RESPONSE TO COMPLAINT ABOUT POT ERADICATION

I'm writing in reply to a letter by Jerry Boiani that ran in the
October 7, 1998 edition of the Hawaii Tribune Herald.

In his letter, Mr. Boiani implied that on September 17, 1998 the
Seaview Estates subdivision was "under seige by armed government
'air-piirates'" which he described as "15 to 20 police or military
personnel" in three helicopters.

I would just like to point out that this fallacious scenario described
by Mr. Boiani was a bona fide marijuana eradication operation carried
out by the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR).

The police department did not carry out a marijuana operation that
day. The Hilo Vice Section did, however, respond to a DLNR marijuana
sighting on private property and, armed with a search warrant,
searched the property and recovered 712 growing marijuana plants. As
a result of the search, a female adult was arrested several days later
at the residence for several drug offenses. The woman was released
pending further investigation. During the investigation, vice
detectives were approached by several residents who asked what was
going on. The detectives explained that a criminal investigation was
being conducted and the reasons for it.

Mr. Boiani was totally incorrect in calling the DLNR operation a
"military operation against a peaceful, unarmed, civilian population."
Instead, it was part of a continuing enforcement effort against the
illegal cultivation and production of marijuana on state-owned
property. The DNLR operation was lawful and in concert with with
state and federal laws.

As far as a mandatory program review of the Police Department's
"Counter Cannabis Field Operations," we welcome one. We are certain
it will show that our marijuana eradication efforts each year have
reduced product availability and suppressed cultivation operations as
well as reclaimed hundreds of acres of both public and private lands
once staked out by armed and threatening marijuana growers.

Marijuana proponents paint an idyllic picture of peaceful "marijuana
farmers" quietly communing with nature while getting high on their
drug of choice. These proponents either ignor or are unaware of the
lawlessness and violent crime prevalent during the mid-1970's through
the mid-1980's, when marijuana growers on the Big Island took over
both private and public lands, threatened passersby with weapons or
booby traps and took pot shots at passing vehicles.

It got so bad that growers who were discovered on private farmlands
would retaliate by burning croplands, slaughtering livestock and
destroying farm equipment. It got so bad that the utility companies
were compelled to hire special off-duty police officers to protect
their workers from threats or foul play when they were checking lines
in rural areas. It got so bad that residents and visitors alike were
afraid to hike in state and county parks and even in the Hawaii
Volcanoes National Park for fear of being confronted by armed and
threatening marijuana growers.

It was only through the combined marijuana eradication efforts of the
county, state and federal law enforcement agencies that we were able
to reclaim both private and public lands for the enjoyment of the
landowners and the public. The closer cooperation by federal, state
and county law enforcement agencies was culminated after congressional
hearings were held here in response to a public outcry about the
mushrooming drug-related crime on the Big Island.

And I'm certain that the vast majority of Big Island residents don't
want to return to those days of lawlessness and rampant drug-related
and violent crimes.

Mr. Boiani was also mistaken in saying a woman who called the
emergency 911 number could not get the police to respond to a
life-threatening situation in Hawaiian Acres. In the woman's letter,
she complained that the Hawaii County Police Department failed to
dispatch a police officer to investigate an emergency 911 call she
made to report hearing dogs bark and screaming from a passing car in
the Puna subdivision of Hawaiian Acres.

First, having listened to the tape of the conversation between the
woman and the 911 dispatcher, I have found nothing that the dispatcher
did wrong. The dispatcher was merely trying to elicit enough
information from the caller in order to dispatch a patrol car to
investigate. In addition, although no patrol car was available, as
soon as one became available that evening, it was dispatched to the
area to investigate.

Finally, I'd like to say that Mr Boiani passed the boundaries of
credulity when he compared the DLNR marijuana search operation on
September 17 to the nazi atrocities faced by the Jews before and
during World War II. To compare a lawful marijuana eradication effort
by DNLR employees with the Holocaust and the murder of 6 million Jews
is absurd.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry