones that have the most reason to do it.