Mayor Kirk Caldwell reaffirms support for Doug Chin to Police Commission

Mayor Kirk Caldwell appeared before the Honolulu City Council on Wednesday to reaffirm his support for Honolulu Police Commission nominee Doug Chin, whose appointment has run into opposition headed by a group dedicated to progressive causes.

The selection of Chin, a former lieutenant governor and state attorney general, and fellow nominee Michael Broderick to the Police Commission were “made with much forethought,” Caldwell told Council members. “We made these nominations based on what we know today, not just looking back at yesterday, in real time in a rapidly changing environment,” he said.

Caldwell was referencing a letter-writing campaign initiated by the group AF3IrM Hawai‘i, which describes itself as “a multi-ethnic, multi-class organization led by women of color engaged in transnational feminist, anti-imperialist activism.”

On its Facebook page, AF3IRM Hawai‘i suggests that supporters write to Caldwell and Council members to oppose Chin’s nomination and point out he once lobbied for a private prison operator and “has a record of anti-LGBTQ animus and homophobia.” The letters also said Chin, when he was managing director and second-in-command to former Mayor Peter Carlisle, could have done more to seek reforms and address corruption at the Honolulu Police Department.

Despite the split in public testimony, the Council voted unanimously to give preliminary approval to Chin and Broderick’s nominations, which now go before the Council Public Safety and Welfare Committee on July 16.

Chin, in response, pointed out that he is “in a very different place than I was 25 years ago,” when he made remarks some have perceived as an anti-gay rant found in a recording circulating on the internet. As a 2018 candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives, he apologized for the remarks he’d made in the 1990s.

As attorney general, Chin said, he defended the Marriage Equality Act before the Hawaii Supreme Court and was the lead author of an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of 19 states opposing President Donald Trump’s proposal to ban transgender individuals from serving in the armed forces.

He was also the lead co-author of an amicus brief on behalf of 20 states supporting equal treatment in a case involving a Colorado cake shop that refused service to a gay couple.

Emails and letters in opposition to Chin’s nomination continued to arrive at Honolulu Hale on Wednesday. Nearly all raised the same issues regarding Chin’s past comments and his lobbying for CORE Civic, the private prison operator.

Chin’s nomination received written testimony in his favor from prominent members of legal community and civil rights leaders, including attorney Loretta Sheehan and former Hawaii Supreme Court Associate Justice Steven Levinson. The two former Police Commission members resigned in May, voicing frustration at the limited power the panel has in overseeing the Police Department.