Mayor Mitch Roth said Thursday he felt “a little bit of frustration” after learning an anonymous email has been circulating that invites individuals experiencing homelessness to stay at a certain address in Hilo.
The address provided in the email is Roth’s home address.
The email falsely claims individuals are welcome to stay and utilize resources at the residence from the evenings of Aug. 14 to Aug. 18 without needing to knock.
“It’s a threat on my family,” Roth told the Tribune-Herald. “My actual first thought was, ‘How am I going to tell my wife this?’ Because I knew she’d be a lot more freaked out about this than me.”
Roth and his wife, Noriko, have three adult children.
“Thankfully, they are out of the house right now, but it could’ve happened at a time when they’re here,” the mayor said.
Police have been notified and are investigating.
“I’m pretty confident that the police will figure out who did this,” Roth said.
As a precautionary measure, police officers have been dispatched to Roth’s home. Roth said there was no disturbance at his home Wednesday.
“It’s kind of a turnoff when you turn on to the street and you see a police officer’s car,” Roth said. “The car had its blue light on top, and thankfully nobody showed up.”
Roth said he has “no knowledge” of what motivated the individual who sent the email.
In the past month, Roth’s administration set up an encampment in downtown Hilo for homeless individuals. That camp has since been moved, but some residents were unhappy about the encampment and dubbed it “Mitchville” in social media posts.
“We have been doing a lot in the area of homelessness. And we have been very active, whether its working with the nonprofits, whether it’s enforcing park rules, whether it’s moving people,” he said. “I have no idea whether it’s that or if it’s the campaign or whatever. People can be upset for numerous reasons. But there’s nothing I can point to and say, ‘it’s because of that.’”
With the rise of social media has come a phenomenon known as “doxing” — in which a person with a complaint discloses the home addresses and/or personal phone numbers of public officials, sometimes with a suggested action, as in this case.
The county is reminding residents that threats against a public official or the official’s family are taken with the utmost seriousness and will be addressed accordingly.
“This is not something that just happens here,” Roth noted. “This is something we’re seeing across the country as people are choosing sides. I don’t know what it is.
“I take personal offense, because if it were just me, I wouldn’t be that worried or care that much. But when you bring my family into it, family is the most important thing that any of us have. And if you put a target on their heads, that’s not right.
“We live on an island, and this island is based a lot, I think, on aloha. This is just one of those things that is not reflective of the people of this island, this county.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.