Image of guns on event flier raises concerns
WOONSOCKET – The Ebenezer Worship Center’s “Back to School Bash” was billed as a family-friendly gathering with face-painting and a bouncy house last month when organizers petitioned the City Council for a permit to stage the event at Dunn Park.
But alarms went off this week when members of the Woonsocket Police Department saw a flier promoting the Aug. 25 event that depicts a shirtless man waving around a couple of automatic weapons, one in each hand.
“When we saw it we were all shocked,” said Detective Capt. Michael A. Lemoine. “This was supposed to be a back-to-school bash but they
have this image of a man with no shirt on holding out weapons. We’re very concerned about the message they’re sending and the kind of clientele who are going to show up for this party.”
Now it’s an open question whether the event will be held at all as police ponder whether to ask the council to rescind the permit it issued to Pastor Bernabel Martinez, allowing his bornagain Christian flock to use Dunn Park for the event.
Deacon Antonio Diaz – Bernabel’s son-in-law – says the controversy is the result of a big misunderstanding. And he takes the blame for some of it, since he designed the flier.
“I believe I should have put more information in there,” he says.
So who’s the gangster with the guns? Well, says Diaz, that’s Pastor Hector Mojica, a real man of the cloth from New Jersey who is scheduled to be a guest speaker at the event.
And Mojica was a gang member once, says Diaz. But that was before he was shot – the transformational event in Mojica’s life that caused him to become born-again and, eventually, a pastor. To be fair, says Diaz, the flier also shows the “after” version of Mojica.
“The reason we did that on the flier was to show the before and after – what he was before, and what he was after,” says Diaz. “There’s two pictures.”
Diaz says he hopes the church can clear up the misunderstanding and carry on with its plans as scheduled after Bernabel and other church leaders meet with Police Chief Thomas F. Oates III and Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt. Diaz said the meeting could take place as early as today.
Lemoine said it’s possible the event will be allowed at Dunn Park – with new conditions subject to approval by Public Safety Director Eugene Jalette. A resolution authorizing the back-toschool bash, approved by the council on July 2, gives the city the power to impose such conditions, Lemoine said.
In its application for the event, church leaders told officials that the event would feature giveaways for back-to-school supplies, a bicycle and other attractions typical of a street festival or summer carnival.
And that’s all true, says Diaz. And – notwithstanding the flier’s mixed message – its purpose is to spread a message of opposition to gun violence, he says.
“The purpose of the event is, first, to bring to the community supplies for kids that don’t have the opportunity to get school supplies, and to reach out to the community about gun violence,” says Diaz. “That’s not the solution.”
By depicting Mojica bearing firearms in the flier, the pastor “is bringing out his story,” said Diaz. “He was an ex-gang member in Puerto Rico and God transformed him.”
But Lemoine said the police have not ruled out asking the council to rescind Ebenezer Worship Center’s permit for the event. But the council would have to schedule a special meeting to do so, since its next regular session is Sept. 4 – nearly two weeks after the back-toschool bash is scheduled to take place.
“We’re concerned about the safety of the people who are attending this event,” said Lemoine. “And we’re concerned about the kind of people this event is going to attract.”
Ebenezer Worship Center has about 40 members who hold services in the community hall at the Veterans Memorial Family Housing Development, which is owned and operated by the Woonsocket Housing Authority. Diaz said the arrangement is only temporary – the worship center hopes to have its own hall someday.