Bill Harsch, candidate for Rhode Island attorney general, confirmed last week what we have long suspected. The incumbent attorney general could have and still can indict those most responsible for the Station Club fire: the West Warwick safety officials.

Mr. Harsch cites the words in the pertinent Rhode Island law, words that the attorney general has never referred to when talking about the fire: "gross negligence." The Attorney General, remarkably, stands by his refusal to indict, using red herring words like "stupid" and "lazy" and "I don't defend what they did but . . . "

You do indeed defend what they did, Mr. Attorney General. All those deaths and injuries were not caused by stupidity or laziness. They were caused by the gross negligence of trained officials who were charged with protecting the public from such harm. Your refusal to hold them accountable under the law is a deliberate act impelled not by a sense of justice for all but protection of an elite few. This selective enforcement of the law is a serious injustice not just to the victims of the fire but to all Rhode Islanders. It is abundantly clear that you can no longer be attorney general.

MONIQUE CHARTIER

Wakefield