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A native Hawaiian practitioner and member of Occupy Honolulu was arrested after attempting unsuccessfully to speak with Mayor Peter Carlisle during the city’s May Day ceremony at Kapiolani Park Bandstand.
Police arrested and cited Laulani Teale with disorderly conduct about noon Tuesday, and then released on $150 bail paid by Occupy Honolulu supporters several hours later.
Video shot by fellow Occupy Honolulu member Doug Matsuoka shows Teale blowing a conch shell as Carlisle spoke to the audience, and attempting to approach the mayor afterward. Her path was blocked by Honolulu police officers who told her it was “not the time and place”?to talk to Carlisle.
Teale, on a blog posted Monday on the website of fellow Occupy Honolulu member Doug Matsuoka, said she would be protesting the city’s seizing on Sunday of a banner painted by artist Raul Gonzalez to celebrate Kanawai Mamalahoa, the law of the splintered paddle. Originally decreed by Kamehameha the Great, the splintered paddle decree is the concept that people should be allowed to lie by the roadside in safety. The words are part of Article IX of the state Constitution and is being used by Occupy Honolulu as justification for its right to camp at Thomas Square.
Teale said the banner was not tagged by city officials as required by a city ordinance, and that its taking was a violation of the state Constitution.
