One of two people taken into custody by police in what was dubbed “Freedom Ride 2016” told a judge Monday he was “the only living being in this courtroom, a child of creation.”
“I demand that I be released,” the man, so far identified by authorities only as “John Doe,” told Hilo District Judge Harry Freitas.
Police say the man was one of three motorists stopped by officers Saturday on Punahoa Street in Hilo for driving with cardboard license plates stating “Not For Hire.”
A police log shows the time as shortly after 9 a.m. The man was charged with driving without a license and insurance and refusing to show ID. He was arrested and detained without bail until his hearing.
Another man, 72-year-old Rodney Emile Piedvache of Naalehu, was charged with driving after his license was suspended and without insurance, and refusing to show ID. He was released from custody after posting $1,025 bail and is scheduled to appear in court Jan. 26.
Police said both men’s vehicles were towed under Hawaii County Code section 24-12, also known as “Aliyah’s Law” — named after Aliyah Braden, a 17-month-old girl killed by a drunken driver in Kona in 2010.
A third man, according to police, was cited for obstruction of license plates and allowed to leave after removing the paper plates and then providing his driver’s license, registration and insurance for his vehicle.
The unidentified man who appeared in court Monday was wearing a white T-shirt with black block letters, all capitalized, saying “GOOGLE LEGAL NAME FRAUD,” and told the court he doesn’t have a legal name.
“I don’t have a name,” the man said. Turning to address the gallery, he added, “I just want to say that this whole system is fraudulent. It’s illegal to use the legal name that’s on the birth certificate. It’s a contract that was entered into by my parents and the Crown Corporation in London, which I was not privy to, yet I am held by, supposedly, right? Any time I would use that name, I would become a third-party interloper, fraud. That would mean the whole system itself is fraud.”
Deputy Prosecutor Glenn Shiigi asked the judge to order the man’s continued incarceration.
“We are trying to ascertain his identity. One of the charges is failure to show ID, so he’s not making it easy on us. … We really don’t know if Mr. Doe has any warrants from any other state,” Shiigi said.
Freitas set the man’s bail at $250 and ordered him to return to court Jan. 20.
Participants in the Freedom Ride believe they have a constitutional right to travel without federal- or state-imposed licensing, registration or safety checks. According to the group, those requirements apply only to commercial vehicles and not to private vehicles for private conveyances.
“What I do know is that there is no law, other than statutes, that allow me to be extorted,” said Paul Komara, one of the event’s organizers.
Komara said he hopes to “wake (people) up to the fact that we have extortion going on here, utilizing commercial statutes. They’re not laws. The only law we have is the unalienable right to travel to our destination anywhere in this world by our creator, God. It’s written in our Constitution.”
Komara also claimed an officer drew his weapon on Saddle Road to pull over a participant.
“And guess what? He never arrested the person,” Komara said. “Why is that? … The police were on the old road, waiting for this car to come by, very haphazardly, creating a safety hazard, to force the man off the road, opened his door, pulled the keys out of the ignition, and holstered his weapon. All because this gentlemen did not have plates on his car.”
A police spokeswoman said Monday afternoon the department received an email about the alleged drawn weapon and “the email was forwarded to the chief’s office for investigation.”
Komara called the arrests “premeditated planning by the police, in my opinion.”
In a Dec. 30 press release reminding the public about New Year’s weekend DUI roadblocks, the Hawaii Police Department made an apparent reference to the Freedom Ride, saying police “intend to enforce all traffic laws, as always.”
“The public is reminded that a driver’s license, registration, license plates and safety sticker are required to operate a motor vehicle on public roads,” the release stated. “Erroneous information has been disseminated claiming that these requirements violate the Constitutional ‘right to travel.’ That is not accurate. The right to travel protects a citizen’s right to freely travel to other states and does not provide a fundamental right to operate a motor vehicle. The U.S. Supreme Court has long held that states have the power to regulate the use of motor vehicles on their roadways.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
