I read with interest your weekend story on the homeless in Kona. Particularly disturbing is the part of the story regarding the homeless camp right next to the fire station, with the homeless vagrants walking around in likely drug-induced stupors to the point of actually entering the fire house without authorization.
So the story continues that the piece of property these trouble-making vagrants are sitting on belongs to the state, so the county can’t do anything about it.
Well folks, if our county officials cannot do anything about people who think it’s OK to litter, damage, squat, and otherwise deface public property (that is owned by us), here’s a suggestion:
I cannot for the life of me understand why the mayor of our county does not simply pick up the phone and call the governor, and get him to do something about the problem, stat! That property is governed by Gov. David Ige.
You elected Ige, and our incompetent county government, too. How about starting a letter writing campaign to the governor? Or even better, shame him and Harry Kim on a social media site, with pictures of the homeless encampment and all of its glorious garbage. Then send the URL of the social media site to some TV stations, see what kind of response you’ll get.
And don’t tell me that the HPD cannot do anything about it, either. Why is it when we had a volcano going off down south, our HPD issued loitering tickets to at least 14 local people who were “loitering” down at the cinder cone watching the beauty of nature? Keep moving!
But the cops can’t go into the homeless camp, and issue loitering tickets to the drugged-out homeless? What about on our sidewalks? Why are all these people allowed to sleep all over the sidewalks (drunk or drugged), urinate on our seawall, and generally defecate every inch of property that they occupy? Why doesn’t HPD do a daily walk up and down Alii Drive, and keep everybody moving?
The actions of these homeless are very much hurting our community, in many, many ways.
Hey folks, we all vote and pay taxes, and there is no excuse for the lack of action by our elected officials. All it takes is a couple of phone calls to get the bums off of our streets.
Don’t worry, Village 9 will also be a flop. Ask yourself, would you rather lie around up in the dry, hot scrub mauka, or would you rather smoke dope and drink beer all day down at the beach?
And finally, I certainly agree with messers Pabre and Dixon: “I’m not gonna move, move them.”
It’s time for the local community to take our town back, and it needs to happen now, before irreparable damage is done to our visitors, our aina, and ourselves.
Wilson Pepper is a resident of Keauhou.
