Hawai‘i not the melting pot people believe it to be
In response to Richard Morse (The danger of critical race theory, TGI Forum, July 18), it is easy to fear something that you do not fully understand.
Communism and Marxism are socioeconomic systems. Critical race theory is intersectional, using class analysis and examination of social, legal and cultural issues as they relate to race.
I think it’s comical that Mr. Morse claims that “We in Hawai‘i…find this notion ‘repulsive” and that CRT is “classic ‘divide and conquer,’” when we who understand Hawai‘i through CRT know that the Massie trial, the sugar plantations’ use of divide and conquer against laborers, and today’s fines levied against residents for “unessential water use” while tourists enjoy resort swimming pools are examples of racism and classism in Hawai‘i, which isn’t the melting pot that so many believe to exist.
Thank you.
Michael Miranda, Puhi
Police are human — good, not so good and bad
I’m responding to Kimo’s Other Voices of July 14 (Forum, “On body cameras and ‘criminal law’”). To start with, I’ll write a piece of his. “A teenage girl who was about to stab and possibly kill another girl was apprehended and shot by a police officer who potentially saved the life of the person about to be stabbed.”
If a police officer has apprehended a suspect and then shoots and kills the person, there’s a possibility that the officer committed a crime. Police are human, and that means that there are good ones, not so good ones and bad ones. They have rules to follow, and if they don’t, then negative consequences will follow.
You’re correct that much of the time these suspects aren’t the best people, and the Honolulu case would certainly have the arrow pointing in that direction. However, the suspect’s car was stopped and the officers shot from behind, killing him with multiple back-of-the-head shots. It does paint a picture of a possible criminal act.
Now onto body cams, cameras and at-birth micro-chipping. The police wear body cams, but for it to work it has to be turned on. Sometimes it isn’t, and I wonder why? It’s one profession that warrants the wearing of and of its correct use.
Eye-in-the-sky camera surveillance does feel somewhat overreaching, and there needs to be specific laws in what information is picked up and how it’s used.
At-birth micro-chipping, NO.
Oh, I just remembered the police-defunding comment. When that came out I knew it was the wrong way to label police reforms or the restructuring of police departments.
I knew the term was going to be weaponized, creating a huge propaganda machine of going soft on crime. Police still act against crime. Maybe they aren’t the front line for mental-health issues, or parking tickets or routine traffic stops. Maybe there’s better training and better vetting of raciest thinking and beliefs.
All right, I’m done. I’ve said this in the past, and I’ll say it again: The way you write and speak fits your agenda of misinformation, and you cherry-pick instead of presenting the whole picture. Maybe you call this “Other Voices.” I don’t.
Mark Perry, Lihu‘e
