Hawaii Against Crime & Corruption
On April 15th, Stolen Stuff Hawaii will be holding a "Hawaii Against Crime & Corruption" rally and cruise at the Hawaii State Capitol. This is intended to be a non-partisan, non-specific, state-wide, all-island effort with an emphasis being placed on anti-crime legislation as well as anti-corruption.
This will be the first step in our efforts to let our City & State government know that our community is sick of crime and corruption. This is about starting something, making it stronger, and then focusing it on specific legislation next year. This is the beginning.
Thousands of victims have posted their stories here on SSH. Every day, we wake up to find more and more crimes committed against our communities. The law is weak against crime here...with repeat, habitual offenders run through a revolving door that neither punishes nor provides sufficient opportunity for rehabilitation. As a result, Hawaii has some of the worst property crime in the nation while violent crime like murder has begun to rise.
Our leadership, by their own actions, are more concerned about the plight of the criminal and budget concerns as opposed to the actual victims. In an effort to reduce the prison population, some of their most recent changes, such as the raise in the felony theft level, have made it open season for criminals all across the state to prey on local establishments. Prosecution of criminals is difficult and low due to precedents set in the court and laws which are weak on crime...with extremely poor conviction rates.
Our jails and prisons are inadequate with overcrowded living conditions which causes criminals to be released before sufficient rehabilitation is achieved, and those programs provided for rehabilitation are limited and insufficient, resulting in high rates of recidivism. This results in an endless cycle of crime.
For the victims, there is so much focus on the rights of criminals that the priority of those they hurt is laughable. We are at the mercy of crime here, and there is very little to be had.
In addition, corruption is rampant in our city & state governments. For years, we have seen corruption carried out on a grand scale, causing our community to be constantly victimized by poor and unethical choices by our leadership. We have lost faith. We want stronger ethical laws to protect our communities and we want our leaders to listen to US, the people.
This rally is an effort to voice our concerns in an effort for change.
Unfortunately, there is a laundry list of items we need to pay for to make this rally happen. After our initial planning meeting, our volunteer group have come up with a list of needed items that include the following and more that require funding:
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Insurance (We are trying to get this waived but feel it's better to have)
Security & Traffic Control (Off-Duty Police Officers)
Costs for Signs, Banners, Ribbons, Stickers, Pamphlets Plus Distribution
Food & Refreshments for Participants & Volunteers
T-Shirt Printing & Distribution (Shirts will be zero profit, sold at cost)
Miscellaneous Incidentals (tape, pens, markers, tents, chairs)
Documentary Costs
Drone Coverage Costs
Special Victims Fund for Testifiers
The majority of the donations will go to this event. Any remaining funds will be used for next year's January rally where we enact our first pieces of legislation, voted on and decided by the 124,000 member strong Stolen Stuff Hawaii.
All donationss will be recognized by SSH in a special announcement.
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We thank you for your support. Together, we will make change.
Michael J. Kitchens
Creator & Administrator
Stolen Stuff Hawaii
facebook.com/groups/stolenstuffhawaii
