Toss ‘bad apples’
Toss ‘bad apples’
The May 21 Tribune-Herald reported a settlement of $80,000 for a lesbian couple harassed and arrested in a North Shore Foodland for kissing and holding hands.
While I respect and appreciate our police, these bad apples must be culled! One out-of-control officer like this one blackens the reputation of cops everywhere, and it’s a nationwide problem lately. At a time when so many are distrustful of government in general, losing faith in our criminal justice system is not what we need.
In addition, as a taxpayer, I am very weary of seeing tax dollars wasted on settlements for police behavior that never should have taken place. It is past time for officials of every kind and in every branch of government to realize and accept that they are not given their powers to use against citizens in the enforcement of their own personal ideology and belief system.
Police officers: It’s time to clean your own house and stop protecting bad cops.
Judges: It’s time to stop slapping hands on these issues, even while you throw the book at citizens committing victimless crimes.
If an older, fairly conservative person such as myself is as sick and outraged about the constant misbehavior of public servants all around us, I imagine I am just the tip of a very large and angry iceberg.
Laura Buck
Keaau
Thief needs help
I pray that the man who violated the King Kamehameha statue and stole the spear and later threw it in the brush gets some serious mental health help in prison.
Throughout your entire story, I kept saying, “This man needs help.”
I pray for him and know there are wonderful people in the prison system who will see that he gets intensive therapy to calm the demons that rage in his soul. The prison system can be a redemptive place for the worst cases, of which this is one.
It will be a blessing in disguise for this man who needs our help. Please continue to pray for his well-being in prison, which can be a worthy place for a troubled soul.
Continue the great work in newspaper writing and keeping us an informed public.
Susan M. Johnston
Hilo
Bad deal for taxpayers
No property tax increase? Our tax assessor sure made an “end run” around that one by increasing the values of our properties.
Now our County Council is asking us to vote “yes” on Bill 154 in November. This would allow council members to serve 10 years, thereby giving them retirement and health benefits. Again, at taxpayers’ expense.
As to the Ethics Board, we already have five “do nothing” members. Do we really need four more?
And we wonder why we have a homeless problem? Our tax assessor and certain council members apparently don’t think so!
In the meanwhile, we go on borrowing money to buy more land to build new parks, when the ones we already have suffer from lack of maintenance.
Also, I have always been under the impression that our vehicle taxes, which have increased substantially in the past two or three years, were to be used for maintenance of our streets. Anyone driven on them lately?
Ron Baptista
Mountain View