11-13-2014, 03:02 PM
KathyH -
Only the prosecutor's office knows where this case is going, but if I had to guess I would say nowhere. It has nothing to do with the details of the law, affidavits, or any of that. Bear with me.
When I lived on Maui, I had to file a police report, in the middle of the afternoon on a Wednesday. The officer at MPD asked me to take a seat until someone could help me. After 20 minutes I went up to the window to see if he had an idea how long it might be. He swiveled his computer screen around so I could see it, and scrolled quickly through 3 or 4 pages of calls in progress. Not long enough to read any details, but long enough to see that they had a lot more important business to attend to before they got to me.
I shuddered to think what that screen must look like on a Friday or Saturday night.
The police sort through their mountain of paperwork, and send some of it on to the prosecutors office. At the prosecutors office they have to further whittle away at the pile, and pick out what they think they can win, and what is most likely to help protect the population at large.
How many voting prosecutions have you seen lately? How many in the last 10 or 20 years? It's not that Tiffany is the only person who has ever cast a problematic vote, it's because it's not that big a crime in the scheme of things. It may be important to you, but really, if you could see how many felonies and misdemeanors are committed on this island daily, Tiffany's voting fiasco is way, way down the list. Think about how full the jails would be if right now HPD locked up everyone on the island who is breaking the law by smoking pot at the moment. I'm not, but I'm betting if HPD cleared the streets, I could take a long, long walk outside before I'd meet another person on the road.
Only the prosecutor's office knows where this case is going, but if I had to guess I would say nowhere. It has nothing to do with the details of the law, affidavits, or any of that. Bear with me.
When I lived on Maui, I had to file a police report, in the middle of the afternoon on a Wednesday. The officer at MPD asked me to take a seat until someone could help me. After 20 minutes I went up to the window to see if he had an idea how long it might be. He swiveled his computer screen around so I could see it, and scrolled quickly through 3 or 4 pages of calls in progress. Not long enough to read any details, but long enough to see that they had a lot more important business to attend to before they got to me.
I shuddered to think what that screen must look like on a Friday or Saturday night.
The police sort through their mountain of paperwork, and send some of it on to the prosecutors office. At the prosecutors office they have to further whittle away at the pile, and pick out what they think they can win, and what is most likely to help protect the population at large.
How many voting prosecutions have you seen lately? How many in the last 10 or 20 years? It's not that Tiffany is the only person who has ever cast a problematic vote, it's because it's not that big a crime in the scheme of things. It may be important to you, but really, if you could see how many felonies and misdemeanors are committed on this island daily, Tiffany's voting fiasco is way, way down the list. Think about how full the jails would be if right now HPD locked up everyone on the island who is breaking the law by smoking pot at the moment. I'm not, but I'm betting if HPD cleared the streets, I could take a long, long walk outside before I'd meet another person on the road.
"I'm at that stage in life where I stay out of discussions. Even if you say 1+1=5, you're right - have fun." - Keanu Reeves