My patience has run out. I was waiting for more than a month to see any news and an appeal to the public for help to disrupt a very serious crime, the sex trafficking on Kauai.
It was Jan 15, 2019, when the chairwoman of the Human Services and Public Safety of the County of Kauai, Felicia Cowden, who is also a councilmember on Kauai, publicly announced on KKCR in the popular call-in show “Kauai Soapbox” that there is a serious problem of sex trafficking on our island and awful things are happening.
She explained that she was working with the authorities and the (County) Prosecutor Justin Kollar, who is also involved in the investigations. Upon the request of her assistant she elaborated on the crime, stating no more than that there are plenty of very young children involved in this sex trafficking, including preteens, meaning children of 12 years of age and younger. And — as she said — these are local children. She remarked that she had touched on this subject very gently.
Now, that made me ultimately confused. We have a serious crime on the island through which awful things are happening and we need to talk about it very gently? Our newspaper is full of crime reports. The evening news on the TV does not spare any serious, crime-related story, and broadcasts even minor ones, too. Here is a serious federal crime where the victims are our children and it is happening in our neighborhood and we have to handle it gently?
We don’t want to know the identity of the child victims, because for some reason it is protected, but would like to know the pattern of running the sex trafficking especially with the children.
It is not like domestic violence happening behind closed doors. Trafficking includes the movement of the victims from place to place. We would like to know the type of people abusing or exploiting our young. We would like to know how they operate and how they find and how they abduct or trap their child victims.
Why? Because we want to help the authorities and report it if anything that resembles the pattern happens in our neighborhood, so that they can find and arrest the criminals or at least investigate the matter. We want to protect our children and grandchildren and we also want the law enforcement to count on us.
I like our TGI and I respect its editor and staff, but in this case I would not spare a demerit for failing to report anything about this serious crime, which cannot be concealed once the public announcement was made.
The TGI police and crime reporter has been doing a good job reporting on burglaries, murders, scams and so on, to make the front page of the newspaper attractive for those who must have their portion of bad news with their morning coffee, but omitting this news involving a crime endangering our children on the island is a serious mistake.
If you are asking the public for help in finding a prowler, a burglar or somebody with a bench warrant, why not ask the public for help in this serious crime?
If asking for help is not your initiative, please interview the person who is responsible for such appeals. Our children are our future, and if you could write a detailed article about measures and initiatives to reduce vaping among the young, you could certainly do the same thing about this serious crime to prevent other children from becoming victims. Don’t leave children out of your priorities!
This writing of mine filled with emotions is not against Felicia Cowden, who has made the public announcement, and whom I respect a lot, but against the misdirected public safety policy of the county when minor things get sensationalized and crucial things are omitted. I hope that this writing will serve as a wake-up call to all.
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János Keoni Samu is a resident of Kalaheo.
Maybe there are no sex trafficking of young children going on Kauai and the reason no reports are coming out?
Kuddos to Felicia for bringing this up! Its up to law enforcement to take it and prosecute.
C’mon- everyone knows Felicia has little to no credibility. She’s the Queen of Making Things Up. She fought the smart meters so hard – claiming we’ll all die of cancer. But it got her attention and that’s what she seeks. I truly doubt Kauai has a large human trafficking problem! She’s being vague on purpose to draw more attention to herself. Now it wouldn’t surprise me if there had been an isolated case of trafficking or something- it’s not like we’re immune to such things, but if Felicia is involved, my guess is she’s making a mountain of a mole hill. Know anybody who died from their smart meter? Me neither.
Well it’s like this. The writer here presents no evidence of human trafficking, only that one person has said, on a KKCR show, that the topic is under investigation. If the investigation turns up evidence; then it’s news. If that leads to a conviction, then it is also news; but news that needs perspective (is it an isolated incident that has now ended?). Prior to any of this, it is not news; it is sensationalism. Since KKCR is as close as we get to a flat earth society, you can get your satisfaction by staying tuned in!
Aloha Janos.
There have been front page articles this paper on sentencing of at least two individuals in late 2018 that addressed some of this victimization as well as actions to work against the problem that is growing nationally and globally. There have also been Civil Beat articles that speak about what has been discovered by an exploratory team from Arizona.
The Commission on the Status of Women has taken a lead role. There is a network of collaborative meetings and training underway. It has been intentional to not invite the press to these meetings as it likely would stop people from share their own personal rough experiences. The goal is to isolate the bad players and stop them.
Making the discussion too public would not only shame vulnerable people, but tip off perpetrators on strategies underway to squash this problem. I chose to make a small statement primarily as a signal to people on the periphery of the problem to let them know that there is mobilization to help them. The astute listener would have come away with some ideas to show up where reports could safely be made.
When I spoke vaguely about “young” people, I meant pre-teen, not younger; though I simply don’t know that is happening.
This is a sensitive topic in which the dignity of those involved are respected.
Adding to my earlier statement: The Kaua`i Police Department and Prosecutor’s Office are committed and active partners in the effort to find and prosecute those responsible for the trafficking of others.
My spouse read this and asked me if I saw it. I said I hadn’t, then went and found it. Said it was news to me. What is a common thread in these feeds is that it is ALWAYS some sort of conspiracy and KPD cover-up kind thing to insight fear into the citizens of Kauai. I mean seriously? You should re-paper your walls with the tin-foil the gov-ment is listening you know…And PS TGI your reCATCHA is annoying….gahhhhh
I read these “studies” from The Commission of the Status of Women and it’s downright silly to apply a study done in Honolulu to Kauai. Raise your hand if you’ve ever seen a prostitute in Oahu. Now raise your hand if you’ve ever seen one on Kauai- because I certainly have not. The Arizona Group or whatever placed ads in Backpage and Craigslist and both places no longer have personal ads – Backpage is shut down in fact. So all this confirms what I said before- this is baseless hysteria. Sure would be nice if you focused attention on actual problems like drug abuse or lack of housing instead of making a problem that is real elsewhere seem like a problem here.
Information.
https://humanservices.hawaii.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Sex-Trafficking-in-Hawaii-Online-Sex-Buyers.pdf
Looking for substance in the world of pedophiles and sex abusers? Why not tell the “people”about the sex abusers public list REGISTERED SEX OFFENDERS on Kauai…. that would make more sense than the political double talk that is going on here! Mahalo