An e-mail that has been coursing its way around county employees’ computers in the past few weeks makes ethnic remarks about Kaua‘i Police Department Chief K.C. Lum and Deputy Police Chief Ron Venneman that some found offensive. The sender of
An e-mail that has been coursing its way around county employees’ computers in the past few weeks makes ethnic remarks about Kaua‘i Police Department Chief K.C. Lum and Deputy Police Chief Ron Venneman that some found offensive.
The sender of the e-mail, Leon Gonsalves Sr., the lone Kaua‘i Police Commission member to vote against Lum’s five-year appointment to the “top cop” post, said the e-mail was private, and “I wasn’t trying to make a derogatory remark.
“It’s a private thing. I sent one e-mail to one person. It just got out,” Gonsalves said yesterday after meeting with Kaua‘i Mayor Bryan J. Baptiste. “I wasn’t trying to make a derogatory remark. I never intended it to be forwarded.”
“It was between me and one person. That’s it,” the commissioner added. “Someone is trying to stir things up.”
He added, “It was not meant to be derogatory. It was not the way it was intended. I apologize” if someone took it that way. “If anybody got hurt, I apologize,” Gonsalves added.
The e-mail, reprinted in a letter signed by “Jane Roe,” was sent to The Garden Island last week, as well as to the Office of the Mayor, the Police Commission, and Lum, asking for Gonsalves’ removal from the commission.
Officials in all three offices acknowledged receiving the letter.
“The comments made by Leon Gonsalves Sr. were inappropriate,” the mayor said in a statement through county Public Information Officer Cyndi Mei Ozaki yesterday. “I have been in discussions with him about the issue, but have not yet had the opportunity to speak with Chief Lum and Deputy Chief Venneman.
“A course of action will be determined once I am able to speak with all appropriate parties,” Baptiste added.
The e-mail, dated Oct. 14, compares the two chiefs to characters on a 1960s television show, one of whom is a Chinese stereotype. Lum is of Chinese descent.
The message, at the top of the forwarded e-mail signed “Angus,” made the remarks and said “Tomorrow is the swearing-in (for the chief and the assistant chief). I wouldn’t be there, Thank (God), I think I might throw up.”
Lum and Venneman were sworn in on Friday, Oct. 15.
The body of the e-mail, seen by a reporter from The Garden Island, was a four-line poem and a cartoon of a child in prayer.
“Angus” is a long-time nickname of Gonsalves.
Gonsalves added his nickname, “Angus,” a black bull, could be found offensive, but “I’m not ashamed. It’s a nickname.”
He added that he’s been calling Lum the character, “Hop Sing,” since the two worked together as detectives in the 1980’s.
“It wasn’t intended to hurt,” Gonsalves said. “It’s just a name. Let’s not make anything out of it than what it is.”
But Lum said that he was offended by the remark, and that he never remembers being called that before.
“He called me ‘ali‘i,’ the Hawaiian name for ‘king,'” Lum said, because his first name is King.
He refused to comment further.
“I don’t want to get involved,” said Lum. “I want to be neutral and have someone else run the inquiry.”
“I think it’s derogatory,” Venneman said Monday. “I can’t find any offense to (the comment against me), but I think the rest of it is inappropriate and uncalled for.” Gonsalves called Venneman “Little Joe” in the e-mail. Venneman was compared to another television character “just because of his appearance,” Gonsalves said. “Ron’s a good guy,” he said. “I know these gentlemen.”
Police Commissioner Michael Ching, who is also of Chinese descent, refused to comment, and asked that all questions be directed to the mayor’s office.
At least six county employees, including a number of employees in the county Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, received the forwarded e-mail with Gonsalves’ message attached.
Gonsalves, who is retired from the county prosecutor’s office, is also the island-wide commissioner for Pop Warner Football.
Kaua‘i Police Commission Chair Victor Punua, Sr., said that he had yet to talk to Gonsalves about the e-mail Monday. He did not return a phone message left at his office Tuesday.
Tom Finnegan, staff writer, may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) or tfinnegan@pulitzer.net.
