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The emotionally wrought public services for slain Honolulu police officers Tiffany Enriquez and Kaulike Kalama early this year gave testament to the very personal and honest feelings we have for local police. The two were shot and killed while rushing to save hostages in a burning Diamond Head home. The stunning heroics of the two solidified the mourning of all Honolulu.
Now months later, unprecedented public marches down Ala Moana to the state Capitol protesting repeated police shootings across the country show we are also a community that expects only the very best from the police.
Nationally, police shoot and kill an average of three people a day. A Washington Post report states that “since 2015, police have shot and killed 5,400 people.”
It comes out to about 1,000 people a year, the Post calculated.
“The number killed has remained steady despite fluctuating crime rates, changeovers in big-city police leadership and a nationwide push for criminal justice reform,” according to the report.
This does not include the victims of police violence who died by other means, such as George Floyd, who died in Minneapolis on May 25 as a police officer pushed his knee into Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes.
Honolulu cops made national news last year after their arrests for forcing a homeless man to lick a public toilet.
While arrests and convictions of public officials are public, police discipline records in Hawaii are sealed, creating a feeling of special handling for the police.
State Rep. Chris Lee, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, says when the state Legislature comes back into session next week, there is a new urgency that something will be done.
Police, after the murders of Enriquez and Kalama, are asking for stricter gun laws, and government reform organizations are looking for new ways to drop police secrecy.
“This entire matter raises questions of trust in police enforcement,” Lee said in an interview.
“I have had many discussions with high school friends now on the police force and the one thing that comes out every time is that their jobs are incredibly easier when the public trusts them and so much more difficult when they don’t.”
This is perhaps the oddest of Hawaii legislative sessions because COVID-19 has forced it to start and stop, recess and return — all done without living, breathing public attendance. Everything has been conducted in virtual reality with online meetings.
Lee said in his discussions with fellow House members, he senses that this year there is building momentum to move forward with both open records and police requests for gun reform measures.
“There is definitely momentum. I think we will get something,” Lee predicted.
The police union, SHOPO, is already lobbying against the open government changes — and in an election year, going against any public worker union in Hawaii is always a political risk, so change is not assured.
Still if there is a reason and a time to act, it is now.
Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays. Reach him at 808onpolitics@gmail.com.
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