I’ve commented here several times over the past several years about the underreporting of street fights and brawls around the island.

This week, a sharp-eyed Waikiki resident forwarded the link to this YouTube video showing a street fight in the heart of Waikiki that took place a couple of months ago.

[The video has been removed (in December 2012) following a warning from Google that all ads will be suspended if this video, which shows a street fightin Waikiki, is not removed.]

We’re talking the center of our visitor industry. Does anyone else find this disturbing?

Here’s what I wrote a year and a half ago (I point out the date so that I’m not accused of raising this only as a last-minute campaign issue:

The pattern seem clear. For whatever reason, this disturbing series of fights involving large groups is being largely ignored. Follow-up reporting to make sense of it is almost nonexistent, as is reporting to hold public officials responsible for responding. Shouldn’t there be some public discussion of how to best respond to this obvious increase in gang related violence, including the appearance of home invasion robberies, drive by shootings, brawls in public places, etc? I would like to hear more than a sound bite from HPD, the city council, and the mayor. What’s going on and what are you doing about it?

Type “brawl” in the Google search bar on the top right of this page and you’ll get a list of earlier entries involving underreported and unanalyzed gang fights.

That video had been viewed about 14,000 times as of this morning, as have several of the others that turned up when I searched YouTube using the words “Waikiki” and “fight”.

I’m hearing candidates talking a lot about management experience and public safety. I haven’t heard much, now or over the past several years, addressing this emergence of new and serious types of community violence, from gang fights to recreational violence to home invasions.

I would welcome somthing substantive on this important issue.