Door vandalized at Hawaii labor office

One of four glass doors that leads to the entrance of the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations office — which has been overwhelmed and criticized by newly unemployed island residents during the coronavirus pandemic — was smashed in sometime late Monday night.

The building manager was called around midnight and told that the state building on Punchbowl Street had been damaged — “specifically, that a door had been smashed in,” DLIR spokesman Bill Kunstman said Tuesday.

It’s unclear what the motive was, but he said the office often attracts people who loiter and drink at night.

Repair crews from the state Department of Accounting and General Services — which owns the building — covered up the damaged door with plywood, Kunstman said. There are four glass doors that lead into DLIR’s offices, but only one was vandalized. It’s possible that the smashed door allowed entry into the building, Kunstman said, “but it doesn’t appear like there was anything affected at this point.”

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Dan Nakaso, Star-Advertiser staff