Raid Twenty Something on (De)Occupy Honolulu -- Trying to Keep Up

[Something of an interim report, or update for the time being -- Doug]

"Window to Hell" gets trashed

Iʻm trying to keep up with the number of times the Honolulu Police Department (HPD) and the City Department of Facilities Maintenance (DFM) has raided the (De)Occupy Honolulu encampment and either tagged or seized and trashed property. Iʻll have an authoritative list in a few days.

I reported the raid on May 30 as a tagging raid and sure enough, on Thursday, May 31, HPD and DFM showed up, taped off the area to appropriately place themselves in a "crime scene" and proceeded to seize and trash works of art produced for the Off Art After Dark event on May 25.

If you recall, this was the same artwork the day before during the HPD/DFM tagging raid:

"Window to Hell" the day before

In order to get around the provisions of their own ordinance, HPD/DFM have been declaring property as trash (without value) and disposing of it rather than impounding and storing items to allow people to reclaim "stored" items.  The pieces were paintings, glassworks, etc. and bona fide works of art by recognized artists. And what I mean by work of art follows the current definition of an esthetics based commodity with an exchange value in excess of its utility value. 

Here are some Flickr sets of the raids, but first, I want to point something out. The encampment has always stood. Even when it has completely been seized (as in the raid of 12/29/2011) it has been immediately rebuilt. It is currently the longest running encampment in the Occupy Movement Worldwide.

Especially disturbing to me is HPD and DFM treatment of the houseless encampment down the block at the Victoria Street corner. Those without private residences must reside in public. To deprive them of the right to possessions, especially those required for "acts of living" is dreadfully wrong. To take everything from people and set them out on the street without shelter, clothing, or food, is criminal. More about this in later writings.

Hereʻs Flickr set of the May 31 raid on (De)Occupy Honolulu:

Art piece "Samanikination" looks on unperturbed. Click here for more photos.

Hereʻs a Flickr set of the raid on the Victoria Street corner on the same day:

They could have left this elderly houseless woman with her shoes. Click here for more photos, 

(De)Occupy Honolulu is in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street and the worldwide Occupy Movement which asserts that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We urge people to exercise the right to peaceably assemble, occupy public space, create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone. 


I must go to sleep now. See you in the morning.


H. Doug Matsuoka
01 June 2012
Makiki, Honolulu