Police at Mauna Kea give out 610 tickets

MAUNA KEA, Hawaii >> Hawaii County police assigned to the areas around the protests against the Thirty Meter Telescope have issued 610 citations in their weeklong stepped-up traffic enforcement effort, and also arrested seven people for offenses such as drunken driving, driving without a license and contempt of court, police announced Thursday.

Police Maj. Sam Jelsma said officers are not targeting the demonstrators, and police do not know how many of the people who were arrested might have been part of the protests and how many were simply passing by on the highway. The extra enforcement began Aug. 15, police said.

Police Chief Paul Ferreira said his department has stationed more than 20 officers in the area of the protests, but declined to be more specific in a briefing before the Hawaii County Council on Tuesday.

At times the protests have attracted crowds of several thousand people to the area around the intersection of Daniel K. Inouye Highway and Mauna Kea Access Road, but the number of people attending the activists’ noon protocol, or ceremonies, on Wednesday and Thursday dropped to only about 150 each day.

The protests over the $1.4 billion TMT project are now in their fifth week, and the access road has been closed since July 15. The protesters say the TMT project is a desecration of a mountain that many Hawaiians consider sacred, and say they won’t allow it to be built.

TMT supporters, meanwhile, say the project has the legal right to proceed with construction. Hawaii County Mayor Harry Kim has been leading discussions in recent weeks in an effort to resolve the standoff.

The protesters have alleged the stepped-up police enforcement during the past week is an effort to limit the number of people who turn out for the demonstrations.

Andre Perez, a leader in the protest movement against the TMT, said Monday, “It looks like they’re trying to minimize us and marginalize us being here by enforcing traffic regulations and setbacks from the highway and ticketing anything they can ticket, really, so we’re still trying to figure out where that’s coming from and why.”

He added that “it’s pretty obvious that it’s an attempt by the county to just control and limit the amount of people here.”

Police said the stepped-up enforcement was in response to two serious crashes along the highway since the protests began in mid-July. One of those was a head-on collision involving a stolen car, and the other involved a vehicle that ran off the roadway and ejected the driver.

“The enforcement effort is intended to ensure the safety of the motorist and protesters alike, with the current situation of pedestrians and vehicles congregating on the roadway shoulders of a 60 mph traffic zone,” police said Thursday in a statement.

According to statistics released by police, officers patrolling on the busy highway — formerly known as the Saddle Road — issued 167 speeding tickets, 87 citations for unsafe vehicles, 176 citations for regulatory violations and 15 citations for cellphone use while driving.

Police also set up drunken driving roadblocks and seat belt checkpoints along the highway, arresting three people for driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol and citing 41 people for seat belt violations.

Another 17 citations were issued for driving without a license; 23 were cited for driving without insurance; six were ticketed for child restraint violations; nine were cited for illegal tints on their windows; and 24 were ticketed for driving without license plates. Another 43 tickets were issued for other moving violations, and two vehicles were cited for parking violations, police said.

The seven people who were arrested included three accused of drunken driving. Other offenses alleged by police against the seven included resisting an order to stop, excessive speeding, driving without a license, contempt of court and driving without insurance.