Mayor Carlisle: City violating law and civil rights

Mayor Carlisle,

Yesterday, a DVD with two video compilations showing HPD and City personnel breaking the law was delivered to Corp Counsel and the State Attorney General. The compilations were gathered from footage taken at (De)Occupy Honoluluʻs Ward/Beretania encampment and show repeated and routine seizure and destruction of untagged property, violation of the Law of the Splintered Paddle, and violations of the First and Fourth Amendments of the US Constitution.

The public can view the videos either at Youtube or the posts made at my blog the DougNote or at DisappearedNews.com. I am sending this email to you to ensure that you are aware of the serious matters presented by the videos. Since you have not responded to my query of 2/17/2012 regarding the seizure of personal property from private property, or my query of 3/29/2012 requesting a breakdown of Bill 54 costs, I do not expect you to respond to this. I copy this message to the members of the Honolulu City Council who passed Bill 54 (with one dissenting vote from Romy Cachola), the Makiki Neighborhood Board (whose Chris Smith is a resident of the encampment), members of the press, and the public via a blogpost.


There are two categories of complaint regarding Bill 54 (now ordinance 11-029): (1) The violation of laws and civil rights, and (2) the costs involved. This email concerns the first category and is limited to the (De)Occupy encampment. A compilation of the even worse treatment of the unorganized Victoria Street homeless encampment will be forthcoming.

As far as category 2 concerns about the financial and social costs of Bill 54, I will be asking Wes Chun for an accounting of how many dwellings have been confiscated, and how many reclaimed. This will give us a good estimate of the number of people who were set out on the sidewalk with nothing.

If you still think that Bill 54 offers you an easy way to simulate the appearance of a prosperous community by criminalizing the homeless and persecuting your political adversaries, you are wrong.

Sincerely,

H. Doug Matsuoka

"(De)Occupy Honolulu to City and State: Who do you call when the police are stealing your stuff?"

cc:   Honolulu City Council, Makiki Neighborhood Board

bcc:  Press


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Update: So far, Tom Berg is the only elected official to respond to my email. I sent the email at 12:14 pm. Only 11 minutes later, Councilman Berg replied:

All items must be identified and notice given and where property over a certain value will be retained for recovery....if a breach, then a hearing needs to be had.
Tom Berg