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Factors which embolden & discourage thieves
#15
quote:
Originally posted by Kahunascott

Do you think an organized neighborhood watch program will work?
Taking turns driving up and down roads with signs on the car doors?
Recording license plates and taking pictures of suspicious individuals.
The criminals will move to a location that is an easier hit if they know our area is patrolled. The last thing they want is confrontation, and word will get out and they will move on....

I agree that it will work. Honomu has put together an informal community watch for the village and for Akaka Falls. Yes it is the old guys doing it - I am talking ages 70+ -- [Big Grin][Big Grin] but just the fact that someone is there, with a cell to call HPD, taking pics of lic plates (in fact this is finally moving my Dad into the digital camera age!!!) - a presence at the park, the falls, down main street, and occasionally Kolekole, is helping drop the crime rate especially of thefts involving tourist cars, vandalism at night in the village and the park/gym, and home invasion. Granted Honomu is much smaller than HPP or HA or FA or FF but they only have less than a dozen CW volunteers. A guy named Jude had done this for years pretty much by himself.

One of the community watch even told the ice house people, "we are watching" and maybe it made the ice heads a little paranoid. I dont know if that was just the straw or if the ice heads go wind of something else, or couldn't pay their rent but they are moving out of Honomu.

Some of the other things that helped vandalism or crimes of opportunity for the grade school kids was having a computer center next to the bakery where they can go after school and hang out. The school bus drops them off right in front of it. Some of the same old guys are part of the volunteers for it - the kids teach the old guys how to use email, etc... The gym also has more community programs that are run by volunteers.

Honomu does differ though from HPP in that it is very much smaller, more people know each other, and there are almost no vacation home rentals (so fewer empty houses), and most people living there are committed to keeping their neighborhood a real community because a healthy percentage of the residents have generational roots there so there is some stake holding in the health of the village right off the bat. There is also a mix of generations more evenly % spread - kids to grandparents - and then a mix of 50-60's - but the me generation is not the overwhelming group out there. (Do not take offense but the Baby Boomers have made an impact on everything.) There is also much more even mix of "locals", ka'aimaina, and malahine.

Don't get me wrong - how many times have I heard out there "well when so-so lived on Akaka Falls Rd" (which became "old" Akaka Falls rd, and now is Stable Camp Rd) "we did it this or that way", and the malahine don't know what they are talking about. Yes, they have the same issues as other places, the bickering, differences of opinions on how to do things, speeding through their neighborhood and Hwy 220, differences on development, traffic (anyone remember the landslide out there on Hwy 19 in early 2000's?), and emergency services response time (PD,FD, and ambulances). The closest PD & FD is Hilo and Laupahoehoe - both +13 miles. Took FD 22 mins when Akaka Falls Inn burned down.

IMHO, they reclaimed their community because people became involved. (Can't tell you about guns because the only one who carried one is the PO who lives in Honomu.)

For some history of Honomu, in the 1920's-50's - it was the wild west - they had 4 churches, 3 saloons, and a opium den (under the old theater) out there. The town & surrounding area had a population of 5000+ when sugar was king, it dropped to 600-700 in the village by the 90's. Vacant storefronts made it look like a ghost town. Now population is 1000+ and mainstreet until 2008 was bustling.
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Messages In This Thread
RE: Factors which embolden & discourage thieves - by roseroo14 - 12-01-2008, 09:45 AM
RE: Factors which embolden & discourage thieves - by Kapohocat - 12-02-2008, 05:29 AM
RE: Factors which embolden & discourage thieves - by Guest - 12-12-2008, 07:28 AM
RE: Factors which embolden & discourage thieves - by Guest - 12-12-2008, 09:18 AM
RE: Factors which embolden & discourage thieves - by Guest - 12-14-2008, 09:44 AM
RE: Factors which embolden & discourage thieves - by Guest - 12-19-2008, 07:10 AM
RE: Factors which embolden & discourage thieves - by Guest - 12-22-2008, 05:35 PM

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