On Saturday, dozens of West Oahu residents walked through Maili, calling for an end to the epidemic of crime and violence tearing away at their communities.

Later that night, at about 2 a.m. Sunday, 30-year-old Lazarus Beauford was attacked and stabbed by two men near Waianae Elementary School. He later died.

The string of violent crimes on the Waianae Coast continues, and residents urgently want — need — greater public intervention.

Unfortunately, a vocal fumble a week earlier by Mayor Rick Blangiardi threatened to shake what small measure of public confidence exists in the city’s commitment to the West Side. Area residents had filled a school cafeteria for a Nanakuli town hall meeting with the mayor, raising concerns about crime, traffic safety and the status of the still-unfinished Waianae Police Station.

Austin Salcedo, advocating for more West Side intervention by both state and county enforcement officials, lamented the time and resources involved in bringing police from their base in Kapolei to a Waianae Coast emergency. Just one Farrington Highway intersection in Makaha, Salcedo said, was the focus of 762 emergency 911 calls in 2023.

Before Salcedo could finish, though, Blangiardi interrupted to ask, “Why isn’t the community doing more? The police can’t do everything, so why don’t you guys deal with it?” A man shouted from the back of the room, “What do you want us to do?”

The mayor retorted: “Communities everywhere deal with this issue. That’s what Neighborhood Watch is for.”

The Waianae Coast needs police and social service interventions — highest among these a visible, ’round-the-clock police presence based on the Waianae Coast. And while a current push to complete the Waianae Police Substation is crucial, Waianae can’t afford to wait the year or several this will take.

In April, Honolulu Police Chief Joe Logan said adding a police District 9, centered in Waianae, was on the agenda. That should indeed be fast-tracked, but it is dependent on data collection and completion of the substation — as well as adding the 130 to 150 additional police required to stand up a new district.

In the meantime, police patrol schedules and allocation of staff must be adjusted to slash response times to West Side 911 calls, and to focus on hot spots of concentrated violence and lawbreaking.

A resident at the May 2 town hall reported that prostitution takes place nightly at one location, naming the site. Another claimed that Waianae is a concentrated hub for sex trafficking and exploitation of underage victims — an offense known to be connected to the presence of illegal gambling operations that are concentrated in Waianae — although police have been targeting gambling with some effect.

In February, a 39-year-old Makaha rancher, a neighbor to Salcedo, was shot and killed in an altercation with hunters trespassing on his property — one among many agricultural crimes statewide prompting a March demonstration at the state Capitol for better protection against illegal hunting, poaching and thefts on ag lands. Bills to set up pilot projects to test effective methods of prosecuting agricultural crimes on Oahu and Kauai, as has been done in Hawaii and Maui counties, went nowhere this year at the state Legislature. As others have asked, if a death isn’t sufficient to provoke higher response, what is?

With the mayor’s remarks still stinging many, City Councilmember Andria Tupola, state Sen. Mike Gabbard and Rep. Diamond Garcia have called a Crime Prevention Town Hall that includes the Prosecutor’s Office, police, state attorney general and federal Homeland Security representatives, 6 p.m. May 28 at the Honouliuli Middle School Cafeteria (see bit.ly/crimetownhall2024).

A cadre of neighborhood activists, including neighborhood board and watch members, want more state and federal assistance, as well as additional police presence. “We have been for too long a dumping ground, and we can’t be that any more,” Tupola said. She is right.