Here’s a link to my latest Civil Beat column that you might find interesting. It’s a follow-up to my earlier post concerning the charges against the U.S. Surgeon General for allegedly violating certain of Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s Covid rules (“Prosecution of the U.S. Surgeon General is an expensive embarrassment“).
Click on that link to read today’s Civil Beat column.
Basically, the Covid emergency rules and their enforcement have created an ugly mess, leaving prosecutors and courts to cope with the overwhelming tsunami of criminal cases stemming from citations for violating emergency rules.
I get it. This was an emergency, the pressure was on to take action, and even ill-conceived action was probably better in the long run than inaction.
But the mishmash of confusing, sometimes misguided, occasionally contradictory, and rapidly evolving emergency rules created lots of unintended consequences, including leaving many citizens with undeserved criminal records that will follow them through the rest of their lives and courts flooded with insignificant cases.
Ordinarily, police and prosecutors rely on discretion to separate out the “real” violations worth pursuing from technical violations that are clearly not worth the cost of enforcing.
There’s even a legal term used, de minimis. It means “manini” in legalese.
With tens of thousands of citations being dismissed by prosecutors and courts, it certainly appears that discretion is the order of the day.
Why that same discretion hasn’t been applied in a review of the criminal charges in the Surgeon General’s case remains an open question.
Perhaps there’s a perverse dynamic on display. Do prosecutors feel justified in throwing the book at defendants who have the temerity to insist they are innocent? Is that perceived as waving a red flag in the face of a prosecutor? It’s beginning to look that way to me.
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Either incompetency or they don’t want the optics of not treating everybody equally (equally poorly).?
You don’t suppose it’s vengeful spite, aimed at a the Administration, for exposing Chief of Police and Chief Deputy Prosecutor, by conviction and pending probe of the City’s Prosecutor Kaneshiro, Corporation Counsel Leong and Managing Director Amemiya.
Absolutely not.
Only a 46 page criminal complaint.
We need to start to “NADA” D Nadamoto!
I love how Kaneshiro’s prosecutor’s office goes for all out glory in gunning for the juicy cases (ex: Christopher Deedy) only to crash and burn through their own incompetence. I predict they will crash and burn in notoriety in this as well.
de manini, indeed!
HPD cites these tourists meanwhile stories like below where real criminals are on the loose :
THIS SMALL BUSINESS IS SUFFERING ENOUGH. WE NEED HELP.
There is a very dangerous man who is living underneath the bridge across Palolo stream next to our business. His name is Joseph Mcelroy. This person has been continuously harming our business very much for 2 years as listed below, by:1. Destroying our physical properties many times;2. Continuously scaring away many our customers during our business activities;3. Harassing our staffs as well as causing mental problems for our staffs;4. Harassing the other tenants’ staffs at this small business mall such as Kuhio Grill Restaurant, Waiale Barber Salon, etc.I have many times called 911, done many police reports and asked for the landlord’s helps and actions to prevent this dangerous person from harming our business as well as other businesses around. However, there hasn’t been enough actions from HPD and other law enforcement parties as well as from the landlord and the property manager to prevent this person from harming our business as mentioned above. The latest and biggest damage to our business was happened on 11/13/2020. This man broke into our restaurant and destroyed all our window glasses. It costs us more than fifteen thousands to fix and reopen our business after closing down. As I know, this person hasn’t been arrested by HPD and still freely is hanging around our business. I have strongly urged HPD to arrest this dangerous person but HPD said NO all the time. Very bad things could be happened to our business, staffs’ safety and other tenants’ anytime.THIS SMALL BUSINESS IS SUFFERING ENOUGH. WE NEED HELP.
Odd that no one mentions this is part of the pattern set also by the State Attorney General’s office – namely, public funds used for litigation and prosecution of politically rival policies or people. This supposed crime, after all, was committed (if a crime) by the President’s Surgeon General. How about all the State AG resources spent on litigation (that all failed) with regard to national immigration policy? Isn’t the City supposed to be non-partisan? This kind of abuse of process also occurred at the national level (General Flynn, the opposing party’s presidential campaign, the impeachment for asking, per existing treaties, cooperation in corruption investigations). Makes you wonder who we should trust with the vast powers of prosecution and ‘attorneys-general.’ Is politics all about capturing state power for ideological ends?
I was wondering when the GOP conspiracy stuff would land.
Using the term ‘conspiracy stuff’ …is this the signal that someone we ‘other’ has slipped into the conversation? Which item mentioned is a ‘conspiracy,’ or is the mere assertion sufficient to signal what everyone who matters knows, and therefore need not be defended? Doesn’t it seem odd that the Surgeon General gets a criminal referral when most other purported violaters are treated differently?
Boyd –
I am appalled at how the Surgeon General is being treated. He stopped to take a picture as they crossed the park to exit the beach. You are spot on there.
I am referring to the mention of the “national level” as you outlined. I took a hard look at what you wrote again and I now admit I’m confused to what point you are making there. Are you alleging wrongdoing by either side? If so, which one?
Regardless, Ian’s blog is not my place to enter into a discussion of that area. I respect him too much to muddy the water of his pool. My apologies if you were offended. Let’s just all get along.
Thanks, you’re correct, not the place to go into extended discussion on associated topics. Ian Lind does a great job sharing his investigative work…we love it.
Christopher Deedy was warned by another federal agent that people in Hawaii are hostile to the federal government, so Deedy brought his gun along when he went bar hopping. If Hawaii was really that dangerous, shouldn’t have Deedy just remained in his hotel’s bar or his room? It turns out that the real hostility toward the feds is by the prosecutors and the judges who keep putting Deedy back on trial after failing to get any conviction. That seems to be what is going on with the Surgeon General. Deedy is white, and the Surgeon General is black, but it’s not racism that keeps Hawaii’s judges and prosecutors on the hunt for federal officials, but the fact that these feds are from somewhere else. Meanwhile, the local prosecutor might be going prison for corruption. That’s ironic. Even more ironic, the local airport is named after a man who brought more money to his state from the federal government than any other senator. Some say he belonged in prison, too. Irony strikes again.