If I could ask Wes Chun just one question...

Wes Chun, Director of Department of Facilities Maintenance, wouldn't answer my questions to him on the phone but said he would do so at tonight's Makiki Neighborhood Board meeting. There will be many questions for him to answer concerning the continued raids and seizures at Occupy Honolulu that I've written about, particularly the seizure of personal possessions from private property on 2/15/2012, and the seizure of property on 2/29/2012 that was not stored on public property. Oh yeah, and of course about yesterday's 3am raid.

The 59 year old, middle class Makiki resident in me wants to ask Wes Chun about how the City justifies stealing my tents in a series of raids when my stuff wasn't in violation of any law or ordinance, and why he is personally blocking my recovery of my stuff, but there is actually one really big question that I would like to ask on behalf of the residents of Makiki and the rest of Honolulu:

Mr. Chun, do you consider using 10 armed policemen and a City crew to make a 3am raid on law abiding citizens an appropriate response to nonviolent protest?

Of course, there are many more questions that need answers, but if I would really appreciate it if someone would ask this one because it is an important question. Isn't it?

H. Doug Matsuoka

Makiki, Honolulu

15 March 2012

Comments

How I stopped worrying and learned to love the bomb

I think my boss at work (a Honolulu nonprofit) is a littled miffed at me. When the incoming ballistic missile warning came in over everyone’s phone this morning, she texted that she had just had training on this and for us to, “stay indoors, preferably on the floor away from windows.” I texted back that I was going to post, “still time to donate” on our website.
I live in a wooden house with windows facing Honolulu International Airport, Hickam Air Force Base, and Pearl Harbor. Given even a sub-megaton airburst at several thousand feet, and that the fatalities from atomic weapons come from the flash, not the blast (the flash of nuclear energy and not the explosive force), I’d be a memory before my body could experience any misgivings about the situation.
My boss is a quarter century younger than I am and lacks the dubious benefit of having lived through the Cold War with the Soviet Union (check history books for those guys). The American national doctrine against nuclear war with the…

Eric Seitz: Pro bono is a crock

At yesterday's "Justice in Jeopardy, Expanding Access to Justice in Challenging Economic Times" at the UH Richardson Law School, Dean of Harvard Law School Martha L. Minow pointed out that one in five Americans now qualify for civil legal assistance because they are within 125% of the Poverty Level -- a record high in the history in the county. As the demand for legal services grows, the available resources continue to diminish, leaving most without the "equal protection" of the law.

I checked out the breakout session on pro bono because I used to work for Hawaii's pro bono referral service, Volunteer Legal Services Hawaii (VLSH).

These days, most pro bono services are not attorneys representing clients, but short informational sessions at legal clinics. Moderator Robert LeClair asked attorney Eric Seitz what he thought of this turn in pro bono services. This is what Eric said:

"Well, let me start out by saying that I've always thought pro bono w…

What The City Doesn’t Want You To Know About Thomas Square

[This article was originally published by CivilBeat on July 21, 2016. I'm reprinting it with video clips. Doug]

The City of Honolulu plans to close Thomas Square on Aug. 15 for six months and re-open it in February 2017 as something completely different, according to its master plan. Although city officials have unveiled grandiose plans concerning a drastic makeover, there are a number of troubling things they are trying to keep under cover:

1. It will no longer be a public park. The master plan calls for Thomas Square to be transferred from the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation, where it is a public park, to its Department of Enterprise Services. What is it? The department runs the Blaisdell Center, the Waikiki Shell, the zoo and the public golf courses. By way of a memo dated April 28 from the city’s enterprise chief Guy Kaulukukui to the state’s head of the Department of Land and Natural Resources, the city asked the state to make changes to allow a change of purpose for…

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