CSI: Shelter Harbor - Things that go bump in the night

RISC: Show me a school teacher and I'll show you
a bomb-throwing anarchist

There is a remarkable story in today’s Westerly Sun – in the free access part of their website (hooray!) – by Chris Keegan, one of the Sun’s best writers.

Chris reported on police reports released this week that raise the question: what's up with RISC Director Harriet Lloyd?

Last March, Lloyd called the Westerly Police, the State Police and the local fire company to report that somebody had set off a bomb outside her Shelter Harbor home. Of course, it must be the nefarious work of her evil nemesis, the NEARI teachers’ union.

Except, as Chris details, there are some serious questions about whether it actually happened, even though Lloyd seems to be convinced it did.

RISC – the RI Statewide Coalition, formerly the Shoreline Coalition, has its headquarters in Charlestown and is related to the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA). It is the state’s largest right-wing, anti-union, anti-tax, anti-Narragansett, anti-poor people, pro-voting rights for rich vacationers organization in Rhode Island.

Harriet Lloyd recently took over the prime leadership of RISC from her aging father and RISC founder Harry Staley. RISC has been pretty much a family-run operation with close personal friends from the Shelter Harbor area joining the inner circle.

Angry RISCers blast unions

In recent years, RISC has become obsessed with unions, especially public employee unions and most of all with the teachers’ unions. In RISC’s mind, these unions are at the heart of all of Rhode Island’s problems, including inconvenient weather and the lack of palm trees.

Earlier this week, Lloyd was on WPRO-AM’s John DePetro Show. Lloyd is a frequent quest – RISC employs John DePetro’s sister, Donna Perry, as RISC’s “Communications Consultant.” This job seems to consist mainly of writing pieces in GoLocalProv and lining up gigs for RISC leaders on her brother’s radio show.

Anyway, Lloyd spun her yarn about the teachers’ assassination attempt and the police response – which was to doubt whether anything happened.

Lloyd described seeing flashlights and then a 30-foot fireball accompanied by a tremendous noise.

Lloyd claims the fire and police responders said they had heard the blast miles away and had received many calls. A few days later, Lloyd found what she thought was bomb residue – some melted plastic and a charred Pepsi can.

...and the unions blast back!

Harriet Lloyd claimed that another bomb exploded outside the home of the new RISC President James Beale almost simultaneously. Even though this m.o. sound more like Al Qaeda, she told police she suspected the teachers’ union was responsible.

According to Keegan’s article, the newly released police reports contest nearly all of Harriet Lloyd’s story:

• The only reports of an explosion that night came from Lloyd
• The police and fire did not heard an explosion from miles away
• The police and fire personnel did find two pieces of melted plastic but no evidence of an explosion
• Police responded to reports of gunshots in the vicinity of James Beale’s home but found - NOTHING.

Westerly Police Captain Edward St. Clair told Keegan "It was investigated thoroughly. Obviously we take anything like that seriously. We found no evidence of an explosion. We searched the area. Ultimately it ended up where the Rhode Island fire marshal's office took control of the evidence we took from the scene and investigated it further. I don't believe there was enough evidence to point towards anyone or anything."

Dunn's Corner Fire District Chief Michael Frink told Keegan "We looked around. There was no evidence of anything. I wouldn't say it was a bomb or anything ... There was nothing suspicious that we noticed."

So, the “30-foot fireball” and tremendous explosion (a) didn’t break any windows; (b) didn’t trigger any car alarms; (c) left no crater; (d) left no charred residue and (e) was apparently experienced by no one but Harriet Lloyd.

Lloyd told John DePetro that she called the State Police but that they refused to help her, telling her that if there had been an explosion or a need for State Police assistance, Westerly Police would have made the request.

Lloyd said she called the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms but "after extensive testing they were not able to determine exactly what kind of explosion [it was]: it could have been dynamite, it could have been something more complicated than dynamite,"

Actually, according to Keegan’s report, the ATF confirmed they responded to Lloyd’s request which came three weeks later. ATF spokesperson Jim McNally told Keegan "Because of the length of time, there was nothing there for us to confirm or deny something happened."

John DePetro was, as you might imagine, totally sympathetic to Lloyd’s post-traumatic stress reaction to her near-death experience, as were most of the talk radio yahoos who phoned it. Obviously this must be a conspiracy by the public employee members of the police department, fire department, State Police, State Fire Marshal and federal ATF to cover up for the nefarious teachers’ union.

With absolutely no evidence of anything at all.

Which brings me back to the question: what's up with Harriet Lloyd? It’s bad enough that RISC and its allies, such as the now defunct Ocean State Policy Research Institute, have peddled one demonstrably false study after another. Now RISC’s head is carrying their falsehood-driven jihad against teachers to new and absurd heights.

Author: Will Collette