Albert M.
Silva just loves riding his motorcycle and he likes supporting charities, too. The 50-year-old bricklayer was among hundreds of bikers who combined both activities on Sunday, offering up their time, and their throttles, amid the balmiest riding conditions seen this year. Two large groups of riders had justice in mind as they hit the road. One, numbering more than 400 scholarship-fundraising bikers, rode from Cranston to the Coast Guard lighthouse in Point Judith, stopping along the way to say a few prayers for Ronald A. Gill Jr., a U.S. Coast Guardsman who was killed when he was ejected from a small boat in the waters of Puget Sound in March 2007. Silva’s group toured Providence as part of a weeklong campaign to bolster awareness of the Victims of Crime Act, a 25-year-old law that paved the way for federal aid to nonprofit organizations such as the Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the Institute for the Study and Practice of Nonviolence. Silva, of North Providence, is a goateed biker with a wizard and a castle tattooed on his bicep and big silver rings, featuring the Harley-Davidson eagle, on two fingers. A retired Johnston police officer had asked him to support the cause of crime victims. “You have to help them out,” he said. “You never know. One day, you might be a victim yourself.”
Silva said he joined the ranks of crime victims about 14 years ago when some guys jumped him and broke his eye socket outside a lounge on Eddy Street.