Waikiki residents urge city to fill beach pavilion to increase safety

The city said it is in talks to fill Kuhio Beach Pavilion No. 4 within the next couple of months with a goal of enlivening the space as a tool to increase safety and enjoyment in Waikiki.

Ian Scheuring, spokesperson for Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi, said the city believes that “the long-term activation of the pavilions is important to the city and important to the area. The city thinks it’s good for visitors and residents to have something worthwhile and long term in those areas for the good of everyone.”

Waikiki Neighborhood Board members and attendees discussed possibilities to fill the empty site at the monthly board meeting on Aug. 9. Biki, the bikeshare company, and the Honolulu Police Department were proposed as possible short-term solutions, while Waikiki Improvement Association President Rick Egged said the organization has supported guarded storage lockers as a longer-term solution.

“We are very open to all possibilities, including the idea of filling that pavilion with a city agency,” Scheu­ring said. “The mayor has been very vocal about public safety and family safety.”

Waikiki stakeholders have been extremely vocal about the need to improve safety in Waikiki, where several violent crimes and potentially dangerous situations have put the community on edge. Mounting crime and increased homelessness in Waikiki recently prompted the nonprofit Pacific Island Beach Boys to pull out of Kuhio Beach Pavilion No. 4.

Residents want the city to activate that pavilion promptly because they say allowing loiters there and in other closed areas of the beach park creates havoc. They say enforcement is needed even for small crimes, which can lead to bigger crimes in the district.

Waikiki resident John Deutzman pointed out that James Spivey, 27, racked up multiple park closure citations for sleeping in Queens Beach after hours in March before he was allegedly involved in an Aug. 7 incident in Waikiki where residents and tourists believed that he had flashed a gun.

Deutzman said park closure citations too often go away, particularly if the subject is homeless. He also complained about the state of Kuhio Beach Pavilion No. 4, which he said is in such disrepair that the cage that the city installed to keep out intruders looks like it is held together with “bakery string.”

Deutzman noted that notations on Spivey’s park closure citations said that he refused help or refused shelter.

Deutzman said Oahu could have been “one bullet away from an international embarrassment and there is no sense of urgency on the part of the city to fix Pavilion 4 and straighten this mess out.”

“People have to suffer the consequences when they break the law.”

Spivey was indicted Aug. 12 by an Oahu grand jury and charged on suspicion of one count of first- degree assault against a law enforcement officer relating to the Aug. 7 incident in Waikiki, where police were called to Kuhio Beach in the late afternoon to investigate a report of a person carrying a handgun. When HPD attempted to apprehend Spivey, he allegedly assaulted one of the officers.

Spivey’s bail has been set at $30,000. HPD spokesperson Michelle Yu said he is currently in the hospital awaiting transfer to state custody.

The Honolulu Department of the Prosecuting Attorney said Spivey was not charged with possession of a firearm because the object recovered by police was only the frame of a handgun, which was not operable as a firearm. However, the event was all too real for visitors and residents, who were there that day, including state Rep. Adrian Tam (D, Waikiki- Ala Moana-Kakaako).

“I was part of the stampede that ran away from the gunman when I was walking back from the aquarium,” Tam said. “It was very, very scary.”

Video posted by witnesses online shows footage of beachgoers running in fear as the incident unfolded along Kalakaua Avenue.

Honolulu Police Chief Joe Logan said in a statement, “Our officers were able to apprehend the suspect on a crowded street without anyone being seriously hurt, and that speaks highly of their skills and training. Assaulting a law enforcement officer is a very serious offense, and we look forward to this case moving forward.”

Members of Hawaii’s visitor industry praised police for responding promptly to the 911 call and arresting the man without firing any shots.

First-degree assault against a law enforcement officer is a Class C felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

Prosecuting Attorney Steve Alm said in a statement: “HPD officers work hard every day and often face dangerous situations. Intentionally or knowingly assaulting a police officer is a felony and we will prosecute those who assault law enforcement officers to the fullest extent of the law.

“HPD expertly assessed the situation and apprehended Spivey so that he no longer posed a danger to the Waikiki community. I thank the officers for their great work day in and day out protecting our city.”

Hawaii Lodging and Tourism Association President and CEO Mufi Hannemann said the Aug. 7 incident shows the importance of getting “Safe and Sound Waikiki,” a new crime reduction program, up and running. Hannemann was among those who pushed Alm to greenlight the program after a rash of violent crime in the district put the community on edge.

Alm recently told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that the multiagency Safe and Sound Waikiki will scale up over the next couple of months. The Waikiki crime- reduction program is based on the already established “Weed and Seed” program, which seeks to “weed out” criminals from a particular district and then “seed” communities by investing in social and economic revitalization.

The Waikiki program, which has upward of $350,000 in seed funding from the city and private sources, will include the Honolulu Police Department’s District 6, which runs from the yacht harbor to the mauka side of the Ala Wai Canal as well as Diamond Head, Alm said.

Waikiki community members are impatiently awaiting Safe and Sound Waikiki and other efforts to step up criminal enforcement. A shooting and several violent assaults near Kalakaua Avenue and Lewers Street put the community on high alert this spring.

A sword attack on July 22 where a man’s hand was cut off at the Kalakaua Avenue 7-Eleven has added to the angst. Jason Walker, 46, was charged with one count of of second-degree attempted murder in that incident. Bail for Walker, who was working for 7-Eleven at the time of the incident, was set at $1 million.

Waikiki Neighborhood Board member Kathryn Henski said she is beyond frustrated and wants to see more action from Blangiardi.

“I have yet to hear him step up and say anything about what has been happening in Waikiki for the past three months. Most cities don’t have people getting hands cut off or people carrying guns down the main road,” Henski said.

Scheuring said Blangiardi has been a strong advocate for Safe and Sound Waikiki and recently spearheaded a meeting at City Hall with Alm, the Judiciary and community members that led the Judiciary “to come to the conclusion to stop letting arrested detainees out on their own recognizance.”

“I think it’s a gross mischaracterization to imply that (the mayor) doesn’t care or is sitting on his hands,” he said.