Lawless Hawaii

I seldom use my blog to discuss political or social issues. But my friend, Aaron, got me thinking when he posed the question, "What is the greatest issue facing Hawaii in 2016?"

My answer: An inability to enforce the law. I see this in many facets and on all levels of government authority. If affects my day-to-day life on the island, has international implications, and is a trend that will continue in 2016.

The stalled Thirty Meter Telescope debacle is the most prominent example of 1. government not enforcing laws and 2. government not understanding its own laws. After about 15 years of planning, lawsuits and hearings, the state of Hawaii issued TMT a permit to begin construction of the world's most powerful observatory to be placed in the best location for astronomy in all of the Earth's northern hemisphere: Mauna Kea. On the day construction was to begin, a couple hundred protesters blocked the summit road. A group of Hawaiians began illegally camping near the Onizuka center at the 9,000 foot level of the mountain, not letting TMT employees up the mountain. A larger protest days later closed the summit road for more than a month to everyone. The protesters had placed by hand rocks on the road. Removal of the small rocks was too big of a problem for our officials to handle. Tour companies and their employees missed a month's worth of wages and visitors to our island never had the chance to see the incredible mountaintop. Eventually, DLNR enacted "emergency rules" as a way to get the protesters off the mountain. The new laws were supposed to stop camping 1 mile from the access road (already illegal) and they absurdly banned possession of any camping gear in the area, including camp stoves and sleeping bags, inconveniencing law abiding folks, such as those who like to stay warm while stargazing at this famous spot. The state finally did arrest a few protesters, who made bail and drove straight back up the mountain again, but even the new emergency rules went largely unenforced. Charges were later dropped in most of the cases because the state's "emergency rules" were deemed illegal, even though other laws against camping had been in place there for years. We were just too afraid to enforce them. By the way, an ahu (stack of rocks) placed by protesters in the driveway of the TMT site to block access still stands.

In addition to not being able to enforce laws on a person-by-person basis to keep the access road open, there are huge implications in issuing a permit for such a project, then later revoking it, as our State Supreme Court recently did. Apparently, our state didn't understand the law when it issued the special use permit while a contested case hearing against TMT was still in progress. Since the start of the protests and the revocation of the permit, TMT lost an estimated $2 million because of the stall. If they are ultimately not allowed to build, it will cost the organization millions, in my mind probably billions more. Mirrors are already in production in Japan, and the organization gave $100,000 to native Hawaiian education in 2015 as it prepared to build the observatory it had been given permission to construct. Now the project is on hold indefinitely and likely permenantly. I think this has huge implications for our international relations with countries funding the nonprofit TMT, and also businesses or organizations who would seek to bring progress here. It is eerily similar to the bankrupt Hokulia development that had its permits revoked in South Kona after investing millions, and the Superferry, which was largely popular among Hawaii residents, but also had its permit to operate revoked after a handful of surfers paddled out to stop its arrival in Maui on its first voyage and then a second EIS was demanded before operation could continue. The investors, out of money, sold the first boat to the U.S. military at an incredible loss and suspended construction of a second boat. If I was an investor or business person, I would be wary of investing in this state.

Drunk drivers
Lawlessness also prevails on a criminal level. As of Dec. 27, there were 1,055 DUI arrests on Hawaii Island. The arrests themselves seem to be evidence that we don't allow lawlessness, but I believe if penalties were stiff enough, we wouldn't have this many people driving drunk. More disconcerting is the fact that of eight arrested for DUI the week ending in Dec. 27, three of them were involved in crashes. And that percentage is usually higher. We're not catching drunks until the hurt others. Of 14 traffic fatalities in 2015, 11 of the deaths were caused by impaired drivers. On August 3, a drunk driver killed my friend, Robert Weinstock, on his way home from working the night shift at Kona International Airport. To my best knowledge, charges have yet to be filed against Justin Rohan, 26, who stole from four beautiful daughters the life of their loving father. Drunk driving is so prevalent in West Hawaii, it affects my everyday life. I avoid driving at night on weekends or holidays. When attending an event, such as a parade, we drive the truck instead of the motorbike, though it is much harder to park and costs more to drive, because at least it offers a little protection in the likely event we get hit smashed by a drunk. If drinkers ran the risk or real jail time, flogging, or having their license revoked for life, they would find another way home.  A recent letter to the editor in West Hawaii Today by former county council member Brenda Ford claimed Hawaii County has one of the highest DUI rates in the nation. I believe it.

Property crime
Our state does not deal with crime well, either. When I go to the beach, I wear my oldest slippers (yes, we have had our shoes stole off the beach while we were in the water, more than once) I tie my car key to my swimsuit. My car was broken into two years ago by someone who stole my key off the pier while I was swimming. He was prosecuted, but I have yet to see a penny in restitution. We are not effective at making criminals pay for their actions. My husband's customers routinely have motorcycles stolen from their driveways. We plan our trips so to not leave merchandise in the back of the truck, and there are places we cannot hike or camp because we fear parking our car where chances are pretty darn good it will be broken into. A few months back, four of the five cars parked at the Puu Oo trailhead had their windows smashed out with rocks and contents stole when we returned from our hike. Our truck window was all scratched, but the rock didn't break our window. Instead of being surprised we said, "That figures."