Editorials
Tuesday, July 8, 1997SOON after a law took effect prohibiting anyone convicted of domestic violence from possessing firearms or ammunition, HPD Chief Michael Nakamura praised the ban and promised its enforcement within the ranks of local policedom. Six months later, however, Nakamura is calling the prohibition unfair to past domestic abusers, and has looked the other way as his officers have found a way to circumvent the law. HPD reverses stance
on firearms policyCongress enacted the prohibition last September, making no exceptions for personnel in law-enforcement agencies or the military. In January, Nakamura proudly announced that a dozen Honolulu police officers, identified as having been convicted of domestic violence, had been disarmed and assigned to desk jobs. In announcing the move, the chief said the ban would "have a very strong deterrent effect on the way people conduct their lives." We commended him for making no complaint or excuse.
Since then, six of the 12 officers have gone to court and gained expungement of their domestic-violence records, Nakamura says. The other six are seeking similar expungement, apparently with the blessing of their boss. Soon, all 12 may have regained possession of their guns, presenting a risk that Congress thought it had eliminated.
Unraveling of the new law also may be occurring in recent cases of domestic violence involving police officers, with expungement apparently becoming part of plea agreements. For example, HPD Maj. William H. Gulledge pleaded guilty to assaulting his wife last year, but District Judge Dan Ochi recently agreed to expunge the conviction after a year if Gulledge inflicts no further assaults.
The gun prohibition included police officers with records of domestic violence for good reason. Academic studies have shown police officers are more likely to engage in domestic violence than are members of the general public. In two surveys, one on the East Coast and the other in the Southwest, 40 percent of officers said they had used violence at home in the past year; the rate among the general populace is 16 percent. Moreover, it is likely 911 calls from homes of police officers too often go unreported because of the bonds of police.
The federal mandate provided Chief Nakamura an opportunity, if not an obligation, to crack down on domestic violence by restricting the use of guns to officers with clean records. His refusal to do so has deprived the police of the deterrent he predicted and that the community expected. His about-face on the issue requires an explanation.
MEXICO's one-party rule has come to an end after seven decades, and even leaders of the tattered Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) see it as a good sign. Although he may be faced with a hostile congress for the first time, President Ernesto Zedillo says electoral reforms brought on by his own PRI were responsible for the results, widely seen as a victory for democracy. Mexican elections
WAS the juxtaposition of events coincidental or meaningful? Late last week, thousands of tourists converged on Roswell, N.M., to commemorate what they say was the 50th anniversary of a UFO crash there. Also last week, the Sojourner rover began its bumpy roaming of the planet Mars and, thus far, has encountered nothing more exciting than a bunch of rocks. Out of this world
Rupert E. Phillips, CEO
John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
David Shapiro, Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor
