Remember the Talivans of 2002? You should. Unhinged Covid-19 enforcement brings back memories of the thankfully short-lived effort to reduce speeding through the use of automated cameras in mobile vans.
I’ll get back to the Talivans in a moment. First, thanks to Civil Beat and reporter Christina Jedra for soliciting the opinions of public health experts concerning the latest iteration of Honolulu’s Covid-19 rules (“Beaches, Parks, Trails Closed? Honolulu Mayor’s COVID-19 Rules Defy Science, Experts Say“).
Jedra spoke with several prominent epidemiologists who agreed that denying public access to outdoor spaces is not consistent with what is known about the spread of this virus, and has the effect of driving people indoors, where they are more likely to be exposed to the disease.
There’s also an equity issue, according to Julia Marcus of Harvard Medical School.
While free outdoor spaces are closed, open-air operations that require an entrance fee are open, including the city zoo, the Wet ‘n’ Wild Hawaii water park, the Aloha Stadium swap meet, golf courses, Kualoa Ranch and Waimea Valley.
“You’re depriving more economically disadvantaged people of outdoor space where they can recreate, socialize safely, exercise, enjoy their lives,” she said.
Mayor Caldwell has said officials are trying to establish a “bright line” to make the rules against large gatherings easier to enforce.
But we’ve tried and rejected that approach to law enforcement before. Remember back in 2002 when Hawaii implemented the automated system that was supposed to catch and cite speeding drivers, and therefore make the roads safer for everyone? These camera-equipped vehicles became known as “Talivans,” and became the focus of widespread public anger.
The problem was summarized in a Honolulu Star-Bulletin editorial in April 2002.
The program failed because its focus extended beyond dangerously aggressive drivers, outraging motorists who have become accustomed to traveling slightly — and, under normal conditions, safely — faster than the speed limit.
While police continued to recognize normal driving habits, operators of what motorists derisively called “Talivans” applied another standard for criminality — correctly dismissed by judges as “deminimis,” Latin legalese for what one TV reporter accurately translated into Hawaiian as manini. The Department of Transportation foolishly brought charges against driving behavior that is both customary and tolerable.
And now Mayor Caldwell’s orders have police issuing citations to people just out for a walk in the open air, even if they are far from any other people and, therefore, posing no possible danger to others. And giving thousands of such citations undeniably draws attention away from the real gatherings that do pose health risks, while also causing the same kind of public backlash that greeted the Talivans.
That doesn’t have to mean the rules change, it just requires the normal, everyday judgement and discretion that causes police officers to ignore those driving 36 mph in a 35 mph zone, so that they are ready to grab those careening past at high and dangerous speeds.
Taken together with UH Professor Karl Kim’s recent critique, today’s Civil Beat story should prompt a reappraisal of official policies sooner rather than later.
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What it takes to adjust perception! To close 10 community gardens, affecting 1200+ gardeners—70% seniors — on Aug 7th and not know or care that plants will die, seniors and families will be denied their health and welfare, and the City will restrict their avid volunteers from tending organic gardens?
These same City leaders want to pass Bills 49 (Mayor can close parks—gardens under DPR— under any pretense), and 59 (w/inserted Sec 10.1B draconian rules w/o promised gardener input), all under cover of “CoVid Safety.” This political myopia flies in the face of good health and science, while encouraging fear, decisiveness and tattling on one another. Disgusting!
Just a point of clarification — Bills 49 and 59 were council initiated (Kym Pine). I haven’t seen any testimony from the administration yet. They’re up for committee discussion tomorrow.
Also note that so far there has been no written testimony supporting either bill.
You lost me Ian. Camera vans have zero to do with banning large groups at our parks and beaches for Covid safety and prevention of spread. It’s a ridiculous comparison.
I have no trouble with banning large groups, and didn’t say that. I have trouble with aiming to ban large groups but in practice citing lots of individuals walking alone. Just like Talivans ticketing people who happened to be driving at two or three or five mph over the speed limit.
Jendra’s article was an “emperor has no cloths” moment. Basically outing Mayor Caldwell’s actions as unnecessary, irrational and void of any foundation in science. It just seems that in their premature race for Governor, Caldwell and Josh Green keep trying to demonstrate who is better at making “big body” to the electorate. Shameful.
If the State were a ship, and COVID-19 a submerged rock, it would go something like this:
Crew: Captain, we struck an object on the portside bow!
Captain: Well, I can’t see any damage from here. Let’s wait to see what happens.
Crew: We have reports of water in the lower decks. Should we check for damage and turn on the bilge pumps?
Captain: Well, let’s see if the water gets any higher first. And take a look at the front of the ship since that’s where it hit first.
Crew: What about the bottom of the hull?
Captain: We don’t know about that. So no need to look unless you see water coming in there.
Crew: The ship is starting to list and water is still coming in.
Captain: Turn on one of the bilge pumps and see if that helps.
Crew: Should we take the ship into drydock immediately and have repairs done?
Captain: No. Let’s plug up any holes that we happen to see for now. Maybe it’ll get better. And let’s turn on one more bilge pump. That might keep us from sinking for a while.
Love Deans perspective. Good to laugh.
Closing parks and beaches likely makes police enforcement against gathering in groups easier but it makes absolutely no sense to ban residents from walking along wide Kailua Beach after work while allowing quarantine-flaunting tourists to stroll Kalakaua Avenue, or to let hacking bums and flailing lunatics meander along Hotel Street all day or flop along the Ala Wai Canal, for that matter.
While it’s nice that the zoo remains open to paying customers and makes sense to close off certain confined areas there and require masks, some other zoo restrictions are silly and counterproductive. Making pedestrian traffic one-way at the zoo may sound good in theory but in reality causes people to bunch up in ways that would not otherwise occur. For example, visitors are funneled down a narrow one-way path fronting various bird exhibits only to find that the end of the path is now blocked off. This then forces visitors to turn around and squeeze back past others who are headed toward that end of the path. It’s ridiculous. The whole one-way setup ensures that visitors congest along a prescribed route rather than naturally disperse around the entire zoo.
Sweet comparison, Ian. I forgot all about the van cams.
My own favorite comparison would be the banning of medical marijuana for cancer and glaucoma patients, but allowing super-potent opioid sales. Ban something harmless or even beneficial, but invite the devil in because tourists are money.
Where was the law enforcement presence on July 4 (and the weeks after), when hundreds upon hundreds of unmasked and beer-drinking people were partying hardy on the beach at Waikiki?
Why did we have to wait another 4, 5, 6 weeks after that for enforcement to come along, until covid19 was already spread throughout the general population?
Why did it take that long before they started writing up tickets for it-doesn’t-matter-if-the-horse-is-already-out-of-the-barn-yes-even-the-pasture-but-NOW-we’re-going-to-write-people-up-just-out-walking-anyway?
We’re generally a really patient population. That said, there’s a limit.
We’re not getting good information. We’re getting inappropriate enforcement, and we’re getting mighty tired of random ineffective operations.
If I had to guess, the Mayor wants to avoid confrontations of HPD with large groups gathering at beach parks who wont disperse peacefully. Not sure if the Waimanalo/Kahuku protests are a reminder to him of the public backlash and resources required to control crowds who disagree with his policy. He would rather ban every one from the beaches and cite anyone to prevent HPD from making “tougher” judgment calls.
The new look is clean with one flaw: there is no date when the article was published. Under the old template, a quick scan told me how man new ones were available.
Any way to add that date?
I’m sure there is. BUt I have to figure out why it disappeared!
Aha. This theme moved the date to the bottom of each post. That doesn’t seem too useful!
Back to the drawing board….