Public safety? Please!
In response to Raymond Kirchner’s earlier letter about the assessment of the Hawaii County Building permits, and a deadly warehouse fire in California, as Googled, you are a real estate appraiser by all means and what you did not mention is that you are a real estate agent in Kealakekua and are an agent from Stillwater, Minnesota and Richmond, Virginia.
So when you bash Hawaii County about their performance in upholding the building codes when you are doing appraisals, there looks to be an ulterior motive. When one adds a business of real estate appraiser to real estate agent both owned by you, that adds up to sales, less sales or no sales.
You and nobody else are out there for the public’s general safety (if you know someone, post their name and credentials), you are trying to fill your bank account, i.e, follow the money!
Jim Wiese
Kona
Laws are the reasons, that’s why
In his latest rant (Letters, Dec. 15), frequent contributor Hugo von Platen Luder excoriates the president for causing Oahu traffic jams with what the writer sees as an unnecessary and ostentatious vehicle entourage. He asks why not use the military for security?
Federal law, that’s why. The Posse Comitatus Act specifically limits the use of military personnel for domestic law enforcement. The National Guard, which the letter writer also mentions, is under Hawaii state authority and its policing activities are also limited by statute. Protecting the president is the role of the Secret Service, augmented by local police. The entourage that so enrages Mr. von Platen Luder is what those veteran officers have determined is necessary to ensure the First Family’s safety.
But I believe what truly underlies the writer’s outrage is a seething and inexplicable hatred of President Obama. Where was the outrage over the entourages that accompanied Presidents Reagan and George W. Bush during extended stays at their respective ranches? Or George H.W. Bush to Kennebunkport? Or Richard Nixon to San Clemente? I await Mr. von Platen Luder’s vent over the Manhattan traffic snarls and multi-million dollar Secret Service expenditures to protect the incoming First Family at their Trump Tower penthouse. But I’m not holding my breath.
Alan Silverman
Kailua-Kona