[ OUR OPINION ]
Wiretap restrictions
hamper isle policeLAW-enforcement agencies are asking the Legislature to bring Hawaii into line with nearly all other states that use electronic surveillance to combat drug trafficking and other crimes. Wiretaps essentially are not used by police in Hawaii because of a restriction requiring adversary hearings before a judge to gain authorization. Ohio is the only other state in the country that requires such an onerous procedure. The requirement should be lifted to improve law enforcement and coordination between local authorities and federal prosecutors.
THE ISSUE A state law-enforcement coalition is asking the Legislature to ease the procedure for gaining permission to use wiretaps.
A coalition that includes U.S. Attorney Ed Kubo, Attorney General Mark Bennett, county prosecutors and police chiefs is asking the Legislature to end a system in which a prosecuting attorney and a court-appointed lawyer representing the interests of a wiretap target argues the case before a judge. A coalition that included then-U.S. Attorney Steve Alm and then-Attorney General Earl Anzai -- both Democratic appointees -- made the same request last year.
Kubo says his office has been prevented from transferring more than 100 cases to county prosecutors because federal rules don't require adversary hearings so don't conform with state law. The cases did not meet other federal standards so went unprosecuted. Kubo says the practical exclusion of wiretaps by state law enforcement has placed off-limits what would be a useful tool in combatting the trafficking of crystal methamphetamine, a widely distributed and dangerous drug in Hawaii.
Under the proposed procedure, authorities would have to put the case before a surveillance review unit under the attorney general and then a District or Circuit Court judge for final approval. The judge must be shown that there is probable cause to believe that the person targeted for the wiretap is committing an offense. and that the wiretap would obtain evidence of the offense.
Wiretaps authorized by state courts nationwide have risen dramatically, with more than 1,000 requests granted in 2001, up from 711 the previous year. More than 80 percent were used in drug cases. Two-thirds of the wiretaps were used by police to eavesdrop on portable devices such as cellular phones, pagers and cordless phones.
Brent White, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii, argues that the procedure proposed by the law-enforcement coalition would erode privacy rights. His concern that such rights are under siege because of the war on terrorism is understandable. But continuing to hamper law-enforcement agencies at the state and county levels would be an overreaction to Attorney General John Ashcroft's zealous policies.
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Haters play out rage
on Honolulu sidewalkLUNATIC followers of a Kansas preacher of hatred are providing Hawaii residents with a demonstration of the limits of the First Amendment, and tolerance is prevailing. Four members of the Rev. Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka vented their hatred of homosexuals from Honolulu sidewalks yesterday, while the targets of their homophobic hysteria and friends calmly preached tolerance.
THE ISSUE Religious extremists from Kansas are demonstrating against homosexuals.
Stomping on the American and Hawaiian flags, the foursome held placards containing messages such as "God Hates Fags" and "Thank God for Dec. 7" coupled with "Thank God for Sept. 11." The shock-intended exclamation meant that "God takes vengeance for sins," according to the Rev. Phelps' daughter, Abigail. The leader of this pack was trained as a lawyer and turned to religion-cloaked hatred after the Kansas Supreme Court disbarred him, saying he had "little regard for the ethics of his profession."
The Phelps followers gained national attention by holding crude signs and shouting epithets at grievers at the Wyoming funeral of Matthew Shepard, the gay college student who was beaten to death on the outskirts of Laramie. The group was drawn to Hawaii after hearing of a pamphlet distributed in a Big Island public school last year that included questions about homosexuality. However, Phelps' followers do not restrict their venom to homosexuals, for whom they advocate the death penalty; they have directed their hatred also at Jews, blacks and even mainstream Christians.
Phelps also is known to have displayed anger at his own clan. Two sons who broke from the family have told the Topeka newspaper, The Capital-Journal, about having been savagely beaten by their father as children. Nate Phelps told the newspaper that their father would yell, threaten and beat the brothers for "as long as it took him to get whatever was inside of him out. It was like this madman out of control with rage. It just had to play itself out."
The same can be said of his followers, who will return to Topeka and begin planning their next venue only after playing out their rage in Hawaii. We bid them aloha, confined strictly to the meaning, "good-bye."
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