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+--- Thread: Drug Dealers on Pahoa Main Street (/showthread.php?tid=11954)
Drug Dealers on Pahoa Main Street - pander75 - 05-23-2013
Is it just me or are the drug dealers on Main Street in Pahoa getting more bold and intrusive? It seems like everyone knows who they are and what they're doing...
A few days ago I was walking up to use the ATM at First Hawaiian Bank and there were about 6 guys sitting on the steps out front. This was while the bank was open and they were all calling to cars going down the street and waving at people. One of the guys even had a 3 or 4 year old kid with him! They started hassling me so I turned right around and used the ATM at Bank of Hawaii. Later that day I called First Hawaiian and told the manager what happened. At first she tired to pretend she didn't know what I was talking about! After talking to her for a while I was told that the bank employees have essentially given up trying to do anything. They said they used to call the police but most of the time the police would never even come, of if they did it was always much later when the dealers had wandered off.
I've noticed that they usually hang outside of the Cash & Carry and both pizza places, or in front of 7-11 and the smoke shop across the street. I guess those businesses don't mind having illegal activities - or maybe they like that their customers came come to beautiful Pahoa and get one stop shopping!
I actually don't have any problem with people doing whatever they want in the privacy and safety of their own homes, but don't bring it out in public and hassle people! Am I the only one that's tired of seeing this? Do you ever actually see a cop car cruise down Main Street anymore? Obviously the cops know too, and deliberately turn a blind eye.
It's really sad for our little community.
RE: Drug Dealers on Pahoa Main Street - opihikao - 05-23-2013
This is what frustrates me no end. Thank you for posting this. The human garbage that frequents Pahoa town is sickening. There are only so many cops per shift, and the amount of calls from dispatch on any given day are 80% for Puna. From DV, to theft, to some drugged out idiot with "altered mental status", to vehicle accidents on 130, and more.
WTH is going on in Pahoa town and our Puna community? I feel badly for the businesses trying to make a living, with these kinds of morons infiltrating what was once a quiet, simple, loving community.
I hope we can all put some energy into making a change. Short of street justice, what can we do? With all of these community "groups" in Pahoa/Puna, is there any effort being put forth to clean up Pahoa town and our Puna, once and for all?
Unfortunately, these kinds of people don't give a rip about any of us, our kids, our grandbabies, nothing. Ice heads and druggies of all kinds are taking over our neighborhood. We need to help the police and report each and every one of these incidents, while staying safe and not confronting the subhumans that walk our streets.
We need a group like the Guardian Angels in NYC or something. The cops can't handle this alone, obviously. JMO.[
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RE: Drug Dealers on Pahoa Main Street - Kapohocat - 05-23-2013
Here's a solution.... (and this is half in jest but it happened to us)...
Go to cash n carry with someone who looks vaguely cop-like (Like my brother who is a fireman).
When they asked him if he wanted to buy some kind of drugs or weed, he gave them the "look" and one of them said "we'd better go - I think he is undercover cop" (cuz my brother had shorts and slippers and a Tye-dyed tshirt on but with the required short hair look, and not even the sunglasses associated with the "cop-look".) They moved away from cash n carry while we were there.
Every time when he is here and we stop for ice (the solid water kine not the drug), and beer, they give him a wide berth.
Maybe I'll send him to ATM at FH instead of BOH as his public service for the day.
Feel free to use your clean-cut friends for public service too. Need to beard- free, but mustaches dont seem to matter.
RE: Drug Dealers on Pahoa Main Street - microage97 - 05-23-2013
How about snapping some pics of faces and license plates? That does seem to scare people off......
RE: Drug Dealers on Pahoa Main Street - Chunkster - 05-23-2013
I drove through central Pahoa the other day for the fist time in almost a year, and it looked pretty bad. The part that dismays me is the fact that the usual group of Pahoa focused civic activists who were touting the improvements just a year or so ago are nowhere to be seen or heard when there is an obvious slide back toward something resembling a Detroit ghetto scene, albeit one with a tropical backdrop. So we have a town with a heavy concentration of the few amenities in Puna, but people are uncomfortable going there to enjoy them. What's wrong with this picture?
RE: Drug Dealers on Pahoa Main Street - riverwolf - 05-23-2013
I too have never undertood why First Hawaiian Bank allows that crowd to hang out on the front steps. My wife will not go into that bank for that very reason.
You forgot to mention the Island Natural store. They have their own "crowd" that hang out at the tables on a daily basis. The parking lot there is one of the busiest marijuana markets around.
Sometimes when we are parked there we laugh at how blatant the "shopping" is in the car park.
Personally I don't care. I get more annoyed that you have to be careful driving in and out of the car park as people just seem to be wandering about with half a clue that they are in a road way.
riverwolf
RE: Drug Dealers on Pahoa Main Street - rainshadow - 05-23-2013
I was in Pahoa last evening. The drivel that now wanders the streets is disgusting. It's why I so rarely go there. When I first moved here, I loved Pahoa town, loved its small town vibe and looseness. Now, it takes a bit of a miracle to get me there, even for stuff that really needs to be done.
I understand that there are too few cops (and too few who aren't in the pocket of whomever, from family to other...), and I get that there's little/no money, but... why? Why can't we get more cops in Puna? Is this a HI Co issue?
I'm not against taking out some dirtball on my property, at all. But unless I'm pushed, I won't be joining an Angels type of group. I think trash like this is the responsibility of government, and it's why we elect these... people. To help us. So what gives?
-- rainshadow
RE: Drug Dealers on Pahoa Main Street - Seeb - 05-23-2013
Where's Curtis Sliwa when you need him
RE: Drug Dealers on Pahoa Main Street - kalakoa - 05-23-2013
Aren't there lots of surveillance cameras installed all over downtown Pahoa for "public safety" or something?
Didn't our tax dollars just pay for a big new police station in Pahoa?
Maybe it's the old anti-science acting up again, but I'm somehow reminded of the solution in Vancouver BC: they designated a "green zone" (eg, bounded by specific named streets) within which small-time dealing of personal quantities would be generally ignored -- but if any of those dealers were caught outside the zone (say, up in the "nice part of town") they would be punished far more severely.
This already happens at a State/County level; the "green ghetto" (sections of) Puna helps to keep all "those people" away from the tourist-facing shiny. Why shouldn't Pahoa have a designated "skid row" for those who truly want/need that sort of thing?
RE: Drug Dealers on Pahoa Main Street - pander75 - 05-23-2013
I called Greggor Ilagan's office that same day and talked to a very sympathetic aide who took down some information about the incident and my contact information, but I never heard anything else back. I guess that doesn't matter so much since I'm not the only one who has seen this behavior.
What's really sad to me is that a few years ago it seemed like Pahoa was on the right track to cleaning things up and improving. It kind of corresponded to the peak of the real estate bubble when there was money and rich folks in town. Now that the economy is struggling we are right back to where things were over 10 years ago. Do you folks remember this incident with an ice deal happening right in front of Mayor Harry Kim, and then the police completely missing it?
http://archives.starbulletin.com/2003/09/12/news/story4.html