The live updates from Mauna Kea have been trickling in all day and I brace myself for the images I might see every time I hit refresh. This latest dispatch, though, as I write on Tuesday afternoon, is peaceful. Hawai‘i Public Radio reporter Ryan Finnerty has tweeted that a checkpoint established by activists (also known […]
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard co-sponsors House bill that restricts asset forfeiture
Here’s a small bit of very encouraging news that comes from, of all places, the U.S. House of Representatives. Yesterday, the House actually approved a bi-partisan amendment to an appropriations bill that restricts Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ plans to expand the loathsome practice known as asset forfeiture. What’s more, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D–Hawaii, was one […]
2016 Crime in Hawaii report shows mostly good news for state and Maui County
Last week, President Donald Trump trashed an old Obama Administration rule that prevented the U.S. military from giving surplus weapons and equipment to local law enforcement agencies. His stated reason was based on rising crime rates or a “war on cops” or some other such nonsense. In fact, crime rates have been falling for years […]
Libertarian author Steven Greenhut will talk public employee pensions at Maui County Club
And now for something fun: Steven Greenhut, a very intelligent and conscientious writer–and one of my former editors from my time in California–will be on Maui this weekend to do a talk for the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii about public employee unions and pensions. “County public employees in the state of Hawaii make among the highest […]
New Hawaii bill reaffirms public’s right to film law enforcement
Let’s talk briefly about Senate Bill 2439, introduced by Sen. Gil Keith-Agaran, D–Kahului. It reaffirms the public’s right to record or photograph “a law enforcement officer while the officer is in the performance of the officer’s duties in a public place or under circumstances in which the officer has no reasonable expectation of privacy.” Not too […]
Will the Hawaii Legislature finally allow the public to see the names of bad cops?
Watch out, because the state Legislature is actually on track to doing the right thing in regards to making public the names of bad cops. There have been so many fruitless attempts to undo the disaster that was the 1995 state law exempting police officers from the state’s Uniform Information Practices Act that I’m hesitant to write […]
New details on Maui Police shooting of 39-year-old African-American male yesterday in Kahului
The Maui Police Department is finally dribbling out a few details concerning the Aug. 5, 2015 fatal shooting in Keopualani Park in Kahului. A few minutes ago, the MPD released a press release that provides a little new information, but many more questions. According to the MPD, three officers (the MPD, as per their standard […]
New Hawaii Bill Criminalizes Gun-Toting Cops Getting Drunk On Duty
With the Hawaii state Legislature’s 2014 session officially off and running, I thought it might be a good idea to glance over some of the proposed laws now churning through our great legal sausage-making machinery. And in no time at all, I found something fascinating. The bill–numbered SB2590–is titled “A bill for an act relating […]