• Kaua‘i without Rivera?• KPD Taser policy: Fix it now, or fix it later • Did the lobotomy hurt? Kaua‘i without Rivera? My wife and I are planning our annual trip to your beautiful Island. We’ve been visiting Kaua‘i for
• Kaua‘i without Rivera?• KPD Taser policy: Fix it now, or fix it later • Did the lobotomy hurt?
Kaua‘i without Rivera?
My wife and I are planning our annual trip to your beautiful Island. We’ve been visiting Kaua‘i for over 26 years and now feel that it is our home away from home.
One of the things we look forward to most each year is seeing and hearing Kaua‘i’s own Larry Rivera perform. Sadly we have discovered that he is not currently doing his “Nite Cap with Larry” show anywhere on the Island. How truly sad that is.
We are hopeful that before May of this year a club on the Island will have the foresight to have this national treasure grace their stage. This voice of Kaua‘i should not be silenced.
Art Messenger, Magalia, Calif.
KPD Taser policy: Fix it now, or fix it later
Mahalo to Paul Curtis and TGI for giving space to a recent KPD Taser deployment incident back in mid-November involving Officer Eric Caspillo who reported he Tasered Le Beau Lagmay three times before arresting him.
I do not know the two individuals directly involved in the Taser incident — neither of them are my cousins, or married to my sister, or live down the street from my tutu man.
I am not playing favorites — I do not hate cops, nor am I a big fan of mixed martial arts. I am not looking to “tie law enforcement’s hands” nor do I want “bad guys” to run amuck.
I do think the KPD has a responsibility to the community it is sworn to protect and serve: maximize the freedom and safety of all.
My interest as a member of the community in this matter is quite simple: assisting KPD to develop reasonable, responsible, and constitutional Taser deployment procedures that maximize officer and citizen safety; maximize our collective civil liberties; minimize injury or potential deaths; and minimize the financial liability to the taxpayers of Kaua‘i county.
Reasonable. Responsible. Constitutional.
Kalaheo resident Dan O’Flaherty (“Taser use justified,” Letters, Jan. 5) judges my concerns about police liability to be “ridiculous.” He is of course, entitled to his personal opinion.
However, I am more persuaded by the unanimous recent Federal 9th Circuit Court ruling on Tasers that states: “The physiological effects, the high levels of pain, and foreseeable risk of physical injury lead us to conclude that (stun guns) are a greater intrusion than other non-lethal methods of force we have confronted.
“The objective facts must indicate that the suspect poses an immediate threat to the officer or a member of the public,” Judge Kim Wardlaw said in the 3-0 ruling.
Michael Gennaco, an expert in police conduct, has served as an internal Sheriff’s Taser reviewer for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and other agencies says “This decision talks about the need for an immediate threat. Some departments allow Tasers in cases of passive resistance, such as protesters who won’t move,” he told the L.A. Times. Tasering for “passive resistance is out the door now with this decision. Even resistance by tensing or bracing may not qualify.”
By Officer Caspillo’s own testimony, he deployed his 50,000 volt Taser into Lagmay three times, each time “running another cycle” of the device primarily to obtain compliance with his orders, not officer or citizen safety.
To be on solid constitutional grounds, and to maximize our civil liberties, only preserving officer and citizen safety should allow for the use of Tasers. The good citizens of Kaua‘i deserve a community police department that fully understands, honors, and complies with this reality.
If Officer Caspillo’s actions were in accord with KPD Taser deployment policies and procedures, hopefully wise heads at KPD and in the county will take note of the recent 9th Circuit ruling, and quickly make amends.
One way or another, KPD Taser policy will get fixed — either wisely right away, or expensively after some persons get inappropriately Tasered, and the county gets sued.
As tax-paying citizens, we might all end up paying the price to have KPD Taser policies fixed after a big fat lawsuit.
Now that would truly be shocking — and ridiculous.
Jonathan Jay, Kalaheo
Did the lobotomy hurt?
Someone please explain to me how we spend our federal tax stimulus money to employ a few dozen people working on the Wailua bridge, and then tie up several thousand in hideous traffic, preventing them from any real means of being productive to society as a whole.
Our state is broke, but everywhere I go, I have to wait and wait to get through the construction zone. If the government just wants to throw money away, can’t they pay our teachers?
I’ve decided that every time I run into a politician, be it county, state or federal, I’m going to ask them if the lobotomy hurt! The sad part is most of them won’t know what a lobotomy is.
Joseph Lavery, Kapa‘a
