The write-up below by Nick Grube and Patti Epler was originally published on February 25, 2013 to civilbeat.com. It was put on our radar by “joe.”
It details – at least to me – that an institution that’s based on coercion can’t be “fixed”. The same inherent flaws will always exist. For more on that, check out:
- Ignorance of the law is legally an excuse for police officers
- Want to End Police Brutality? Focus on the Institution
Honolulu Police Department
- .808.723-8800 (Pearl City Station, where Russell Won works from)
- 801 South Beretania Street, Honolulu, HI 96813
- http://www.honolulupd.org/
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In the Name of the Law: What the Public Isn’t Being Told About Police Misconduct
by Nick Grube and Patti Epler
In 1997, Honolulu police officer Russell Won went to federal prison for his involvement in beating an inmate at the Pearl City police station.
A year later, he was back in Honolulu — and back in police work. The federal prison sentence didn’t cause the Honolulu Police Department to fire him. Instead, he was put on leave without pay while he did his time.
When his sentence was over he was assigned to train new recruits at the academy. He kept his gun and badge and went on to become a detective with a long career at HPD.
Won was one of three officers indicted and convicted at the same time for mistreating prisoners in their custody at the Pearl City station. In a plea bargain, Won eventually was convicted of a misdemeanor and sentenced to a year in federal prison.
Sgt. Clyde Hayami went to prison for nearly five years for brutally beating three inmates on three separate occasions. In one of those incidents, Hayami, with the help of Won, clubbed an inmate over the head with a blackjack, sending him to intensive care.
Hayami was allowed to resign as a part of his plea deal, promising never to work in law enforcement again.
Officer Keith Flynn was also convicted in the incident involving Hayami and Won. Remaining on the police department, he served six months, dividing his time between a halfway house and his home. He was suspended but not discharged and reassigned to the Traffic Division’s Junior Police Officer program.
The case of the three officers made headlines in 1996, partly because it came on the heels of much-publicized community debate over police disciplinary records. A year earlier, the Hawaii Legislature had sided with the state’s powerful police union and barred police misconduct records from public disclosure.
It was a political battle of the highest order, fought in the courts, in the legislative hearing rooms, on the editorial pages and ultimately decided in the governor’s office. Then-Gov. Ben Cayetano allowed the exemption, which had not been granted for any other class of public employee, to go into law without his signature.
At the sentencing for Hayami and Flynn, U.S. District Court Judge David Ezra gave voice to the reality of what the Legislature and Cayetano had done.
Ezra believed that public knowledge of disciplinary problems was important to prevent abuse of power by police officers, according to an Aug. 6, 1996 report of the sentencing in the Honolulu Advertiser. By HPD keeping their actions secret, he said, it “creates a feeling of invincibility.”
Without more of a back story, it seems they either were found guilty or plead to misdemeanors.
It seems, in 1997, only felony convictions prohibited employment.
Not sure the connection of what happened almost 20 years ago is supposed to be, but I’m not a liberal.
Neither am I and I can see why it is important.
@common
It is simple. The attitudes of police regarding their own bad apples hasn’t changed, as evidenced by the amount of hate for accountability groups that cops show.
Police here often have a hard time understanding why discipline should be made public. But cops can not be trusted to punish their own. That has been proven time and again. Public accountability can change that, and private accountability has failed. How about because of the power over other people’s lives that cops have? Cops can do a lot of damage to people’s lives, and have. That kind of power demands public attention.
I suggest the author re-due his article with the correct facts. Another story with a pack of lies and emotion that fails to prove anything.
SLAPPY=DUHDUHDUHDUMB
COMMON,
AGREED AGAIN WITH THIS CRAP BEING WRITTEN ON COPBLOCK.ORG. I HAVE SEEN A LOT OF FUCKED UP POLICE MISCONDUCT STORIES IN THE HEADLINES AND THE WEB RECENTLY AND THEN YOU HAVE THIS SHIT. YOU ARE RIGHT AS WELL, IF IT IS A MISDEMEANOR IT DOES NOT NECESSARILY DISQUALIFY THESE COPS FROM EMPLOYMENT. NOW BREAKING THE LAW, IN MY OPINION SHOULD DISQUALIFY THEM FROM EMPLOYMENT BUT AS A DEPARTMENT POLICY MAY NOT DISQUALIFY THEM…….
COPBLOCKERS,
PLEASE WRITE ABOUT RELAVENT STORIES OF REAL POLICE CORRUPTION. YOU MAKE THE REST OF US LOOK STUPID. I KNOW THESE COPS IN THIS THREAD ARE PIECES OF SHIT BUT THE VALIDITY OF THIS STORY AND THE LACK OF FACTS AND THE TIME FRAME IS WAY OUT OF PROPORTION TO REAL CORRUPTION WHICH, I THOUGHT, WE WERE HERE TO EXPOSE…….
Anger in here doesn’t address the fact that police unions (and any public employee union) are a shadow government. Those we’ve elected and those they’ve appointed cannot govern anymore, so our power as people to react to gross misbehavior has been expropriated away from our duly elected officials through contract strong-arming. Name a good reason why misconduct records shouldn’t be public? Because we’ll also see memos about the number of times caught asleep or got a car damaged or stuck? It’s our money. We have the right to know about every pattern of stupidity and thuggery that develops with an individual. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t analyze it and give thought on a case-by-case basis, but a year in the Fed? That one should’ve been gone. As far as police misconduct “stories”, one only needs look at YouTube. CopBlock is not the problem.
Again, most officers aren’t and can’t be in a union,. At least not a union in the classic sense.
Aren’t and can’t be in a union? You been smoking some of that stuff you found in the mall restroom, nimrod?
No. You’re just wrong as always
Lots, even most belong to some kind of association, PBA, FOP, Etc…YOU might describe thoseas unions as they are groups of people in a similar profession joining together. But iin the classic sense of belong to a “union shop” as in if your employed…your in that union because they are involved in collective bargaining and contract negotiations…. then it is as I said…most officers are not and cannot be in unions. Not real hard for most to follow….tougher for you of course.
t, you may want to contact Wikipedia, they difine the FOP as a UNION. As do just about every other web result there is. LOL, the police don’t lie, that’s rich.
Wow. Just looked up FOP to see if t was correct or not. He, of course wan’t, the FOP is a Union. Guys, look up FOP President, racketeering. You’ll see a story from last week. Jacksonville Florida, the Pres. and V. Pres. of the FOP were arrested on racketeering charges. Read about it, you’ll be a bit shocked as to how big of a corruption case it is.
Nitwits like t. sound like those pinko commie fruitcakes that always say “Communism failed because we did not give it enough time to work”. Today’s police unions are flat-out mafia rackets and nothing more.
@Alvin, thanks for that tip, I will be searching for FOP president + racketeering tonight.
POLICE OFFICER RAPES A THREE MONTH OLD INFANT AND A ONE YEAR OLD CHILD!
When you see common sense, t., underoath, psosgt and all the other shills spew their boot-licking propaganda here on Cop Block, remember, THIS IS WHO THEY ARE, THIS IS WHAT THEY STAND FOR, AND THIS IS WHAT THEY DEFEND!
Wichita KS police officer Officer Joseph T. McGill, 28, was convicted today of committing a sexual act on a 3-month-old child and a 1-year-old child. Officer McGill pleaded guilty in January 2012 in an unrelated case to sexual battery while on duty as a police officer and was sentenced to three years probation. Those charges stemmed from separate incidents in November 2010 and February 2011. The judge set sentencing for March 1.
http://www.kansas.com/2013/01/24/2649372/former-police-officer-convicted.html
Again, not in the classic sense…as they don’t engage in collective bargaining or contract negotiations. Good try though.
@T
You’re splitting hairs here. All of them are groups formed for the purpose of advancing police interests. What is the definition of a union? A group formed for the purpose of advancing that group’s interests.
It isn’t an accident than 9 out of 10 cops fired get their jobs back, even though their sheriffs are fighting to get rid of a problem officer. It isn’t an accident cops in many states have their own Police Bill of Rights that gives them protections from investigations, and during investigations, that the rest of us can only dream of.
You claim you tell the truth, but you’re full of it on this one. The evidence is there for all to see.
Not splitting hairs. Massive differences. For me, my PBA membership MIGHT mean I get represented if I’m sued or even if a get in trouble with the PD itself. Might. But there is a massive difference when other than that….I’m at the total mercy of whatever they want to do, there is no contract protections. No contracted quarnenteed raised. Nothing like that. PBA and FOP an others are just more of a group money pool….dues that are pooled to pay for attorneys when a member is voted to be given representation.
That is a far cry from a classic labor union.
No split hairs. Truth.
Its not a “Bill of Rights” its called “Garrity.”
“…It’s important to remember, though, that within the unique context of law enforcement, the police officers’ bill of rights essentially extends to officers those rights already enjoyed by the citizens they serve…”
Once again, educate yourself before you speak. There are major differences between union, non-union, and ‘right to work’ states.
Common: They can’t understand easy things like Miranda and how all officer aren’t in unions. The concept behind garrityrights will just give them headaches.