Rhode Island Condo Building’s Anti-Gay White Supremacist Slapped With Civil Rights Suit

The same week that Vermont’s Gov. Peter Shumlin announces a visit to Rhode Island to campaign for same-sex marriage there comes word the union’s smallest state is filing charges against ex-con Vincent Smith, alleging the 49-year-old “intimidated a woman in two mixed-race relationships and managed to drive her out of the condominium complex where he lives, and he has made life miserable for a gay neighbor,” Roger R. DiTusa, who was called anti-gay slurs at least two dozen times and whose glass sliding door Smith smashed. Smith, who lived with his victims at Dale Court Condominiums in Johnston, Rhode Island, is going up against Assistant Attorney General James Lee, who heads Rhode Island’s civil rights division. And what does AG Lee expect to get from the suit? To get Smith “ordered to halt the activity and to pay a fine.” Uh?