Here’s the way the Star-Bulletin framed the matter yesterday:
Police reported several injuries of fans, some of whom were hurt in the scramble to the field but their injuries were not reported as serious.
Police made two arrests, one for alleged abuse of a household member and another for the alleged assault of a police officer. Security escorted about 14 people out of the stadium during the game for unruly behavior.
Despite the trouble, police said it was a normal amount of fights and injuries for a UH game, especially for a sellout. (emphasis added)
Hmmmm. Should there be “a normal amount of fights” at a college game? Are these numbers common to other NCAA teams? Or is this like our apparent normalization of brawls and fights elsewhere in tourist town?
Not sure what I’m talking about? There have been other recent examples, besides those noted here previously.
Mid-November, from a brief item in an Advertiser “local news” listing:
Charges are pending against a 29-year-old Kalihi man who broke the jaw of a man he allegedly punched during an early morning brawl yesterday at Royal Hawaiian and Kalakaua avenues in Waikiki.
The 23-year-old victim was not a participant in the fight, police said.
The injured man told police he and an acquaintance encountered a large group engaged in a fight.
Or this breaking news item on Friday morning, also in the Advertiser:
Police and a city ambulance team have been sent to the North Shore Marketplace in Hale’iwa in response to a report of a brawl taking place there.
These items are virtually always reported as discrete incidents in isolation from each other. I started noticing them some months back, and now they jump out at me when reported in this fashion.
Perhaps this is one of those issues that can’t be discussed because, well, it wouldn’t be polite. Or it would give the wrong impression. Or it just isn’t something we pay attention to because nobody else has validated it yet.
The City Ethics blog noted the problem of “discussing the undiscussable” not too long ago, and talked about the rules of attention.
1. Here’s what we notice
2. Here’s what we call it
3. Here’s what can’t be noticed
4. We are at a loss to talk about it because we can’t admit we see it
In a totally different context, here’s another thing I guess we aren’t supposed to talk about. In this case it’s the “Red Carpet” at United Airlines’ boarding gates in Chicago and at 40 airports across the country, one of those incredibly silly corporate illusions that we’re supposed to go along with.
The red carpet was there in all its glory in Chicago’s O’Hare Airport when we caught our flight to Honolulu. Despite all the hype, it’s really more like a red bath mat.
Perhaps that’s appropriate, since as far as I could tell this emperor was wearing nada.
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At a UH/BYU game some years ago, my father’s jaw was broken by a drunken young man. Why? My father asked the kid to stop screaming “F— the Haoles!” and throwing beer bottles at the field. Apparently, he wasn’t a BYU fan. Although the kid wwas escorted away by police, he wasn’t charged, and proscecutors declined to proscecute.
From KITV’s online text story about the sentencing in the Waikele beating case:
“The prosecutor said the message of this case is not about people being racist, but people being violent. [Deputy Prosecutor] Pacarro said he is getting four felony assault cases a week that involve road rage, bar fights and fights at sporting events. He said people do not realize a single punch can put you behind bars for a long time.”
Leaving aside the hate crime debate, it does sound like at least this prosecutor has noticed the violence. I wonder why there’s never any follow-up then to the numerous breakign news stories.
The prosecutor at the time was Charles Marsland. He was after bigger fish, and told us so. And since the perp had virtually no assets, no lawyer wanted to try a civil case.
There was a fight on Maui here recently where a person was beaten at a private party in Hana (it as a haole attacked by more than one Hawaiian). He went to the hospital, and discovered that he had a cracked orbital. In other words, they broke his skull. The police are required to be called in and take a report in situations like this, so he gave a report at the hospital. Now, over a week later, the police have apparently done nothing to follow up – no one in the community has been interviewed, no investigation, nothing, despite the fact that those involved are known in the community, and have been involved in incidents like this in the past. Are the local cops friends with the perps, and/or with the person hosting the party? It seems to work that way.