Not one comment posted about yet another act of youth violence on our city streets. If this was an underage drinking party in Barrington there would be 50 outraged comments by now! Where is the outrage about the horror we live with each day? Almost every day now there is at least one (and sometimes more than one)local stabbing or shooting in our neighborhoods, yet teen drinking in the suburbs is what gets people outraged.

A Pawtucket Mom

unfortunately all too common. the public schools & juvenile justice system goes too easy on many of these "troubled" kids by giving them passes on crimes they commit.

many grow up believing they can "get away" with anything (*because they have)

Has anyone noticed that kids are killing each other on a daily basis in Providence and all anyone cares about is 4 deaths over the last 3 years in Barrington? I haven't figured out if these kids lives just matter more...or if the stories are just more newsworthy...either way it's a disgrace to our city's children!!!

Where is all the talk about making parents responsible for their kids behavior in these cases? What about locking up the parents whose children are walking around with guns and knives? Or maybe the parents of the gang members, or the parents of the heroin dealers, or how about the parents of the kids who never show up to school? Don't forget the parents of the kids who walk the streets robbing and intimidating. It would seem a shame that these parents should be free when so many want to lock up parents of teenagers who drink.

It's hardly any surprise that these kids grow up with punk attitudes when their own society eschews them. Take a look at the article: the killer and the victim don't live in Providence (where the nice people live), they live in "South Providence", "Silver Lake", or "Elmwood". From the day they are born, they are outcasts of a community that shuns them, except to sell them booze, drugs, guns, and white trash, or when it's time to collect rent or taxes. Providence has become an uncivilized throwback to an ugly barbaric culture. The Lively Experiment has failed.

The slave traders may be long dead, but the poverty pimps of Providence are alive and well.

(Also, thanks for cueing us on the cornrows so we can be sure about his race and know that he is not, after all, "one of us".)

I can totally relate to the comments above. As a resident of Barrington and a longtime educator in a local inner city high school, I see things daily that if they ever happened in Barrington would certainly end up as a front page story, however in Providence it is swept under the rug. I could only hope and pray that the inner city kids would feel the outrage and attention over their crimes that Barrington kids do for theirs, but the truth is that everyone is totally decencitized to what is going on there. As a Barrington mother, I am ecstatic at the attention Barrinton is receiving and I am seeing first hand that attitudes are changing all over town among students and parents. Maybe the Journal and local TV stations could start reporting each night every time a weapon is brought to school, or a student shows up intoxicated, or a student is beaten up in or around school, or a drug deal is made. Before vacation a teacher was beaten up at Shea High School in Pawtucket...I didn't hear one word about it in the news. All of the press Barrington is receiving may seem negative right now, but in the long run it will help with the underage drinking problems the town is experiencing. Maybe if we showed the city kids that their crimes are also worthy of the 6:00 news, it would help them in the future.

In response to Lindy above: the news would be 6 hours long if they attempted to report everything that went on each day with the youth in Providence. When I was reading about the kid from Barrington who hit his friend with the boat in the article about "gap kids" and they said there are over 500 "gap kids" which means over 500 17 year olds were arrested in RI in a 6 week period. While the media is focused on a Barrington kid who drank beer and drove a boat they are ignoring that OVER 500 17-YEAR-OLDS WERE ARRESTED IN A 6 WEEK PERIOD IN RI!!!!! Not only that, every time the Journal reports about a Barrington incident they recap all of the past incidents from that town at the end of the article, I guess to reinforce to everyone how terrible it is there. If I see that picture of the Barrington River on Channel 12 one more time.....because during the time of that boating accident THERE WERE OVER 500 17-YEAR-OLDS ARRESTED IN RI IN A 6 WEEK PERIOD! Maybe the media could take a short break from the horrors of Barrington because there are way bigger horrors going on in our state than teen drinking.

Every business strives to provide the customer what they want and the media is no different. I find it amusing that the Journal publishes the actual transcript from the hearings of these Barrington kids who go before Judge Jerimiah. Why aren't the transcripts of these kids who stab and shoot published? Ahhhhhh because nobody cares about these kids..............do you get it now???????????

I have to agree 100% with Elaine - I too, was appauled by the amount of RI 17 year olds that were arrested in that 6 week period of time. I don't have blinders on, but I for sure was SURPRISED AT THAT NUMBER.

You would think that Providence is the land of milk and honey, to read the news pages.
If it's doom and gloom, it is shown elsewhere. For example, take a look at the headlines on the Pawtucket page:
http://www.projo.com/pawtucket/

St. Joseph patient dies after fall in room
--Sure, St. Joseph Hospital is IN Providence, but the bad news is shoved off to Pawtucket (where the victim was from.)

Police investigate two shootings on New Year’s Day
--Uh-oh, this occurred downtown Providence "only a couple of hours after the Bright Night festivities had faded away" at Fulton and Exchange streets, "at the intersection where the federal courthouse and Sovereign Bank branch office are located." Mustn't report THIS one under Providence news, must we? Once again, one of the victims was FROM Pawtucket, so let's report the shooting THERE instead.

You know what they say: when you point the finger, there are three pointing back at you.

None of this story can be true. King Davey and Chief Shiny Badge keep telling us that Providence is safe and that there is no gang war.