Public Safety Meeting at Leilani Community Center

[james weatherford]

There will be a public safety meeting at Leilani Community Center Feb 28, 7pm.

This meeting has been organized following a shocking (but, sadly, not rare) incident first brought to light in this letter which appeared in Big Island Weekly earlier in the month:
http://bigislandweekly.com/news/letter-t...tor-5.html

I have since talked with the author of the letter, Joel Foster, who was attacked by dogs in Leilani.
The Hawaii County Police tried to dismiss the incident as something they could do nothing about.
Joel refused to let them ignore it.

The issue here is Police responsiveness and equal enforcement of laws.
As horrible as it may sound, dog attacks are not uncommon in Hawaii County, yet enforcement of existing laws regarding such attacks is uncommon.

If you are able, please consider being present at this meeting to show support for public safety.

Anyone who has a similar story to relate, regarding dog attacks and/or inadequate police responsiveness in a matter of public safety, will be invited to share that story so that the wider community can learn from it.

[jlgerk]

Shocking. If he had killed the dog would they do something ?
Probably arrest him ?

[mikewj]

Quote from Joel's letter: "The case cannot move forward to the prosecutor's office unless the officer gets a statement from the dog owner. The owner is not answering the phone or the door."
So all one needs to do to avoid prosecution for what might even escalate to a felony is to avoid the Police for 90 days, and it automatically goes away?
Is this true of any other type of assault?

[james weatherford]

Update: Because Joel has persisted, the dog owner has been cited and is to appear in court in March.

[JerryCarr]

While it is good news that the dog owner had been cited, why was it so hard? The case involved bodily injury requiring costly medical treatment, yet somehow there was no urgency. This is yet another instance where the lack of an independent police review board with real enforcement powers becomes a glaring deficiency in our justice system. Had the investigating officers not finally done their jobs, there is really nowhere to take a situation like this for redress.

[missydog1]

That is a horrible story and it really upset me.
It would be a good one to post in the questions for candidates.

RIP Marc Hansen, another fine musician gone (Hansen & Raitt)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_2nxZ3Wrqw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTReV9kDS3I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRTULLjILAg&feature=related
http://web.me.com/cayurt/Yurt_People/history.html

[Obie]

I think the answer can be found in this quote from Rick Damerville

"We have a county with the area size of the state of Connecticut patrolled by fewer than 400 officers. Do the math. The numbers do not work and the results are predictable. When our misguided elected officials approved all of these private subdivisions without the necessary infrastructure what happened is exactly what the naysayers said would happen and we have unacceptable levels of property crimes."

[Kelena]

We need to attend each and every hearing, if we can.

[Seeb]

quote:

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Originally posted by Obie

I think the answer can be found in this quote from Rick Damerville

"We have a county with the area size of the state of Connecticut patrolled by fewer than 400 officers. Do the math. The numbers do not work and the results are predictable.

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There is a saying "figures don't lie but lairs figure" and im not talkin about the rank and file but the management here is real creative with statistics, like the area someone can check the the exact #s but more than half of the big island is unihabited or federal. check the per population #s compared to the rest of the country.
they don't count fatalities on private roads but count those roads in their road miles and things that

If you want to look at statistics, its the number of women that go missing here and are never heard of again.

[james weatherford]

Although Puna is indeed short of Police Officers, whether Officers are available or not is not what is at issue here.
The Officers came, filed a report, and later told the victim they had suspended the investigation because the owner would not come to the door.
When the victim did not relent, under pressure the citation was issued.

No, this is not about the size of the island.

This is about failure of Police leadership to prioritize public safety.
Dogs (as well as illegal dumping) are not seen as glamorous enough for Police rank to take it seriously.