About a dozen people from five groups held a protest march Wednesday afternoon to bring attention to police shootings.
“Stop. Stop. Stop police shooting,” they chanted as they made their way to the Honolulu Police Department headquarters.
There have been four law-enforcement-involved shootings in less than two months on Oahu, three of which were fatal. One involved a deputy sheriff who fatally shot a man described by his relatives as small and physically disabled.
Authorities say the victim initiated a struggle on
Feb. 18 and was reportedly drinking at the state Capitol rotunda.
“When a homeless man who was disabled is shot and killed, we have to ask ourselves, what is going on?” said Liz Rees of Refuse Fascism, which organized the march and a press conference at HPD’s main station. “I do not believe for one moment that that was the only alternative law enforcement had. There were many other steps that should have been taken.”
She also highlighted the shooting death of a suspected shoplifter on Feb. 20. He had been cornered by unmarked police vehicles in Mililani, then shot when he tried to flee in a pickup truck. After he was shot, the truck crashed, critically injuring his two passengers.
“We need to stop going along with the theory that police don’t have other options,” Rees said. “When a homeless person is shot and killed, we need to speak out. When a suspected shoplifter is shot and killed, we need to speak out.”
Calls to an HPD spokeswoman for comment were not returned. In a news conference the day after the
Mililani shooting, Police Chief Susan Ballard said if the driver had listened to the officers, things would have turned out differently.
“Does it have to be shoot to kill?” asked Beatriz Cantelma, co-coordinator of Amnesty International, Hawaii Chapter 1013. She said Hawaii is one of 42 states that does not require a warning before the use of deadly force.
“Clearly the United States must reform its laws on use of deadly force,” she said.
She urged residents to call on the state to be proactive and review its lethal force laws, policies and training. She also stressed the need for urgent reforms on accountability and oversight.
She said fundamental human rights are violated when police can kill people without justification or accountability.
Randy Gonce, a veteran of the Iraq war, said unlike the military members who serve in combat zones, “We have no enemy at home. We are all citizens of this country. … We entrust these agencies to uphold the law … in a compassionate and service-oriented way.
“We have come to a place in our lives to allow police officers and law enforcement to engage with their firearms in the use of deadly force at any point at which they feel their life is threatened, which I believe is a huge disservice and misjudgment to our people.”
He believes police across the nation justify the use of firearms, “when seven to eight levels of de-escalation should have been used prior, and they are all using the facade of their badge to get away with it.”
Will Caron, chairman of Young Progressives Demanding Action, said, “We know that it is necessary to question the official story whenever someone is killed by a law enforcement officer.”
Caron urged the public to call on their legislators to support HB 285, which would amend the Uniform Practices Act to allow for public access to information about suspended police officers. Caron said the bill would “eliminate the exemption police officers enjoy that prevents public notice about officers who have been suspended or removed from duty because of misconduct.”
The bill was passed Wednesday out of the state House Judiciary Committee.