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Honolulu Police Chief Arthur “Joe” Logan was recently reprimanded by Mayor Rick Blangiardi for his handling of the New Year’s Day raid, which resulted in an island-wide chase that left two officers injured. Police shot and killed the suspect.
The problem wasn’t the police’s actions, but Logan’s one-sided and tone-deaf response.
“They (HPD) cannot be an independent nation,” Blangiardi said in a Honolulu Star-Advertiser article by police reporter Peter Boylan. “They can’t make the rules for themselves. The basic things that are really asked of them… they’re not doing, and I don’t know how else to say it. It’s an unacceptable situation. Next time on this issue. Once we have a discussion, I may be able to tell you what has been resolved, but at this time I have no further complaints.”
Politicians, especially those in high positions such as mayors, make news. They don’t expect to be surprised by the news of the day.
Blangiardi, who is expected to run for a second term, was certainly caught off guard.
The paper elaborated as follows: “Mr. Blangiardi also took exception to what he learned from the media 17 days after a lawsuit alleges that an HPD officer hit a 25-year-old man with his car during a search and beat his father while restraining him. accepted.”
Allegations of police brutality are one thing. However, the fact that the chief of police, appointed by the Honolulu Police Commission, is essentially absent for a day without comment shows a clear disregard for the chief’s responsibilities.
“I understand the mayor’s frustration with certain incidents, and I have promised him that I will address those issues,” Logan said. “We have coordinated internal and external communications, including posting information on multiple social media platforms.”
Of course, that’s not enough. And despite Logan’s assurances that the operation will be made public, no one is willing to pull back the government curtain.
All of this is happening in a city operation where police leadership has failed to do its job for years.
The Police Commission acts as a buffer between City Hall politics and the military chain of command and life-or-death law enforcement powers of the police force. The police and Paul won’t be telling each other what to do, so voters should have one less thing to worry about.
Logan doesn’t have much to model his behavior on. His predecessor, Police Chief Susan Ballard, resigned after being criticized by the Police Commission for her poor communication skills. Before them was the infamous Louis Kealoha, who was convicted of conspiracy and obstruction of justice and is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in Oregon, along with his then-wife Katherine and three other police officers.
These three chiefs are by no means the definition of meritocracy in the police force. But trailblazers like Francis Keala, leaders like Doug Gibb, and respected former chiefs don’t come around often enough to provide the models HPD so desperately needs.
Richard Borreka writes about politics on Sundays. Contact us at 808onpolitics@gmail.com.
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