Letters for Dec. 29, 2015 Hawaii should change its laws Christopher Cruz is charged with the attempted murder of Victoria Kanahele, who was stabbed in her right side in the parking lot of the Eleele Ace Hardware Store on Dec.
Letters for Dec. 29, 2015
Hawaii should change its laws
Christopher Cruz is charged with the attempted murder of Victoria Kanahele, who was stabbed in her right side in the parking lot of the Eleele Ace Hardware Store on Dec. 6. She was pregnant and her unborn baby did not survive. Hawaii law does not protect the unborn child and it does not look like Christopher Cruz will be prosecuted for its death.
Thirty-seven states recognize the unlawful killing of an unborn child as homicide in at least some circumstances. The federal Unborn Victims of Violence Act, enacted April 1, 2004, covers unborn victims of federal and military crimes. Arizona law states that the unborn child in the womb at any stage of its development is fully covered by the state’s murder and manslaughter statutes. I practiced law in Missouri for 45 years and the law there is the killing of an unborn child at any stage of pre-natal development is involuntary manslaughter or first degree murder.
Now is the time for our Legislature to change Hawaii’s outdated law. Let’s protect unborn babies from violent crimes.
Richard L. Turner
Princeville
KPD, please model ‘good cop’ behavior, not bad
This past week I was driving south on the one-way, one-lane connector from Kuhio Highway to the Kapaa bypass road. As I turn the bend, I’m faced head-on with a KPD officer standing along the road in a firing stance, intense glare, with both arms pointing a black gun directly at me. I nearly had a heart attack in the fright!
Mind you, a few seconds later: “Oh, it’s a black radar gun!” But damn — is it worth giving the public heart attacks for possible speed infractions on a one-way lane in the middle of open fields in the first place? Are cops needing to protect wild chickens there that take a higher priority than public shock? It’s a speed trap at what cost?
Know too, I wasn’t pulled over.
Public relations in the face of what police are doing across the country by shooting unarmed people might suggest to KPD traffic division to be the good cop model, not the brute.
If I laser gunned that same behavior to a cop, I don’t think he/she’d take it so lightly. They might even be “in fear of their life” enough to draw their real weapon and shoot.
Is this really needed to shock the heck out of motorists? In Los Angeles, where I lived 17 years, traffic cops discreetly check speed — not having (radar) guns point-blank at people rounding a corner.
The USA needs now more than ever more the “good cop” not the bad, KPD.
Thanks.
Jenn Tyler
Hanalei
