12-22-2013, 08:17 AM
Hawaii Bound, I was just about to post exactly what your last paragraph stated, but didn't want to disagree with yet another post made by certain commenters on this forum.
These victims that have been threatened by this specific tour guide and his tour co. have a common location of where they were threatened, being the lava fields and surrounding area. They were in unfamiliar territory and a hostile one at that, meaning the rough terrain. It's not as if they could easily escape by running from those making the threats without risking a fatal fall on the sharp rocks. So if you can imagine being on the lava rocks and being approached by an extremely tall man and/or friends with threatening behavior in an unfamiliar area you cannot retreat from, what choices do you have left? When you are being verbally abused in the way they have abused others, I believe you would be in a degree of shock. You do not know why you are being yelled at, which is what your mind is busy racing to figure out. All the while these men are making you feel as though you have trespassed and are breaking their law….I mean the law. So when you are a tourist on someone else's turf and trying to respect someone else's culture, you may be likely to submit to the verbal abuse to avoid further friction.
I for one would not whip out a camera and snap shots of such menacing men. I would be too frightened, especially being with a group of people or your family, I would not want to put them in any more danger by upsetting these men. Just think about it practically, if a criminal saw you taking a photo or video of him while he is committing a crime, he would take your device and destroy it or keep it. There have been people who have commented on the threatening behavior out on the lava on yelp.com and trip advisor and it has even been talked about in "Hawaii, The Big Island Revealed, 6th edition."
These victims that have been threatened by this specific tour guide and his tour co. have a common location of where they were threatened, being the lava fields and surrounding area. They were in unfamiliar territory and a hostile one at that, meaning the rough terrain. It's not as if they could easily escape by running from those making the threats without risking a fatal fall on the sharp rocks. So if you can imagine being on the lava rocks and being approached by an extremely tall man and/or friends with threatening behavior in an unfamiliar area you cannot retreat from, what choices do you have left? When you are being verbally abused in the way they have abused others, I believe you would be in a degree of shock. You do not know why you are being yelled at, which is what your mind is busy racing to figure out. All the while these men are making you feel as though you have trespassed and are breaking their law….I mean the law. So when you are a tourist on someone else's turf and trying to respect someone else's culture, you may be likely to submit to the verbal abuse to avoid further friction.
I for one would not whip out a camera and snap shots of such menacing men. I would be too frightened, especially being with a group of people or your family, I would not want to put them in any more danger by upsetting these men. Just think about it practically, if a criminal saw you taking a photo or video of him while he is committing a crime, he would take your device and destroy it or keep it. There have been people who have commented on the threatening behavior out on the lava on yelp.com and trip advisor and it has even been talked about in "Hawaii, The Big Island Revealed, 6th edition."